Screen Actors Guild Awards 2016: Queen of Comedy Carol Burnett receives the Life Achievement Award

Carol Burnett received the Life Achievement Award Saturday evening at the Screen Actors Guild Awards

By Susan King

Jan. 30, 2016 6:39 PM PT

Everyone loves Carol Burnett. And they certainly showed it Saturday night at the Screen Actors Guild Awards when she took the stage, helped up the stage to receive the SAG Life Achievement Award from funny ladies Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who spoke about how influenced they were by her and her long-running variety show.

“Carol has been such a huge part of our lives for 50 years,” said Poehler. “Carol is better than all of us.” Fey and Poehler both grew up watching “The Carol Burnett Show” and loved that not only was Burnett the star, she was also the “boss.”

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Burnett, 82, received a long and loud standing ovation both before and after she received the award.

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Leonard Nimoy, left, appeared with Burnett on an episode of “The Carol Burnett Show.”

(CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images)

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With “The Carol Burnett Show” signing off in 1978, Burnett split her time among stage, TV and the big screen, appearing in 1981’s “The Four Seasons” and 1982’s “Annie.” In 1984 Burnett, left, reunited with Vicki Lawrence on the CBS sitcom “Mama’s Family.”

(CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images)

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Burnett, left, and Vicki Lawrence joke around at a gathering to announce Columbia House’s release of “The Carol Burnett Show” in a video library form on Oct. 24, 2000.

(Kim D. Johnson / Associated Press)

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Burnett joined pal Joel Grey at the Music Center’s 18th Distinguished Artists Awards Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where Grey received an award.

(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Burnett clowns around with fellow voice actors Jim Carrey, left, and Steve Carrell while promoting the 2008 animated film “Horton Hears a Who.”

(Karen Tapia Andersen / Los Angeles Times)

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The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored the star at “An Evening with Carol Burnett” in 2013.

(Richard Shotwell / Invision)

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Burnett was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in 2013.

(Owen Sweeney / Invision)

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Carol Creighton Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1933, and moved to Los Angeles with her grandmother at a young age. She majored in theater arts at UCLA. She is pictured at the Wal-Mart shareholder meeting in Fayetteville, Ark. on June 5, 2015.

(Danny Johnston / Associated Press)

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Burnett was honored with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the SAG Awards on Jan. 30, 2016.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

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From left, Julie Andrews, Christine Baranski and Carol Burnett perform onstage during Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Gala on Feb. 1, 2017, in New York City.

(Neilson Barnard / Getty Images)

As Burnett told The Times, she was “gobsmacked” when she learned last year she was receiving the SAG honor and she seemed gobsmacked on Saturday night on stage at the Shrine Exposition Hall.

“Tina and Amy, you just touched my heart so much,” Burnett said. “You are the whole ball of wax.”

She admitted that CBS didn’t want her to do a musical variety show but rather a half-hour comedy called “Here’s Agnes.” She was told that musical variety series were not “for a gal. Comedy variety is a man’s game.”

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Of course, Burnett proved them wrong. And for 11 seasons, she said, “we mounted a musical comedy revue a week.”

She thanked the crowd with the line from her famous song that ended each episode of her series, “I’m so glad we had this time together.”

And then she gave her traditional tug-of-her ear farewell.

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