The honor went to Ellen DeGeneres last year.
Norman Lear is being honored at the 2021 Golden Globes. The 98-year-old writer and producer will take home the Carol Burnett Award at this year's ceremony, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced on Thursday.
The award is presented annually to an honoree who has made outstanding contributions to the television medium on or off the screen. With his win, Lear becomes the third person to receive the honor, following Ellen DeGeneres in 2020, and the award's namesake the year prior.
"Norman Lear is among the most prolific creators of this generation. 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," HFPA President Ali Sar said. "His work revolutionized the industry and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is honored to name him as the 2021 Carol Burnett Award recipient."
Lear began his career in 1950 by writing and producing shows including The Colgate Comedy Hour and The Martha Raye Show. He went on to produce All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Up next, Lear is executive producing I Carry You With Me, Good Times and Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It.
He has also founded several non-profit organizations and penned a 2014 memoir, Even This I Get to Experience.
This is far from the first honor Lear has received. He's an Oscar nominee, a Kennedy Center Honoree, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, a Peabody Lifetime Achievement Award winner, a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame, and the winner of six Primetime Emmy Awards. His shows have won dozens of Golden Globes as well.
The 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, will air live Sunday, Feb. 28 at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
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