The Television Academy inducted six new members into its Hall of Fame on Saturday night, as Conan O’Brien, Ryan Murphy, Viola Davis, Henry Winkler, music composer Mike Post and late director Don Mischer joined the collection of TV greats.

The 27th annual ceremony took place at the J.W. Marriott L.A. Live as O’Brien — presented his honor by longtime friend Lisa Kudrow — joked, “You know, people say that television is dying, but I want to ask you — if our industry really was in trouble, would we be gathered right now for our greatest night in a downtown Los Angeles Marriott? On a weekend? In August? No!”

The longtime TV host used some of his speech to muse about the current state of late night, acknowledging, “Things are changing fast. I don’t claim to know the future of our beloved medium but I know this, getting the privilege to play around with an hour of television has been the great joy of my professional career.”

He continued, “We’re having this event now in a time when there’s a lot of fear about the future of television, and rightfully so. The life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change. But — this might just my nature — I choose not to mourn what is lost, because I think in the most essential way what we have is not changing at all. Streaming changes the pipeline, but the connection, the talent, the ideas that come into our homes, I think it’s as potent as ever, and we have proof here tonight.”

And in the wake of CBS announcing it will end The Late Show with Stephen Colbert next year, O’Brien said, “Yes, late night television as we have known it since around 1950 is going to disappear, but those voices are not going anywhere. People like Stephen Colbert are too talented and too essential to go away. It’s not going to happen, he’s not going anywhere. Stephen is going to evolve and shine brighter than ever in a new format that he controls completely.” He added the belief that he thinks TV will always prevail “if the stories are good, if the performances are honest and inspire; if the people making it are brave and of good will.”

Earlier in the night, TV Academy Chair Cris Abrego and WME’s Rick Rosen, chair of the Television Academy Hall of Fame Committee, kicked things off, followed by Sally Field presenting Davis with the first honor of the evening. During her emotional speech, the EGOT winner noted how TV “saved me, it was an elixir. And it has been equally fulfilling being that person in that small screen, that is leaping out to anybody who has allowed me in to shake up their lives in any way I can see fit. My purpose is not what I do, it’s what happens to people when I’m doing it.”

Journalist Jon Burlingame presented to Post and Disney’s Dana Walden was on hand to celebrate Murphy, as the creator teased at the podium, “I feel that at a certain age in Hollywood, if you’re really lucky and you really do the work, and you are true and you don’t give up and you fight like hell, you can get two things: a Hall of Fame award and a really good facelift. But first things first.”

Looking back on his nearly three-decade career, Murphy noted how he has “created and written over 250 gay characters, 300 or so women-over-40 characters, over 1,000 trans characters — and I’ve been told I’ve written 10 straight male characters named Brad. I don’t remember a single one of those Brads.” On a more serious note, he commented how he thought after blazing a trail with LGBTQ storytelling, it would “never be overgrown and hidden again. And now oddly in this year of my Hall of Fame award, I find that I am wrong, and all the things that I dedicated my career to — all the fights, all the groundbreaking things — are in danger, shockingly, of going away.”

Joking that at this stage of his career he thought he could coast and focus on money, Murphy said now “a new darker age that I think none of us suspected has dawned. And so I am pivoting to continue the good fight, which is to create more work featuring the disenfranchised and the ignored, and the marginalized groups,” adding, “my next career move is exact and true, and that is to be bolder.”

For the remaining honorees, Bob Costas presented Mischer’s award — accepted by his wife and kids — and Adam Sandler sent a video message in support of Winkler; the Barry actor told the crowd, “I am living my dream and what I am the most proud of is to be in a Hall of Fame of television that has been so good to me; that I am still at the table.”