QPORIT

SPECIAL TRIBUTES & 

ALL THE PEOPLE REMEMBERED

The 78th Emmy Awards devoted an unusually substantial portion of the September 14, 2026 telecast to people television lost during the past year. There were several individualized tributes as well as the traditional In Memoriam montage, accompanied by Noah Kahan performing “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

SPECIAL TRIBUTES

DOLLY PARTON

Dolly Parton received a tribute of her own immediately before the main In Memoriam sequence. Sally Field, her Steel Magnolias co-star, spoke about Parton as both an artist and a humanitarian. Reba McEntire then performed Parton’s “Appalachian Memories.” Parton’s television legacy was substantial: she hosted her own variety programs, appeared widely on television, co-founded Sandollar Productions — whose television work included Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel — and won an Emmy in 2021 as an executive producer of Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square.

CATHERINE O’HARA

Catherine O’Hara was given the opening personal tribute inside the In Memoriam portion. Macaulay Culkin, Annie Murphy and Dan Levy — performers who had played her children in Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek — remembered her warmth, comic instinct, generosity and willingness to experiment. Their tribute flowed into Noah Kahan’s performance as the memorial montage began. O’Hara’s television career stretched from SCTV to her Emmy-winning Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek and later work including The Studio.

JAMES BURROWS

James Burrows appeared at the end of the principal montage and was specifically acknowledged by Jamie Lee Curtis before she turned to the final tribute to Rob Reiner. Burrows was one of the defining directors of American television comedy, with a career spanning more than a thousand episodes and landmark series including Taxi, Cheers, Frasier, Friends and Will & Grace.

ROB REINER — AND MICHELE SINGER REINER

Jamie Lee Curtis closed the memorial portion with an emotional tribute to Rob Reiner and also acknowledged his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. Curtis recalled Reiner as a friend, colleague and enduring television figure, and pointed to the posthumous Emmy he had won days earlier for his guest performance on The Bear. That award came 48 years after his previous acting Emmy, a record span between acting Emmy wins. Reiner’s television legacy began most famously with Michael “Meathead” Stivic on All in the Family, before a major directing and producing career in film and television.

THE SEPTEMBER 14 TELECAST 

MEMORIAL TRIBUTES

ALL THE PEOPLE REMEMBERED

The following people were shown or verbally acknowledged in the Emmy telecast’s memorial material. It combines the individualized tributes with the names reported from the on-air In Memoriam montage.

1. Dolly Parton — performer, songwriter, producer and Emmy winner
2. Catherine O’Hara — actor and comedy legend
3. James Van Der Beek — actor
4. Anthony Geary — actor
5. Isiah Whitlock Jr. — actor
6. Demond Wilson — actor
7. June Lockhart — actor
8. Anthony Head — actor
9. Diane Ladd — actor
10. Sid Krofft — television producer and puppeteer
11. Ted Turner — media entrepreneur and television executive
12. Patricia Crowley — actor
13. Eric Dane — actor
14. Hayden Panettiere — actor and singer
15. Louise Lasser — actor
16. T.K. Carter — actor
17. Robert Duvall — actor
18. Robert Carradine — actor
19. Vincent Pastore — actor
20. Maria Riva — actor and author
21. Randolph Mantooth — actor
22. Jon Cypher — actor
23. Gene Shalit — film and television critic
24. Cleto Escobedo III — musician, longtime Jimmy Kimmel Live! bandleader
25. Sam Neill — actor
26. Hal Williams — actor
27. Tim Curry — actor and performer
28. Shelley Fabares — actor and singer
29. Bob Mackie — costume and fashion designer
30. James Burrows — television director and producer
31. Rob Reiner — actor, director and producer
32. Michele Singer Reiner — photographer and producer; acknowledged with her husband Rob Reiner

Note: The Television Academy also published a separate, much longer online In Memoriam video containing hundreds of television colleagues who died during the year. That expanded online memorial is not the same list as the names shown during the three-hour NBC/Peacock telecast.

Sources:

Television Academy — 78th Emmy Awards Winners Announced

Television Academy — 78th Emmys In Memoriam

People — Dolly Parton Emmy tribute

People — Catherine O’Hara Emmy tribute

People — Rob Reiner Emmy tribute

TV Insider via AOL — on-air In Memoriam names

Labels: Burrows, Catherine O'Hara, Dolly Parton, Jams, Memoriam 2026 EMMYS, Rob & Michele Reiner

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