By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Television pioneer Norman Lear, creator of groundbreaking comedy shows such as “All in the Family” and “One Day at a Time,” accepted a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes ceremony on Sunday.
Lear, 98, was honored with the Carol Burnett Award, an accolade established in 2018 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that hands out the Golden Globes. Speaking via video at this year’s virtual 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.”
As a writer and producer, Lear was the force behind several shows that dominated American TV screens in the 1970s and 1980s. His work often addressed social issues such as race and abortion that were rarely discussed on television at the time.
In addition to “All in the Family” and “One Day at a Time,” Lear’s hits included “Maude,” “Sanford and Son,” “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times” and the soap-opera spoof “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” He stepped away from television in 1980 and started the liberal activist group People for the American Way.
In 2017, Lear returned to TV as a producer on a revival of “One Day at a Time” that debuted on the Netflix streaming service.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
