Marta Kauffman has been named the recipient of the Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) Norman Lear Achievement Award. Given in recognition of producers “who have made a remarkable impact on the art and craft of television,” the honor will be bestowed on the writer, producer, and showrunner at the upcoming PGA Awards, set to take place January 18, 2020 in LA. Deadline confirmed the news.
Kaufmann is best known for co-creating “Friends” and “Grace and Frankie.” The former ran on NBC from 1994-2004, and the latter was recently renewed for a seventh and final season by Netflix, making it the streamer’s longest-running original ever.
Gloria Allred doc “Seeing Allred” and Kirstie Alley-starrer “Veronica’s Closet” are among Kauffman’s other producing credits.
“Marta is a singular talent who has created characters and stories that have resonated throughout the world and across generations,” said Producers Guild of America Presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher. “Her deep understanding of emotion, comedy, and human drama creates the perfect recipe for television, and audiences can’t get enough. Her impact on pop culture, and on television history, is undeniable.”
Kauffman added, “I am deeply honored to receive this award from my peers at the PGA, particularly as it’s named for a legendary producer who has impacted my career from the beginning. Thank you to the Producers Guild for this meaningful recognition.”
Previous recipients of the honor include Shonda Rhimes and Amy Sherman-Palladino.
In a recent Rolling Stone profile Kauffman said “you can’t help but experience [misogyny] in this business.” She explained, “When you have a misogynist running a network and they give you notes, [the notes] are going to come from that perspective.” The multi-hyphenate recalled, “When we were shooting the ‘Friends’ pilot, the head of the network at the time said that Monica got what she deserved for sleeping with someone on the first date — [the guy] broke up with her. They ended up sending out a little survey to our dress rehearsal audiences and one of the questions was like, ‘For sleeping with a guy on the first date, do you think Monica is a) a whore, b) a slut, c) easy?'”
Asked if there’s “less overt” sexism in Hollywood now, the Emmy winner said, “I think there’s greater awareness and more willingness for women to speak out. I don’t think the sense that it’s a boys’ club at heart has really changed yet. The most we can ask for right now, I think, is ‘behave better.'”
Check out a video of Kauffman discussing how female producers with strong opinions are treated versus male producers with strong opinions below.
