Norman Lear knows a thing or two about good TV.
The man behind such iconic shows as All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time is the focus of Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter, a celebration of his career which airs Sept. 22 at 9 p.m. on ABC.
Lear, who turned 100 years old in July, has worked with pretty much every big name in Hollywood over the course of his unparalleled career, so when it came time for Lear to list some of his biggest inspirations in an exclusive interview with E! News, the names he gave might come as a bit of a surprise.
"There's nobody in our business I have admired more over a long time," Norman revealed, "than [South Park creators] Trey Parker and Matt Stone."
In 2003, Lear made an appearance on an episode of South Park as the voice of Benjamin Franklin and even attended a South Park writers' retreat, with some of his ideas making it on the Comedy Central show.
Lear's admiration for Parker and Stone manifested into meaningful, real-life friendships.
"In fact, I flew to Hawaii once, because I am a reverend in the Universal Life Church," Lear said. "I flew to Hawaii and I married Trey [to his then-wife Emma Sugiyama]."
When it comes to what makes so many of his sitcoms such timeless treasures, Lear said it's really very simple.
"Human nature is human nature. I don't think anything has changed in human nature," Lear argued. "I would expect any audience to laugh at [All in the Family's] Archie Bunker and Edith as much and as well today is any other time."
He added, "I think the culture has shifted and changed and moved. But the way families experience life is pretty much the same, and those performances are glorious."
Many of those performances will be celebrated in the ABC special, which "honors the life and legacy of the remarkable storyteller, activist and philanthropist Norman Lear," according to the network, "and features intimate conversations, special performances and surprise reunions that pay homage to the man behind some of television's greatest stories in celebration of his 100th birthday."
The special will feature appearances from A-listers like George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jennifer Aniston, in addition to special musical numbers paying tribute to iconic sitcom theme songs performed by the likes of Kristen Bell, Anthony Anderson and Kelly Rowland.
Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter airs Sept. 22 at 9 p.m. on ABC.