RIP Norman Lear

When little Norman Lear was a kid growing up in Connecticut, his dad Herman would say “stifle!” to his mom Jeanette when he didn’t like what she was trying to say to him. But her advice, in reality, had usually been wise and he, in turn, had ended up going off to jail for the things she had tried to dissuade him from doing. No longer would Norman’s dad be sitting in his “throne” chair controlling the radio, much as Archie Bunker would do with his own chair and TV some 40 years later.

These are some of the opening anecdotes from Even This I Get to Experience, the 2014 autobiography from Norman Lear, who died this week at the age of 101 as perhaps my favorite producer in TV history. He was able to turn these seemingly minor slices of everyday life into monumental TV moments and brought TV comedy sitcoms to a whole new level of societal importance throughout the 1970s and 80s.

All in the Family is my fourth favorite show of all time. And while The Jeffersons, Maude, One Day at a Time, and Good Times, didn't make my top-TV list (but Sanford and Son did - at #59), they paint a portrait of a legendary, storied career of amazing work. Using his dad as an inspiration for Archie, Lear was able to somehow find lovability and occasional redeeming qualities in a massive bigot. I somehow never really saw his other major sitcom Mary Hartman Mary Hartman, possibly because I grew up in a market (St. Louis) that might not have wanted to air the controversial show. It was shown more prominently in some places bcause Lear personally footed the expenses to run it.