SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Pop culture icon John Stamos and legendary TV creator and producer Norman Lear were awarded at the 2016 TV Land Icon Awards. The ceremony will air this Sunday at 9 p.m. on TV Land.
Stamos is best known for playing Jesse on TV’s “Full House” and the recent Netflix reboot “Fuller House.” He can also be seen on FOX’s “Grandfathered.” The 52-year-old actor recently played George on “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.”
“When you’re doing well in Hollywood, everyone’s like ‘Hey Johnnie, Hey baby,’ and then you go through a rough spot or two and they vanish,” Stamos explained in a red carpet interview. “Who’s left? These people that are here today. The Beach Boys, Garry Marshall, my real family, my ‘Full House‘ family and that’s what it’s about for me. Not everybody showed up and I got their names and numbers.”
He offered an update on the filming of the second season of “Fuller House.”
“We haven’t started. We just started plotting out the episodes, which is kind of fun. You go, ‘Jesse should do this. Michelle should do that. That is where we are at with that.”
His co-star, Lori Laughlin, said Stamos is very deserving of the icon award.
“’Fuller House‘ is going great. We’re obviously done with the first season,” she said. “We got picked up for a second season so we’re all excited about that. We start shooting in May. It had such a huge following globally and then it was released worldwide. I think we did very well for them.”
Actor/comedian Dave Coulier plays Joey on the sitcom. He had the honors of presenting Stamos with the award during the telecast.
“He’s my brother and I’m so proud of him,” Coulier said. “Boy, what he’s achieved in his career has been amazing. Everything from television from soaps to sitcoms to ‘ER’ to Broadway, he’s done it all. I’m very proud of him.”
Coulier said it feels surreal to be back in the House once again. Everything looked identical from the past show almost 30 years ago.
“The transition was almost seamless,” he said. “We all just popped right back into our characters. It was as if no time had past at all. It was really great. Back in the day, we would sit in the couch. We all ended up finding our places back on the couch again.”
Legendary TV creator/producer Norman Lear was the other icon honoree. He was not available for interview because they had to start the telecast during the time he was on the red carpet.
“I’m very happy to be acknowledging the wide range of talents of Norman Lear by how he took all that stuff that made us afraid of each other, the class stuff, the race stuff and put it on the television screen and made us laugh,” said TV actor/host Jane Lynch. “I don’t think there is anything more powerful than laugher to get us over things that just don’t matter. I was lucky enough to be coming of age during this time. I laughed my ass off. It was a joy to meet him and be his friend.”
Javier Colon, winner of “The Voice” season one, performed a tribute to Norman Lear. He did the theme songs to shows such as “Maude,” “The Jeffersons,” and “Good Times.”
“It’s going to be a phenomenal moment at the end of the show,” he said. “I’m really excited to be a part of it. I’m very stoked. Especially with these Norman Lear shows that we’re honoring…I grew up watching so it’s very surreal for me to get to be here.”
Actress Paget Brewster plays Sara on FOX’s “Grandfathered.” She stars opposite Stamos and says he’s a true icon.
“I love John…He’s such a sweet, funny, giving, generous guy,” Brewster explained. “He’s not a creepy, famous jerk. I’m very excited he’s getting the Icon Award. He deserves it. He’s proud of television and his friends and it’s nice to be here for him.”
The 2016 TV Land Icon Awards airs this Sunday at 9 p.m. on TV Land, of course. Congrats to John Stamos and Norman Lear!
Stay tuned for more photos from the purple carpet in a future update…