Posted on 10/02/2014 8:25:47 PM PDT by iowamark
[Norman Lear wryly titled his memoir Even This I Get to Experience (out Oct. 14, Penguin) as a wink to his belief that even the bad times in his life were worthwhile because they made the living interesting. And over the course of 92 years, Lear has led as interesting a life as anyone in Hollywood. Born in 1922 in Connecticut, Lear lived with relatives for a time while his father spent three years in jail from 1931 to 1934 for a dodgy get-rich-quick scheme...]
[All in the Family: Season 2 Carroll O'Connor's insecurities and fears drove him to great heights as an actor, but they almost brought an early end to the show]
Lear: Carroll sat down to every reading worried and unhappy. It seemed to make little difference whether his problems with the script turned out to be few or many, small or large. Most of the time we'd hear, "It just doesn't work." He wasn't always wrong, of course. But much of the time we were facing fear, a fear that could render Carroll impossible to deal with. It was understandable to a degree. He was, after all, at the beginning of a process where he was to shed the gentle Irish intellectual Carroll O'Connor to become the poorly educated, full-of-himself blowhard Archie Bunker, spewing a kind of rancid, lights-out conservatism for a television audience that grew quickly to more than 50 million people...
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
Anyone remember Lear’s failed CBS Cable network? It was replaced by MTV.
And I am so glad that I had parents who forbid me to watch that trash. Many years later, I understood why.
As Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney on Green Acres) said about the fateful year 1971: “It was the year they cancelled every show with a tree—including Lassie!”
re: gentle Irish intellectual Carroll O’Connor to become the poorly educated, full-of-himself blowhard Archie Bunker, spewing a kind of rancid, lights-out conservatism for a television audience that grew quickly to more than 50 million people.
I was always struck by the fact the butt of all the jokes on this stupid show was the only one earning a paycheck. The one going out every day, doing a hard days work on the docks in order to keep three ingrates’ a$$holes $hitting.
Well, Edith loved and supported Archie and didn’t give him a hard time. She cheerfully cooked and kept house for him.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman’s corns!” - Archie Bunker LOL
May I kindly suggest anything posted with Norman Lear’s name in it should have a “steel-reinforced teflon barf bag alert” warning?
Does anybody watch “Maude”? Andy Griffith has been on in reruns forever.
In real life, the Evans family probably would have rented or owned their own house (similar to that of the Bunkers) and wouldn’t be living in the projects. Didn’t James Evans have steady employment?
The only good thing about “Maude” is that Donny Hathaway sang the theme song.
Yes, any family (black or otherwise) too proud to take welfare would also not live in the projects. Possibly Section 8 housing...
Anyone here old enough to remember that most people agreed with the sentiments of the “Archie Bunker” character much more than the “meathead” one? Epic fail.
She was a woman Marine Staff Sergeant in World War II.
Archie Bunker wasn’t a true Conservative.. a true Conservative doesn’t discriminate against somebody’s sex, color or religion
Norman Lear is still alive? That’s a real shame.
Even as a kid I agreed with Mr.Bunker.I knew meathead was a hippie and a dirtbag and I loved that show. Oh the songs Glenn Miller made...
Even as a kid I agreed with Mr.Bunker.I knew meathead was a hippie and a dirtbag and I loved that show.Oh the songs Glenn miller played...
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