Television icon Norman Lear received a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes on Sunday for creating groundbreaking comedy shows like One Day at a Time and All in the Family.
The 98-year-old icon was awarded the Carol Burnett Award, which was established in 2018 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that hands out the Golden Globes. Making his virtual appearance at this year’s ceremony, Lear said he was thrilled to accept an award named for Burnett, who he said “has made me laugh harder” than anyone else.
“I’m convinced laughter adds time to one’s life,” Lear said.
“At close to 99, I’ve never lived alone,” he added. “I’ve never laughed alone. And that has as much to do with my being here today as anything else I know.”
The writer and the producer was the brains behind several shows that ruled small screens in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Lear's work often highlight social issues like race and abortion that were rarely discussed on television at the time.
Apart from hits like All in the Family and One Day at a Time, he also created Maude, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times and the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.