Larry Hagman, Jack Klugman, David Frost, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Annette Funicello, Phyllis Diller, Chad Everett, and Sherman Hemsley were among the celebrities who passed away over the last 12 months. However, none of these talented people were chosen to be singled out for special tributes during the 2013 Primetime Emmy Awards.
Five individuals were honored with special tributes by their friends – James Gandolfini, Gary David Goldberg, Jonathan Winters, Jean Stapleton, and Cory Monteith – and the inclusion of one particular actor in this elite group created quite a controversy.
Jack Klugman’s son Adam was so irate about his father’s exclusion from the list of five special memorials that he voiced his anger to the Associated Press. Klugman was a three-time Emmy winner whose career spanned five decades of work in the entertainment field, and Adam believes it’s criminal that he wasn’t among the five chosen to be remembered by their friends, family, and fans. “It’s an insult and it really seems typical of this youth-centric culture that has an extremely short attention span and panders to only a very narrow demographic,” said Adam Klugman in his interview with AP.
During the actual Emmys broadcast on Sunday, September 22, 2013, Monteith’s Glee co-star Jane Lynch took to the stage to discuss Cory’s short life. After the tribute was over it was greeted by muted applause from the star-studded audience.
