Does Cory Monteith Deserve An Emmy Tribute?

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Earlier this year, Cory Monteith tragically passed away. The Glee actor, who was on summer break from his hit show, headed to Canada for some relaxation, but tragically, a combination of alcohol and heroin did him in. His loss touched millions of fans, especially from younger generations, and tomorrow night, he will be honored with a special in memorium tribute, alongside four other dearly departed stars.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an in memorium tribute without a little bit of controversy, and this particular one has a lot of out of it. Because the show only has enough time to give extended shout-outs to five people, Monteith’s selection has come at the expense of numerous older and perhaps more celebrated stars, most notably Larry Hagman and Jack Klugman. The former was a regular on 80s juggernaut Dallas, and the shooting of his character, J.R., produced quite possibly the most discussed and obsessed over plot in the history of television. Plus, his work on I Dream Of Jeannie was pretty damn popular. The latter was a multi-Emmy winner who was a star on The Odd Couple and Quincey M.E., and his family is none too pleased about him not getting his moment in the sun.

On the one hand, it’s easy to see where the Emmy committee is coming from. Klugman and Hagman may have been really big stars back in the day, but their deaths didn’t cause the outpouring of emotion that Monteith’s did. In addition, it’s always a struggle to get younger viewers to tune into awards shows, and the tribute to Glee’s fallen star will probably attract a lot of eyeballs. On the other hand, however, Monteith is a blip in the history of television compared to Klugman and Hagman. The Odd Couple was nominated for outstanding comedy three times despite the fact that it ran on Friday nights, which was a death slot even then, and twenty-year-olds who have never watched a single episode of Dallas still know JR got shot.

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Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.