Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Present Carol Burnett With SAG Lifetime Achievement Award

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Carol Burnett is a genuine comedy legend, and Saturday night the Screen Actors Guild recognized her contributions to the arts with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Among many other achievements, Carol is most known for creating and starring in The Carol Burnett Show, which was groundbreaking both for women, and for comedy. She not only influenced generations of women who would go on to brilliant careers in comedy thanks to seeing Carol on their television screens, but she influenced the field of sketch comedy in ways that can hardly even be counted, and influenced talk shows, variety shows, awards shows and really any performance where anyone is called upon to talk to the audience or be funny. The Carol Burnett Show ran for 11 years and supported comedy in so many ways including giving stage time to young rising comedy talents like George Carlin and Joan Rivers, not only in sketches, but also through stand up “comedy spots.”   The show won a total of 25 Prime Time Emmy Awards, and consistently ranks high on any list of top television shows of all time. Burnett’s achievements continued in her many film, television and stage roles for which she has earned a houseful of Emmy, Tony and other awards including the Mark Twain Prize for Humor, a Kennedy Center Honor, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a Presidential Medal of freedom.

Two of the funniest women on the planet, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey presented the award to Carol, with presentation speech that was both touching and funny. Watch their presentation and Carol’s magnificent acceptance at the SAG Awards last night. Burnett is as funny, inspiring and wonderful as ever- it’s almost impossible to believe that over 50 years have gone by since Carol first started making the world laugh on television. She gave love to her wonderful costars Harvey Korman, Vickie Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway, talked about the network, the show, and ended emotionally with her signature sign off line, “I’m so glad we had this time together” and a tug on her left ear, which also ended every show; her message to her grandmother who raised her, that all was well.

Niagara falls.

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