Amy Sherman-Palladino Tapped for Producers Guild’s Norman Lear Award

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Producers Guild of America has named as the recipient of its Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television.

Sherman-Palladino will receive the award at the 30th Annual Producers Guild Awards on Jan. 19 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sherman-Palladino is the producer of the television series “Gilmore Girls,” the Netflix revival “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life,” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” She earned her first Producers Guild Award this January when “Mrs. Maisel” won the Danny Thomas Award for TV comedy series. She also scored both comedy writing and directing Emmys, making her the first woman in Emmy history to do so.

“Amy Sherman-Palladino is everything you want a TV producer to be,” said PGA presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher. “She’s smart, she’s tenacious, she knows the story she wants to tell and how to put together the right team to tell it. Her characters and stories may span different eras, but her sensibility is unique and unmistakable. Watch any episode from one of her series for just five minutes, and you’ll instantly understand why she’s built such a wide and passionate following.”

Sherman-Palladino began her career as a staff writer on Season 3 of “Roseanne,” later moving up to story editor and supervising producer. In 2000, she created “Gilmore Girls,” which ran for seven seasons. She also oversaw the four-part Netflix miniseries “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life,” which reunited much of the original cast over decade after the show first aired. Sherman-Palladino worked alongside her husband and longtime collaborator Daniel Palladino. The duo’s most recent project, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” won eight Emmys and two Golden Globes. The acclaimed series was just renewed for a third season.

Past recipients of the PGA’s Norman Lear Award include Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes, and J.J. Abrams.