An iconic comedian and actor Carol Burnett, who is a five-time winner of the Golden Globe, was honoured by the first-ever Carol Burnett Award on Sunday.

Carol’s career spans seven decades of television and she is best known for her groundbreaking television variety show, The Carol Burnett Show that aired on CBS which was the first of its kind to be hosted by a woman. Carol has been a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2013, Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2013 and Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

As Carol received the inaugural Carol Burnett award, she paid an emotional tribute to television where she talked about the effort it took to put on her variety show, that ran for 11 seasons starting 1967.

“Sometimes I catch myself daydreaming about being young again and doing it all over. Then I bring myself up sharp when I realise how incredibly fortunate I was to be there at the right time. “I’m just happy our show happened when it did and I can look back and say once more, I’m so glad we had this time together,” said Carol.

She dedicated the award “all those who made my dreams come true and to all those out there who share the love I have for television and who yearn to be part of this unique medium who has been so good to me.”

During her speech, Carol also called out to major networks for failing to invest in high-end variety shows and she added, “Nothing like our show, and I might add other variety shows at the time, could ever see the light of day today because the networks just wouldn’t spend the money. And because there are so many cable competitors, they are not going to take a chance. And sad to say today’s audiences might never know what they are so here’s to reruns and YouTube.”

Carol has also written and narrated several memoirs and has earned Grammy nominations for almost all of them. According to a statement from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the future Carol Burnett Award winners will highlight individuals who have “made outstanding contributions to television on or off the screen.”

H/T: The Quint