During Sunday’s 2020 Golden Globe Awards show, Ellen DeGeneres became the first person not named Carol Burnett to receive the Carol Burnett Award, which honors “outstanding contributions to the television medium on or off the screen,” according to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
A long career in standup led to her groundbreaking 1990s comedy series Ellen, where she became the first lead actor in a sitcom to come out as gay. Now, DeGeneres hosts her incredibly successful daytime program The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She was presented the award by Kate McKinnon of SNL, who said: “The only thing that made [starring on TV] less scary was seeing Ellen on TV.”
Before her acceptance speech, DeGeneres offered condolences to victims of the Australian bushfires. Then, she used her time on stage to thank her comedic idols, including Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, and, of course, Burnett: “I felt like I knew her…she was larger than life. We counted on her to make us feel good and she delivered. Every single week, she never let us down.”
Ellen DeGeneres and Kate McKinnon shared a moment after Kate presented Ellen with the Carol Burnett Award. #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/NynZcqMXGC
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) January 6, 2020
DeGeneres is the award’s second recipient after Burnett, who received it last January. “The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is delighted to honor Ellen DeGeneres with the Carol Burnett Award,” HFPA president Lorenzo Soria said in a statement. “From her sitcoms, to stand-up, to becoming a household staple on daytime television, she is a pioneer who has captivated audiences for nearly 25 years with her undeniable charm and wit. In addition to her television success, she’s an advocate and philanthropist, lending her voice to those who don’t have one, and spreading kindness and joy through the power of her platform.”
“Television inspired and influenced everything that I am today…All I’ve ever wanted to do is make people feel good and laugh.” – @TheEllenShow, this year’s winner of the #GoldenGlobes Carol Burnett Award. pic.twitter.com/1hXeOrzThz
— E! News (@enews) January 6, 2020
Below is her full acceptance speech:
Thank you so much to the Hollywood Foreign Press. I feel humbled and honored to receive this, the first person after Carol Burnett is quite an honor, so thank you so much. It’s a prestigious award and what I like most about it is that I knew coming in I would win, because there’s nothing worse than sitting there like most of you waiting and wondering if you’re going to win and politely acting like, “Oh I’m going to listen to everybody’s speeches like it’s nice.” And it’s not. Those people just go on and on and on and on and on and on and you’re like, “I’m not going to do that I’m going to be quick.” Although I don’t have to because it’s a special award and they don’t play me off, I mean I don’t have to end at all because it’s a special award. They said they were going to give me a sign at 25 minutes but that’s for my reference just to see where I was. I could go on, I’m not I’m going to keep it quick. I was born in New Orleans in 1958… January 26… Dr. Swanson delivered me at 8:43 in the morning. A rainy, rainy, a Louisiana heavy rain. My parents drove me home in a Buick, I think it was a Buick, it could have been a Ford or a Chrysler. I think it was a Buick. The point is they brought me home in a car. Before I knew it I had a successful sitcom and I came out. Then I lost that sitcom. Then I got another sitcom, and I lost that sitcom, too. Then I got to do something that I’d never been able to do before and that is make my own whiskey and after that I got a talk show and I was able to be myself. That was 17 years ago. I feel like you’ve all really gotten to know me over the past 17 years. I am an open book and I couldn’t have done it without my husband Mark. Mark, you are my rock. Thank you for supporting me through this crazy journey. I know it wasn’t easy for you or the kids. Rupert and Fiona go to bed, I love you. That’s funny because they’re in college now. The point is you all know me and obviously you know me or else you wouldn’t have laughed at all that. I feel like we all think we know someone, there’s a connection when we watch someone on TV for as long as we are on TV, and that’s what it was like with me for Carol Burnett. I feel like I knew her I felt like she showed us who she was every week. She was larger than life, she was. We counted on her to make us feel good and she delivered. Every single week. She never let us down. She was hilarious in all the sketches she did and when she did the Q&A with the audience she was genuine and personal and I always felt like she was speaking to me. At the end of the show, every time she pulled her ear I knew she was saying, “It’s okay, I’m gay, too.” Thank you. Television… It inspired and influenced everything that I am today. Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Marlo Thomas, Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, Mannix. There’s a little bit of all of them in me. That doesn’t sound right, but you know what I’m saying. All I’ve ever wanted to do was make people feel good and laugh and there’s no greater feeling than when someone tells me I’ve made their day better with my show or that I’ve helped them get through a sickness or a hard time in their lives. But the real power of television for me is not that people watch my show, but that people watch my show and then they’re inspired to go out and do the same thing in their own lives. They make people laugh or be kind or help someone that’s less fortunate than themselves. That is the power of television and I am so, so grateful to be a part of it. Thank you so much everybody.
Источник: www.elle.com
