As chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Bryce Zabel had the enviable chore of helping to select a team of the finest comedians to oversee the 55th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. Among Zabel's more somber duties, though, was deciding how to pay tribute to entertainers who passed away over the last year.

It was a year marked by the death of a number of Hollywood legends, which made the job even more difficult for Zabel and his gang of producers.

"Every year, famous people that are beloved in this community pass on and so we know what to do in terms of trying to make people realize the losses," Zabel told Zap2it on the red carpet before the Emmys. "At the same time, John Ritter's passing and Bob Hope's passing stand alone, one because of proximity and the other because of the huge, huge life-long contribution that Bob Hope made. So we're conscious of all those things, trying to be as appropriate as we can."

While the annual video and music montage of deceased stars (known in the industry as the "necrology") included all-time greats like Katharine Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Fred Rogers, James Coburn, David Brinkley, Richard Crenna and Charles Bronson, only Ritter and Hope received extended tributes.

Zabel never hesitated on how to integrate memories of the "Three's Company" star into a show otherwise dominated by humor.

"As we walk down here on the red carpet today, we're thinking about the fact that he should have been on this red carpet, he should have been sitting in the Shrine Auditorium today and he should have been one of our presenters and he's not," Zabel said. "Nothing we can do as a tribute can make up for that loss. All we can try to do is do something that's appropriate, that lets the people who loved John, which is everyone, pay their respects to him, and we'll do that."

In the press tent during the show, winner Wayne Brady took a serious moment in the midst of his celebration to tip his cap to a man he admired greatly.

"I'm very lucky because I had a chance to tell Mr. Ritter everything that I thought about him," Brady told reporters. "He was the first guest on my show and I told him on TV, and it just wasn't lip service to him, that watching him as a kid, that's where I learned to do physical humor... I was able to tell John Ritter, 'Thank you for showing me how to do a pratfall, thank you for showing me comic timing. That meant everything.' He became a friend."