Carol Burnett honored at Golden Globes, reminisces on how her 'childhood dreams came true'

TV legend Carol Burnett said she was "gob-smacked" to receive the Golden Globes' first-ever Carol Burnett Award for television achievement.

The Carol Burnett Award is the new TV counterpart to the Golden Globes' annual Cecil B. DeMille Award for accomplishment in film.

Steve Carell, who presented the award, called Burnett a comedy legend.

As the star of "The Carol Burnett Show," which ran from 1967 to 1978, Burnett was the first woman to host a TV variety sketch show.

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"The Carol Burnett Show" won 25 Emmy awards and "remains the gold standard for television comedy," Carell said.

Burnett, 85, is "funny, gracious and kind," Carell said, and one of the most respected and well-liked people in show business.

Carol Burnett: A life in pictures

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Legendary funny woman Carol Burnett — best known for her long-running TV show, "The Carol Burnett Show," which touched the funny bone of many and gave others their start in comedy — celebrates her birthday on April 26. Revisit some of the moments in her life that made us laugh out loud. Carol Burnett poses for a portrait in Burbank, Calif., Dec. 7, 2015.

Rich Fury/Invision/AP

Burnett said the award, "generously named after me, is dedicated to all those who made my dreams come true and all those out there who share the love of television" and who want to be a part of this "unique medium that has been so good to me."

"My first love growing up was the movies. I'd see as many a six to eight films a week with my grandmother," she said. When she got her first TV as a teenager, "I had a new love."

Burnett has won five Golden Globes and is the most decorated person in the TV category.

Her "childhood dreams came true," she said, "on a comedy variety show that half a century later still connects with people in a way that makes me very proud."

"Sometimes I catch myself daydreaming about being young again and doing it all over, and then I bring myself up short when I realize how incredibly fortunate I was to be there at the right time," Burnett said.

She said she doesn't think this kind of variety show could be produced in 2019.

"The cost alone would be prohibitive," she said. "The Carol Burnett Show" had a "28 piece live orchestra... 12 dancers, average of 65 costumes a week," she noted.

At the end of her acceptance speech, Burnett tugged on her ear -- her tradition at the end of the "The Carol Burnett Show" as a way to send a special message to her grandmother.