Using jQuery's unwrap() to remove a class

I want to remove the class of emphasis from all tags that have that class in a specific cell of the table. I'm selecting the table cell content like this: var answer = $('tr.problem_display_work:last td:first').html(); In another place in the code, I'm using unwrap() like this: $(".emphasis").contents().unwrap(); However, I'm not sure how to combine the two. I tried this, but it failed: var answer = $('tr.problem_display_work:last td:first').html().(".emphasis").contents().unwrap(); Any ideas? EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION: I want to keep the HTML inside the tag. So, if I have: 14 + 6 = <span class="emphasis">20</span> I want to end up with 14 + 6 = 20.