Veteran American producer and writer Norman Lear has been tapped to receive the 2021 Carol Burnett Award.
The honorary mention handed out at the Golden Globe Awards is determined by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s board of directors and given to a figure who has made outstanding contributions to the television medium on or off the screen.
“Norman Lear is among the most prolific creators of this generation,” said HFPA President Ali Sar. “His career has encompassed both the Golden Age and Streaming Era, throughout which his progressive approach addressing controversial topics through humor prompted a cultural shift that allowed social and political issues to be reflected in television. His work revolutionized the industry and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is honored to name him as the 2021 Carol Burnett Award recipient.”
Norman is behind title shows such as ‘All in the Family,’ ‘Maude,’ ‘Good Times,’ ‘The Jeffersons,’ ‘One Day at a Time,’ ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’ and more.
In his over 70 years of experience on the small screen, Norman is a 2017 Kennedy Center honouree, a National Medal of Arts recipient in 1999, a Peabody Lifetime Achievement Award winner in 2016 and a member of the group of artists first inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987.
So far in his legacy, he stands as the oldest Hollywood figure to have won a Primetime Emmy Award. He secured that fete with ABC’s ‘Life in Front of a Studio’, during last year’s ceremony. Norman has a total of six Emmys.
As a philanthropist and social advocate, Lear formed the People for the American Way in 1980 and has worked with dozens of other organizations over the year. He’s currently the chairman of his ACT III Productions, in which he served as an executive producer on the reimagined version of “One Day at a Time” that ran on Netflix and later, Pop TV.
His upcoming works include, ‘I Carry You With Me’, ‘Good Times’ and ‘American Masters’. Norman’s recent work is a documentary feature on Oscar winning actress Rita Moreno titled, ‘Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It’, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last week.
Ellen DeGeneres received the honorary award last year.
Nominees for the 2021 Golden Globe Awards will be announced on Wednesday, February 3, 2021. The main event is scheduled to take place on February, 28.
