Jack Klugman’s Son Calls Dad’s Omission In TV Academy’s Special In Memoriam Tribute “Criminal”: AP
Adam Klugman is fuming over his father’s exclusion from an expanded special tribute at this weekend’s Primetime Emmys that includes Cory Monteith. “I think it’s criminal,” Klugman tells The Associated Press. “My dad was at the inception of television and helped build it in the early days.” Jack Klugman, a three-time Emmy winner and star of The Odd Couple and Quincy M.E., died in December. He, Larry Hagman and others who died in the past year will be part of a traditional In Memoriam remembrance during the awards ceremony, but not in a special tribute to five individuals: Monteith, James Gandolfini, Jean Stapleton, Jonathan Winters and Gary David Goldberg. The TV Academy announced the special tribute earlier this week. Adam Klugman took particular issue with Monteith’s inclusion. “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, he said. The show’s exec producer Ken Ehrlich defended Monteith’s inclusion in a conference call with reporters earlier this week. “Cory’s appeal was to maybe a little different generation than some of the others, and we felt they needed to be represented,” Ehrlich said, reminding reporters that Monteith was “just 31” when he died under “very tragic circumstances.”
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