Posted on 12/06/2023 7:03:09 AM PST by Red Badger
Lear leaves behind a legacy of trailblazing shows that redefined the subject matter traditional sitcoms could cover.
Norman Lear, the prolific and groundbreaking TV producer whose portfolio of comedies focused on social issues and advanced the idea that sitcoms could help drive the conversation about relevant and taboo subjects, has died. He was 101.
Lear died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by family members, his family said. His death was attributed to natural causes.
"Norman lived a life of curiosity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all," his family said in a statement.
"He began his career in the earliest days of live television and discovered a passion for writing about the real lives of Americans, not a glossy ideal. At first, his ideas were met with closed doors and misunderstanding. However, he stuck to his conviction that the “foolishness of the human condition” made great television, and eventually he was heard," the statement said.
A private funeral service will be held for immediate family, the statement said.
Born July 27, 1922, the five-time Emmy Award winner was a TV legend, with his first credit as a writer listed as “All Star Revue” in 1950, according to the entertainment website IMDb. He climbed the ranks, writing sketches for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and a slew of variety shows. He also wrote the screenplays for multiple movies in the 1960s, earning an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay in 1968 for “Divorce American Style.”
Lear struck gold in 1971 when he created the CBS sitcom “All in the Family,” based on the British comedy “Till Death Do Us Part.” The show revolved around working-class bigot Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor, whose old-world views were often challenged in the new era in which he and his wife, Edith, were living.
All In The Family
The pioneering series, which Lear revisited in the 2021 book, “All in the Family: The Show That Changed America,” often appears atop lists of greatest shows ever and addressed subjects that were never discussed on prior sitcoms, including racism, the Vietnam War, women’s rights, abortion, religion and homosexuality.
The show initially struggled to find viewers but would go on to become the most-watched show in the country. It won 22 Emmy Awards, including four for outstanding comedy series, before it signed off in 1979, spawning the spinoff “Archie Bunker’s Place,” which ran for another four seasons.
“The kinds of topics Archie Bunker and his family argued about — issues that were dividing Americans from one another, such as racism, feminism, homosexuality, the Vietnam War and Watergate — were certainly being talked about in homes and families. They just weren’t being acknowledged on television,” Lear wrote in a 2021 op-ed in The New York Times.
“All in the Family” was a game-changer in the annals of TV, but Lear said he had no clue at the time about its potential impact.
“I didn’t even think I was breaking a mold,” he told NBC News in 2014.
Lear, who would be among the inductees in the first class of the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984, would once again hit pay dirt with “Sanford and Son,” a show about an irascible Los Angeles junkyard owner (Redd Foxx) and his son. That series, which premiered in 1972, lasted six seasons and garnered seven Emmy nominations.
Lear continued to create shows that proved to be critical and commercial hits, including “Maude” and “The Jeffersons,” both spinoffs of “All in the Family.” He also developed “One Day at a Time” and “Good Times.”
Beatrice Arthur As 'Maude'
Good riddance to liberal trash.
I didn’t agree with his politics, but Rest In Peace, Norman.
+1
Lear started the tread of making fun of white males ala Archie Bunker.
Most viewers didn’t know what they were watching and thought the show was funny.
In reality the show started the downfall of the white male.
Lear was the leading edge of the destruction of wholesome and popular American television. Shows like The Andy Griffith Show were canceled and replaced by All in the Family and others almost overnight, despite the fact that they were incredibly popular and morally edifying.
The first several seasons of AITF is still very funny. There were plenty of “good” white males on it. It was a satire of the generation gap. Brilliantly written and acted.
George Jefferson is a sitcom character who could never be done today. Black, hard worker, started a business that employs many people, a Navy vet, fiercely devoted to his family, never forgot where he came from and resolved to make life better for he and his wife and son...
Those kinds of qualities are alien to modern television, or entertainment in general for that matter.
The Rural Purge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_purge
I never was a big fan of Lear’s politics. But he was a WW2 combat veteran (radio operator/gunner on a B-17, with 52 missions). And he volunteered. No waiting for the draft or looking for some exemption.
I’ll honor his memory for that.
True on all counts.
Try and find a TV or movie that portrays an American black family in a positive light. I can think of very few, practically nonexistent.
Every TV show or movie depicts blacks as drug dealers, drug abusers, gangstas, criminals or deadbeats on welfare with few redeeming qualities.
And they call us racists. All they need do is look at Hollywood’s portrayal of them.......................
Lear himself opined that AITF did not go the way he wanted it to.
Mike and Gloria were supposed to be the stars of the show, not Archie and Edith.
Archie was supposed to be Mike’s foil but it would up the other way around.
He directed the writing to emphasize the liberal Mike’s philosophy but every time it would just make Mike a more comic character.....................
I was going to mention the rural purge. They took away anything that showed traditional American culture and brought in highly political content for our amusement and indoctrination. People like Lear and Fred Silverman were a big part of that change.
I enjoyed the Jeffersons.
“Wheezy!”
That was the shortened version. The full version is even better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITlFBPbVAA
Now... who was Mr. Lear making fun of in this scene?
White males were being made fun of long before then. One of the cornerstones of western humor is bringing down those in charge. Which is white males. Even if you want to give him the modern version All in the Family was based on a British show.
Not to mention, George’s racism was also exposed for its hypocrisy and not justified merely because he was black. That, for sure, would never fly today.
Finally....after 101 years, a good commie.
**I’ll honor his memory for that.**
Howard Zinn was a bombadier,... and like so many socialists, could find plenty wrong with the USA; but not so much wrong totalitarian socialism. He would have hated the way king David ruled Israel.
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