Matthew Perry Remembered as Charlie Puth Sings ‘Friends’ Theme at Emmys

Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers took the stage at the 2023 Emmys to pay tribute to their former colleague Norman Lear, in addition to other notable television figures who passed away since the previous ceremony.

Charlie Puth and The War and Treaty — comprised of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter — performed the former’s hit 2015 song “See You Again” for the In Memoriam segment. They finished the segment with a rendition of the Friends theme song that coincided with Matthew Perry being featured as the final name in the video tribute.

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In keeping with the ceremony’s theme of celebrating television reunions, Reiner and Struthers reminisced about their time together as co-stars on All in the Family, the classic CBS sitcom that debuted in 1971 and ran for nine seasons.

“There’s a Yiddish word that describes Norman’s genius — it’s ‘kochleffel,'” Reiner said. “For all you non-Jews out there, a kochleffel is a ladle that stirs the pot, and when Norman the kochleffel stirred the pot, he wound up changing American culture.” The description included laughter from the audience following footage on the screen of Succession star Nicholas Braun nodding confidently upon the first mention of the term.

“To all of the members of all of our television families who have passed on, ‘Those were the days,'” Struthers added, with Reiner joining her for the last four words that referenced the All in the Family theme song.

Other prominent figures featured in the video segment included Andre Braugher, Harry Belafonte, Barbara Walters, Alan Arkin, Richard Roundtree, Angela Lansbury, Bob Barker, Lance Reddick, Richard Belzer, Ron Cephas Jones, Treat Williams, Angus Cloud, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, Suzanne Somers, John Beasley, Leslie Jordan, Jim Brown, David McCallum, Len Goodman, Cindy Williams, Paul Reubens, Tommy Smothers, Irene Cara and Kirstie Alley.

Lear died Dec. 5 at the age of 101. Perry died from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine after being found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28 at age 54.

Click here for the full list of winners from the 2023 Emmys, which took place Monday at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles with host Anthony Anderson.

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