William Shatner, Whoopi Goldberg, Amy Poehler, Channing Dungey, Alex Kurtzman, Maury Povich and Jeff Sagansky were the television industry luminaries honored at the 2022 Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards during a gala evening held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Taking place in Los Angeles for the first time, the 18th annual edition of the awards hosted by Nancy O’Dell honored the elite group of professionals who have demonstrated career excellence. They are given by NAPTE and named in honor of the visionary television executive who was president of NBC for a decade and died at the age of 46 in 1997– and will never be forgotten.
Lilly Tartikoff Karatz began the evening by reminiscing about her late husband and how he made it through highs and lows surrounded by the smartest people in the business. “You have raised the bar so high and he would’ve been so proud of you,” she said of the honorees.
Henry Winkler presented Shatner with his award and introduced a clip reel showing the actor’s many roles throughout the decades including most famously, his Capt. Kirk in “Star Trek.”
In his acceptance speech, Shatner talked about starting to act at the age of six in Montréal and later doing college radio at McGill University and then summer stock in Ottawa before moving on to Broadway and then to Hollywood.
He attributes his longevity to keeping his inner child alive, and never stopping growing and learning.
“That’s the most important part of humanity. I’ve tried to keep it alive by being in the moment and looking at things with astonishment,” he said.
Kaley Cuoco introduced Dungey, the chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group along with a clip reel of her accomplishments narrated by Oprah Winfrey.
“His observations are still relevant today,” Dungey said of Tartikoff, “except that his shows got a 40 or 50 share. He taught that resilience is everything and even when he had shows that failed he didn’t give up. He thought outside the box with shows like ‘Hill Street Blues’ and ‘Miami Vice’.”
Dungey, who previously held leadership positions at Netflix and at ABC, where she was the first Black president of entertainment, shouted out CW CEO Mark Pedowitz as someone in her career who had allowed her to take chances.
Former television news anchor Connie Chung has been married to Maury Povich for more than three decades and you could feel the love, affection and humor between them as she presented him with his honor.
Povich said he has always been a storyteller going back to his days in television news before becoming an anchor on “A Current Affair” and then starting his eponymous talk show, from which he is retiring after 31 years.
He credited the show’s staff that has been with him for decades for much of his success.
Goldberg was unable to travel to Los Angeles for the ceremonies and gave her acceptance speech remotely from New York. She said she loves TV and tries to be good at what she does.
Goldberg, one of only 16 people who have ever achieved EGOT status, also talked about wishing she had known Tartikoff better and how she could have worked very well with him.
Writer-producer-director Alex Kurtzman reminisced about seeing Tartikoff’s picture on the cover of GQ “with his shaggy hair and marvelous smile” and how that inspired him.
Kurtzman has been responsible for shaping the “Star Trek” universe for Paramount since 2009.
Sagansky worked with Tartikoff at NBC when they were both in their 20s and reminisced about laughing and dreaming together before they collaborated on hits like “Cheers.” He recalled getting the ratings every morning at 6:30 and calling the Tartikoff home to discuss, much to Lilly’s chagrin.
He also talked about working with producer David Gerber who taught him to return every phone call and to show respect for people. Sagansky closed with saying that mentorship is the most important thing to him.
Amy Poehler was the final honoree of the evening and said she had not wanted a clip reel made about her work although it would’ve been filled with scenes from “Saturday Night Live” and “Parks & Recreation,” among many others.
“I feel incredibly lucky to be here but I feel like a rookie in a game of heavy-hitters,” she said. “I wish I was around to have met Brandon during the era when shows got a 50 share. Yet what I’ve learned that matters is how you treat people, how they feel around you and who’s around when things are down.”
