PCM is coming to you straight from the TV Land Awards being filmed right now in New York City. The surprise opening was a wonderful entrance by Ms. Liza Minnelli where she sang Frank Sinatra’s “New York.”
She performed in a bright black sequence shirt with bright lights behind her that said, “I <3 Liza.” Everyone in the audience enjoyed her performance as John Travolta and Kelly Preston cheered and Raven Symone sang along. She did; however, say she needed some assistance during her song, and that is where a line of professional dancers joined her on stage.
The Awards Show continued with a Cosby Show clip featuring Stevie Wonder. This was a great intro for Stevie Wonder to come up on stage. He started off with a joke by picking up the piece of paper in his hand and saying, “Let me read this here.”
“The Cosby Show changed the face of television,” he said. “This was a family comedy that reminded us that we are all one family.” After speaking about the strength of such a great classic show, he got people to start dancing in their seats when he sang his song, “Higher Ground.”
After his solo, they showed a tribute to The Cosby Show with some of the greatest and most memorable clips. Together again to accept the Impact Award, was the cast of the show. Bill Cosby, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Sabrina LaBeauf, Geoffrey Owens, Phylicia Rashad, Raven Symone, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner all walked up to the stage to accept the honor.
Next up was Barbara Walters who introduced the Legend Award to Regis Philbin. “This is Regis’ world we just live in it,” Walters said jokingly as she introduced his tribute video. As Philbin accepted his award he said, “this was a big surprise for me, I thought Snooki would win this tonight.” He joked about his constant reference to himself as a legend, and the fact that somebody finally listened to him.
The whole cast of Hot and Cleveland (minus the infamous Betty White) presented the Pop Culture Award to the show, The Facts of Life. Another video tribute played for Mindy Cohn, Kim Fields, Charlotte Rae, Geri Jewell, Cloris Leachman, Lisa Whelchel, and Nancy McKeon who took the stage to accept the award. This speech was quite emotional as the ladies spoke about the family environment that they not only acted out on the show, but formed behind stage. They also gave a shout out to TV Land for continuing to show these series that promote family values and morals.
The ladies of Hot and Cleveland also introduced a fake trailer for a new movie entitled Cindy’s Speech. The movie took clips from the classic TV Land show, The Brady Bunch, to craft a mock trailer based around Cindy’s lisp.
Getting back to the actual show, Ben Stiller graced the stage to present the Fan Favorite Award to Family Ties. The crowd got another look at some of the greatest moments from the show, followed by a performance of “At This Moment,” by Billy Vera. Michael J. Fox, Justine Bateman, Meredith Baxter, Michael Gross, Tracy Pollan, Marc Price , Tina Yothers and Gary David Goldberg approached the stage to accept their honor.
Price made a bold statement during their acceptance speech when he said, “I am a child actor who grew up in Hollywood and I can say that Michael Jackson never touched me.” The crowd got awkwardly silent to the inappropriate and unexpected statement.
But, Fox stepped up next to give a meaningful and emotional speech. He also humorously explained that when he was first getting casted, the directors said, “I don’t know can you see that kid on a lunch box,” and he got him a lunch box with his face on it.
The Real Housewives of New York were appropriately chosen as the group to introduce a tribute to all TV housewives, which included such greats as Peggy Bundy from Married With Children, Morticia from the Adams Family, Lucy from I Love Lucy, and Wilma Flinstone from The Flinstones. They also applauded Joyce Randolph who was sitting in the audience, who played Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners.
Daryl Hall and John Oates were introduced by Paul Resier and performed at the end of the night. They were followed by a reunion of the cast from Welcome Back Kotter. John Travolta and Gene Kaplan joined this legendary show on stage to accept the Anniversary Award.