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TV legend Norman Lear gives 7 strong opinions about American life
Entertainment Weekly ^ | August 1 2015 | James Hibberd

Posted on 08/01/2015 8:06:33 PM PDT by Second Amendment First

Legendary TV producer Norman Lear stopped by the Televisison Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills to promote an upcoming PBS documentary covering his carreer that’s set to debut next year. But what seemed to most impress reporters was the 93-year-old’s opinionated tangents, covering politics, TV, America and mindfullness. Below are seven highlights from a press conference with the creator of hits like All in the Family, The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time:

— On politics: “Everybody knows me to be a progressive or a liberal or lefty or whatever. I think of myself as a bleeding heart conservative. You will not f–k with my Bill of Rights, my Constitution, my guarantees of political justice for all. But does my heart bleed for those who need help and aren’t getting the justice that the country promises them and the equal opportunity the country promises? Yes. I’m a bleeding heart, but I think myself to be a total social conservative. The people who are running just don’t seem to have America on their minds, not the America I think about. When I was a kid we were in love with America. As early as I can remember, there was a civics class in my public school. And I was in love with those things that guaranteed freedom before I learned that there were people who hated me because I was Jewish. I had a Bill of Rights and a Constitution, those words out of the Declaration that protected me. And I knew about that because we had civics in class. We don’t have that much in the country anymore. So before World War II or shortly after, we were in love with America because we understood what it was about and that’s what we were in love with. I believe everybody’s patriotic today. Everybody loves America. But I don’t need their flag plans to prove it. I’d like to go back to civics lessons.”

— On waking up: “I want to wake up feeling as I usually do, loving the day. The title of my book is Even This I Get to Experience, and that’s the way I basically look at life moment to moment. And now I’m looking out at you. I was 93 on Monday. So it took me 93 and 5 days to get here. It took you every split second of each of your lives to get here for me. So I’m way ahead of you. It took all your lives to get here, so this moment is the moment. Even this we get to experience.”

— On the Golden Age of television: “I think this is the Golden Age. I understand what the Golden Age was when I was coming into television, and it was those years of Playhouse 90 and Philco Playhouse. But there’s great drama and some great comedy on television today. I can’t see it all.”

— On excess: “Our greatest export in America is excess. We are so excessive. There is so much to watch, so much to buy, so much they’re selling. I wish they would sell the value of the country as hard as they sell the rest of it.”

— On living in the moment: “There’s two words that are underrecognized, ‘over’ and ‘next.’ When something is over, it’s over. And we’re always on to ‘next.’ And the hammock, the imaginary hammock in the middle is what I think is meant by living in the moment. I’m living in the moment waiting for next.”

— On perspective: I’ve learned introspectively how much each of us matters and how little we understand how much we matter in the course of our day. I’m impressed with the way we all affect each other in small ways and the good we do in terms of relationships that would otherwise seem meaningless, or certainly easy to overlook, that we don’t take credit for, each of us, all of us. If I could make anything clear, it would be that.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: normanlear; television
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1 posted on 08/01/2015 8:06:33 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First

Who gives a $%&<?


2 posted on 08/01/2015 8:08:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (TED CRUZ. You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: Second Amendment First

Knowing what a lefty he has always been, I clicked on the thread expecting him to say something really offensive. To my surprise, he didn’t.


3 posted on 08/01/2015 8:11:05 PM PDT by EternalVigilance
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To: Second Amendment First

If he was a conservative the reporters and the documentary would not be there.


4 posted on 08/01/2015 8:12:46 PM PDT by GeronL
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To: Second Amendment First

This guys is maybe the biggest reason for our current nadir.


5 posted on 08/01/2015 8:13:02 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Second Amendment First

I’d rather listen to him pass gas than have to listen to his opinions about anything American. Liberal DemocRATS hate America.


6 posted on 08/01/2015 8:13:44 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Stop the DemocRATS' War On Babies! Vote conservative.)
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To: EternalVigilance

93 and coming clean.

Move him to the top of your Dead Pool.


7 posted on 08/01/2015 8:14:10 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo (FR NEEDS YOUR DONATION!)
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To: EternalVigilance

Wonder if he’d write the Archie character differently today?

How about Meathead?

I didn’t have any problem with George Jefferson. He was a racist, and everyone knew it.


8 posted on 08/01/2015 8:14:48 PM PDT by rikkir (You can lead a horde to knowledge but you can't make them think. (TnkU ctdonath2))
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To: ifinnegan

Few, if any, are more responsible for the “bread and circuses” of our current laptop culture of ABCNNBCBS zombies ...


9 posted on 08/01/2015 8:16:34 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Second Amendment First
“But there’s great drama and some great comedy on television today” …
Really? Looks more like the “vast wasteland” gone far beyond what Newton Minow could have conceived a half-century ago, which has resulted in pay TV revenues falling and the rise of “TV à la carte/on demand” and other such media.
10 posted on 08/01/2015 8:18:47 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Second Amendment First
I care not what this leftist says now - his legacy is a corpus of work that has done more than any army using rifles or bombs could do to destroy our Nation, our Freedoms and our way of life.

A niche awaits him in the Seventh Circle.


"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre / mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."
"Thought must be the harder, heart be the keener / mind must be the greater, as our might lessens."

11 posted on 08/01/2015 8:19:07 PM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3/5 Marines RVN 1969 - St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in Battle!)
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To: Second Amendment First

On the Golden Age of television: “I think this is the Golden Age. I understand what the Golden Age was when I was coming into television, and it was those years of Playhouse 90 and Philco Playhouse. But there’s great drama and some great comedy on television today. I can’t see it all.”

I will admit there are some great shows on cable but do we really need the F bomb said so many times. So Norman, you think this is the Golden Age of television? When we put slop on the air such as “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “Call Me Cait” I beg to differ.


12 posted on 08/01/2015 8:20:35 PM PDT by dowcaet
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To: EternalVigilance

“Knowing what a lefty he has always been, I clicked on the thread expecting him to say something really offensive. To my surprise, he didn’t.”

In the context of the 1970’s, I found him fairly even-handed. For example, on All in the Family, he made fun of The Meathead and liberal causes, also. Maude was the classic “limousine liberal” and this was pointed out repeatedly.

It is interesting to consider that All In The Family would NEVER EVEN MAKE IT TO A PILOT TODAY, because of its “disturbing and offensive content” in this PC world.


13 posted on 08/01/2015 8:23:59 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
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To: Second Amendment First
another rich elite lecturing we the rabble down here......

don't need it....don't want it...

14 posted on 08/01/2015 8:26:02 PM PDT by cherry
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To: EternalVigilance

don’t let these buffoons fool you.....they’re leftist ilk and pull out this “I’m conservative” when it suits them.....


15 posted on 08/01/2015 8:27:18 PM PDT by cherry
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To: The Antiyuppie

I agree. At the end of the day, Archie, the supposed conservative villain, was the hero. He always tried to do the right thing, and took care of his family, while Meathead, the supposed liberal antidote to Archie’s archaic way of thinking, ended up abandoning his family. All in the family was brilliant and groundbreaking.


16 posted on 08/01/2015 8:35:15 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: The Antiyuppie

It amuses me that they call themselves “progressive,” but everything the libs are chattering and protesting about today was dealt with on “All in the Family” 40 years ago.


17 posted on 08/01/2015 8:43:23 PM PDT by JennysCool (My hypocrisy goes only so far)
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To: cherry
You will not f–k with my Bill of Rights, my Constitution,

Obama is f-king with his Bill of Rights, his Constitution, and he has not uttered a word of protest. Liberal liar (but I repeat myself).

18 posted on 08/01/2015 8:44:39 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: EternalVigilance

It was a bunch of nuthin’ ! Seems like he knew it ... or not ...


19 posted on 08/01/2015 8:49:58 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: Second Amendment First

Isn’t there a Freeper with that name?


20 posted on 08/01/2015 8:57:08 PM PDT by MNDude (God is not a Republican, but Satan is certainly a Democrat.)
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