Joan Rivers Wins at 1990 Daytime Emmy Awards (Video)

Joan Rivers.  Photo Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage

Legendary comedian Joan Rivers died on Thursday, September 4 at age 81. Rivers had a long, illustrious career, which included a Daytime Emmy win in 1990 for Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host for her TV series The Joan Rivers Show, which ran from 1989 to 1993. The win, at a glamorous Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony broadcast during the afternoon on ABC from the Marriott Marquis in New York City, came after Rivers rebounded from what may have been the worst period of her life.

Taking the stage to accept her award, Rivers gave a speech that was at once funny, warm, and utterly heart-wrenching. There were laughs, of course, but there were also tears.

True to her nature, she started off her speech with a joke. "I always had a fantasy as a child that I'd win one of these," she began, clutching the golden statue. "I never thought I'd be this old when the fantasy came true, but here it is."

She went on to thank everyone involved with her show before ending on a personal and very poignant note. "[Thank you] especially to my daughter Melissa, because the last two years have been very difficult. Two years ago, I couldn't get a job in this business," she shared, alluding to the fallout of her firing from Fox's The Late Show. "People said I wouldn't work again."

Then, broaching the subject of her husband Edgar Rosenberg's suicide, she added: "And my husband, as you know, had a breakdown." (Rosenberg, who married Rivers in 1965 and was also her manager, overdosed shortly after she was fired from Fox in 1987.)

"It's so sad that he's not here, because it was my husband Edgar Rosenberg who always said, 'You can turn things around,'" Rivers told the audience as she struggled not to cry. "And except for one terrible moment in a hotel room in Philadelphia when he forgot that, this is really for him, because he was with me from the beginning, and I'm so sorry he's not here tonight."

Rivers' award was presented by soap stars Kate Collins, James Kiberd and Susan Keith. Watch her win in the video clip below:



Also at the 1990 Daytime Emmys, NBC won four awards for its soap opera Santa Barbara, including best directing team and, for the second consecutive year, outstanding dramatic series. A Martinez, who played Cruz Castillo on the show, won the best actor Emmy, and Henry Darrow, who played his father, Rafael, won as best supporting actor. Other acting winners included Kim Zimmer, Julia Barr, Cady McClain and Andrew Kavovit.