A ‘Criminal’ Emmy Omission

Jack Klugman and Tony Randall in ?The Odd Couple.? Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen September 23, 2013

Adam Klugman is not pleased with what he sees as a “criminal” omission from last night’s Emmy ceremony.

Sunday’s awards show failed to include his father, Jack Klugman, of “Odd Couple” and “Quincy” fame, in a special tribute planned for Cory Monteith, James Gandolfini, Jean Stapleton, Jonathan Winters and Gary David Goldberg.

Klugman, who passed away in December, was listed in the traditional “In Memoriam,” tribute to TV stars who have made a lasting impression on the medium, along with Larry Hagman of “Dallas.”

But according to Klugman, the omission zooms in on a broader disconnect on the part of the show’s organizers.

“My dad was at the inception of television and helped build it in the early days,” Klugman told AP when the TV Academy announced the special program earlier this week. “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” of young adults,” Klugman added.

Emmy rep Ken Ehrlich defended the decision: “No matter what we do, there will be people who feel we had other options and could have done other things,” he said. “In all candor, this becomes a producer’s option. And in this case, we selected these five knowing certainly others could be treated this way, but these were the five we chose.”

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO