Television legend Norman Lear made history on Sunday when he received the prestigious Emmy Awards at the age of 97. Lear, legendary writer and producer in the American television industry, became the oldest winner in the history of Emmy Awards at the 71st Annual Awards ceremony. He received the award for ABC’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons” which was broadcasted on May 22, 2019. The show was conceptualized and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel which was a recreation of episodes of sitcoms ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons’, featuring all-star casting.

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‘Thinking more about it now’

"The fact of my life is, I don't think about it a lot. I suppose I'm thinking about it more now ... I'm 96 [fellow executive producer Jimmy Kimmel corrected him, saying he was 97]. I like waking up in the morning," said Lear backstage at the Emmys. Kimmel acknowledged that working with Lear itself was a high point of his career. "It's the greatest thing you can ever imagine, it's like dancing with Fred Astaire. It was for me - a lover of Norman's work and his television shows, and then getting to know the man himself - the high point of my career and a thrill from the very beginning to this moment," said Kimmel.

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Several accolades 

During Lear’s entire career, he had approximately 15 nominations from which he won four Emmys for 'All in the Family' in 1971, 1972 and 1973. When he received the National Medal of Arts in 1999, the then US President Bill Clinton remarked that "Norman Lear has held up a mirror to American society and changed the way we look at it." Born in 1922 in Connecticut, Lear was nominated for an Academy Award for writing ‘Divorce American Style’. He was also among the first seven television pioneers inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984.

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‘Sir-passed’ David Attenborough

Lear snatched the record from Sir David Attenborough who had received the prestigious award at the age of 93 just a few hours before Lear’s nomination was announced. Attenborough won the outstanding narrator award breaking his own record when he had won for ‘Blue Planet II’ in 2018. Attenborough, best known for his writing and presenting nine natural history documentary series which is a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on the earth. For his seamless contribution to broadcasting and wildlife film-making, he has been called  "the great communicator, the peerless educator" and “the greatest broadcaster of our time”.
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(With inputs from PTI)