https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdYSM5DqEes
Led by Christopher Jackson, the Emmy Awards delivered a powerful In Memoriam segment to cover the immense amount of famous losses over the past year. Preceded by a classy introduction from Viola Davis, Jackson performed a powerful cover of Stevie Wonder’s classic “As” along with a montage of the names who passed away.
The segment opted to use clips sparingly, instead using still photos to celebrate those we lost and occasionally dropping some video beside them to help ramp up the power of the moment. Stand outs include Jay Thomas, Adam West, Fox News head Roger Ailes, Bill Paxton, Roger Moore, Martin Landau, and Miguel Ferrer during the body of the segment. We also get a final moment with Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher, together one last time during an awards show segment after their shocking deaths at the very end of 2016.
The final moment is saved for Mary Tyler Moore, a television legend from its golden age and a role model for women everywhere. Moore passed in January 2017 at the age of 80, leaving behind a legacy that we’re seeing in every actress nominated for Emmys, especially those working in comedy. When she literally turns out the lights at the end of the segment, it is a perfect close to one of the better segments we’ve seen from the past year of award shows.
