Norman Lear | |
|---|---|
 Lear in February 1977 | |
| Born | Norman Milton Lear (1922-07-27)July 27, 1922 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | December 5, 2023(2023-12-05) (aged 101) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Education | Emerson College |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1946–2023 |
| Known for | Sitcoms: |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 6 |
| Military career | |
| Service | |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | Technical sergeant |
| Unit | |
| Battles / wars |
|
| Website | normanlear |
Norman Milton Lear (July 27, 1922 – December 5, 2023) was an American screenwriter and producer who produced, wrote, created, or developed over 100 shows.[1] Lear created and produced numerous popular 1970ssitcoms, includingAll in the Family (1971–1979),Maude (1972–1978),Sanford and Son (1972–1977),One Day at a Time (1975–1984),The Jeffersons (1975–1985), andGood Times (1974–1979). His shows introduced political and social themes to the sitcom format.[2]
Lear received many awards, including sixPrimetime Emmy Awards, twoPeabody Awards, theNational Medal of Arts in 1999, theKennedy Center Honors in 2017, and theGolden Globe Carol Burnett Award in 2021. He was a member of theTelevision Academy Hall of Fame.
Lear was known for his political activism and funding ofliberal andprogressive causes and politicians. In 1980, he founded the advocacy organizationPeople for the American Way to counter the influence of theChristian right in politics, and in the early 2000s, he mounted a tour with a copy of theDeclaration of Independence.
Norman Milton Lear was born on July 27, 1922, inNew Haven, Connecticut,[3][4] to Jeanette (née Seicol) and Hyman "Herman" Lear, a traveling salesman.[4] Both parents were of Russian-Jewish descent.[5][6][7]He had a younger sister, Claire Lear Brown (1925–2015).[8] Lear grew up in a Jewish household in Connecticut and had abar mitzvah ceremony.[9]
When Lear was nine years old and living with his family inChelsea, Massachusetts,[10] his father went to prison for selling fake bonds.[11] Lear thought of his father as a "rascal" and said that the character ofArchie Bunker (whom Lear depicted as white Protestant on the show) was in part inspired by his father, and the character ofEdith Bunker was in part inspired by his mother.[11] However, Lear has said the moment which inspired his lifetime of advocacy was another event which he experienced at the age of nine, when he first heard antisemitic Catholic radio priest FatherCharles Coughlin while tinkering with his crystal radio set.[12] After hearing more of Coughlin's radio sermons, Lear said he found Coughlin would promote antisemitism by targeting people whom Jews considered to be "great heroes", such as US President Franklin Roosevelt.[13]
Lear attendedSamuel J. Tilden High School inBrooklyn, New York,[14] graduated from Weaver High School inHartford, Connecticut, in 1940 and attendedEmerson College inBoston, but dropped out in 1942 to join theUnited States Army Air Forces.[15]
Lear enlisted in theUnited States Army Air Forces in September 1942.[16] He served in theMediterranean theater as a radio operator and gunner onBoeingB-17 Flying Fortress bombers with the772nd Bomb Squadron,463rd Bomb Group of theFifteenth Air Force; in a 2014 interview, he talked about bombing Germany.[11] He flew 52 combat missions and received theAir Medal with four oak leaf clusters.[17] Lear was discharged from the Army Air Forces in 1945.[18] His World War II crew members are featured in the bookCrew Umbriago by Daniel P. Carroll.[19]
AfterWorld War II Lear had a career inpublic relations.[11] The career choice was inspired by his Uncle Jack: "My dad had a brother, Jack, who flipped me a quarter every time he saw me. He was a press agent so I wanted to be a press agent. That's the only role model I had. So all I wanted was to grow up to be a guy who could flip a quarter to a nephew."[9] Lear decided to move to California to restart his career in publicity, driving with his toddler daughter across the country.[11]
His first night in Los Angeles, Lear stumbled upon a production ofGeorge Bernard Shaw'sMajor Barbara at the 90-seattheater-in-the-round Circle Theater off Sunset Boulevard. One of the actors in the play wasSydney Chaplin, the son of actorsCharlie Chaplin andLita Grey. Charlie Chaplin,Alan Mowbray, and DameGladys Cooper sat in front of Lear, and after the show was over, Charlie Chaplin performed.[11]
Lear had a first cousin in Los Angeles, Elaine, who was married to an aspiring comedy writer namedEd Simmons. Simmons and Lear teamed up to sell home furnishings door-to-door for a company called The Gans Brothers and later sold family photos door-to-door. Throughout the 1950s, Lear and Simmons turned out comedy sketches for television appearances ofMartin and Lewis,Rowan and Martin, and others. They frequently wrote for Martin and Lewis when they appeared on theColgate Comedy Hour, and a 1953 article fromBillboard magazine stated that Lear and Simmons were guaranteed a record-breaking $52,000 (equivalent to $610,000 in 2024) each to write for five additional Martin and Lewis appearances on theColgate Comedy Hour that year.[20] In a 2015 interview withVariety, Lear said thatJerry Lewis had hired him and Simmons as writers for Martin and Lewis three weeks before the comedy duo made their first appearance on the Colgate Comedy Hour in 1950.[21] Lear also acknowledged in 1986 that he and Simmons were the main writers forThe Martin and Lewis Show for three years.[22]
In 1954, Lear was enlisted as a writer and asked to salvage the newCBS sitcom starringCeleste Holm,Honestly, Celeste!, but the program was canceled after eight episodes. During this time he became the producer ofNBC's short-lived (26 episodes) sitcomThe Martha Raye Show, afterNat Hiken left as the series director. Lear also wrote some of the opening monologs forThe Tennessee Ernie Ford Show[21][23] which aired from 1956 to 1961. In 1959, Lear created his first television series, a half-hour western forRevue Studios calledThe Deputy, starringHenry Fonda.[24]
Starting out as a comedy writer, then a film director (he wrote and produced the 1967 filmDivorce American Style and directed the 1971 filmCold Turkey, both starringDick Van Dyke), Lear tried to sell a concept for a sitcom about ablue-collar American family toABC. They rejected the show after two pilots were taped: "Justice for All" in 1968[25] and "Those Were the Days" in 1969.[26] After a third pilot was taped, CBS picked up the show, known asAll in the Family. It premiered on January 12, 1971, to disappointing ratings, but it took home severalEmmy Awards that year, including Outstanding Comedy Series. The show did very well in summer reruns,[27] and it flourished in the 1971–72 season, becoming the top-rated show on TV for the next five years.[28] After falling from theNo. 1 spot,All in the Family still remained in the top ten, with the exception of the1976-1977 television season where it ranked No. 12,[29] and eventually becameArchie Bunker's Place. The show was based loosely on the British sitcomTill Death Us Do Part, about an irascible working-classTory and hissocialist son-in-law.[30]
Lear's second big TV sitcom,Sanford and Son, was also based on a British sitcom,Steptoe and Son,[31] about a west London junk dealer and his son. Lear changed the setting to theWatts section of Los Angeles and the characters to African Americans, and theNBC showSanford and Son was an instant hit.[32] Numerous hit shows followed thereafter, includingMaude,The Jeffersons (bothspin-offs ofAll in the Family),One Day at a Time, andGood Times (which is a spinoff ofMaude).[33]
Most of these Lear sitcoms share three features: they were shot onvideotape in place offilm, used a live studio audience, and dealt with current social and political issues.[34]Maude is generally considered to be based on Lear's wife Frances, which she confirmed, withCharlie Hauck serving as main producer and writer.[35][36]
Lear's longtime producing partner wasBud Yorkin, who also producedAll in the Family,Sanford and Son,What's Happening!!,Maude, andThe Jeffersons.[37] Yorkin split with Lear in 1975. He started a production company with writers and producersSaul Turteltaub andBernie Orenstein; however, only two of their shows lasted longer than a year:What's Happening!! andCarter Country. The Lear/Yorkin company was known asTandem Productions and was founded in 1958. Lear and talent agentJerry Perenchio foundedT.A.T. Communications ("T.A.T." stood for the Yiddish phrasetuchus affen tisch, "putting one's ass on the line".[38]) in 1974, which co-existed with Tandem Productions and was often referred to in periodicals as Tandem/T.A.T. The Lear organization was one of the most successful independent TV producers of the 1970s.[39] TAT produced the influential and award-winning 1981 filmThe Wave aboutRon Jones' social experiment.[40]
Lear also developed the cult favorite TV seriesMary Hartman, Mary Hartman (MH MH) which was turned down by the networks as "too controversial" and placed it into first run syndication with 128 stations in January 1976. A year later, he added another program into first-run syndication along withMH MH,All That Glitters. He planned in 1977 to offer three hours of prime-time Saturday programming directly having stations place his production company in the position of anoccasional network.[21][41]
In 1977, African-American screenwriterEric Monte filed a lawsuit accusingABC andCBS producers Norman Lear,Bud Yorkin, and others of stealing his ideas forGood Times,The Jeffersons, andWhat's Happening!! Monte received a $1-million settlement and a small percentage of the residuals fromGood Times and one percent ownership of the show. Monte, due to his lack of business knowledge and experience as well as legal representation, would not receive royalties for other shows that he created. However, Lear and other Hollywood producers, outraged over the lawsuit, blacklisted Monte and labeled him too difficult to work with.[42]
In 1980, Lear founded the organizationPeople for the American Way for the purpose of counteracting theChristian right groupMoral Majority which had been founded in 1979.[43] In the fall of 1981, Lear began a 14-month run as the host of a revival of the classic game showQuiz Kids for the CBS Cable Network. In January 1982, Lear and Jerry Perenchio boughtAvco Embassy Pictures from Avco Financial Corporation. In January 1982, after merging with company with T.A.T. Communications, the Avco was dropped, and the combined entity was renamed as Embassy Communications, Inc.[44] Embassy Pictures was led byAlan Horn and Martin Schaeffer, later co-founders ofCastle Rock Entertainment withRob Reiner.[45]
In March 1982, Lear produced an ABC television special titledI Love Liberty, as a counterbalance to groups like theMoral Majority.[46] Among the many guests who appeared on the special was conservative icon and the 1964 U.S. presidential election's Republican nomineeBarry Goldwater.[46]
On June 18, 1985, Lear and Perenchio sold Embassy Communications toColumbia Pictures (then owned byThe Coca-Cola Company), which acquired Embassy's film and television division (including Embassy's in-house television productions and the television rights to the Embassy theatrical library) for $485 million of shares of The Coca-Cola Company.[47][48] The brandTandem Productions was abandoned in 1986 with the cancellation ofDiff'rent Strokes, and Embassy ceased to exist as a single entity in late 1986, having been split into different components owned by different entities.[49] Coca-Cola sold the film division to Dino De Laurentiis and the home video arm to Nelson Holdings (led by Barry Spikings).[50][51] The TV properties continued under theColumbia Pictures Television banner.[52]
Lear'sAct III Communications was founded in 1986 and in the following year,Thomas B. McGrath was named president and chief operating officer of ACT III Communications Inc after previously serving as senior vice president.[53][54] On February 2, 1989, Norman Lear's Act III Communications formed a joint venture with Columbia Pictures Television calledAct III Television to produce television series instead of managing.[55][56]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Act III Communications purchased several business journals, includingChannels magazine that had been founded byLes Brown, formerNew York Times TV correspondent.Channels closed in 1990, by which time Act III and Brown published and editedTelevision Business International (TBI).[57][58]
In 1997, Lear and Jim George produced theKids' WB seriesChannel Umptee-3. The cartoon was notable for being the first television show to meet theFederal Communications Commission's then-new educational programming requirements.[59]
In 2003, Lear appeared onSouth Park during the "I'm a Little Bit Country" episode, providing the voice ofBenjamin Franklin. He also served as a consultant on the episodes "I'm a Little Bit Country" and "Cancelled". He attended aSouth Park writers' retreat,[60] with some of his ideas making it ontoSouth Park,[61] and was the officiant at co-creatorTrey Parker's wedding.[62]South Park served as a bond between Lear and his son Benjamin, who was not familiar with his more known work from the 1970s.[63][64]
In 2014, Lear publishedEven This I Get to Experience, a memoir.[2][65]
Lear is spotlighted in the 2016 documentaryNorman Lear: Just Another Version of You.[66] In 2017, he served as executive producer forOne Day at a Time, the reboot of his 1975–1984 show of the same name that premiered onNetflix starringJustina Machado andRita Moreno as a Cuban-American family. He hosted a podcast,All of the Above with Norman Lear, since May 1, 2017.[67][68] On July 29, 2019, it was announced that Lear had teamed withLin-Manuel Miranda andSteven Kunes to make anAmerican Masters documentary about Moreno's life, tentatively titledRita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It.[69]
In 2020, it was announced that Lear and Act III Productions would executive produce a revival ofWho's the Boss?[70] At the time of his death in 2023, he was overseeing multiple shows in development, including a planned reboot ofMary Hartman, Mary Hartman.[71]
Lear has been honored for his influence on American television and culture.[72] BeforeAll in the Family, television sitcoms in the 1950s and 1960s generally portrayed white American family life as comfortable and avoided raising issues such as racial discrimination and patriarchy.[73][74] Beginning in 1971,All in the Family openly discussed current social and political topics and became the country's most popular show for five straight years.[75][76] Lear's subsequent shows widened television's representation of racial and gender diversity, such asGood Times, the first television show centered on an African-American nuclear family;[77][78][79] Television screenwriterPaddy Chayefsky said that Lear "put the American people [on screen] ... he took the audience and put them on the set".[80] However, it has been acknowledged thatJames L. Brooks TV seriesRoom 222, which was not made by Lear and which debuted before Lear's shows debuted, was also among the first shows to not only feature an African American lead character in a less stereotypical role, a high school teacher, but also invoke serious contemporary issues, with theTelevision Academy Foundation stating that "A season and a half before Norman Lear made "relevant" programming a dominant genre with the introduction of programs like All in the Family and Maude, Room 222 was using the form of the half-hour comedy to discuss serious contemporary issues. During its five seasons on the air, the show included episodes that dealt with such topics as racism, sexism, homophobia, dropping out of school, shoplifting, drug use among both teachers and students, illiteracy, cops in school, guns in school, Vietnam war veterans, venereal disease, and teenage pregnancy".[81]
In 1999, PresidentBill Clinton awarded Lear theNational Medal of Arts, noting: "Norman Lear has held up a mirror to American society and changed the way we look at it."[82] That year, he andBud Yorkin received theWomen in FilmLucy Award in recognition of excellence and innovation in creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.[83][84] TheProducers Guild of America awarded Lear its Achievement Award in Television in 2006; by the next year, the honor was named theNorman Lear Achievement Award in Television.[85][86] In 2017, he was awarded the fourth annual Woody Guthrie Prize presented by theWoody Guthrie Center, recognizing an artist whose work represents the spirit of Woody Guthrie "as a positive force for social change".[87] He became the oldest recipient of theKennedy Center Honors later that year at the age of 95.[76]
Lear's star on theHollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6615Hollywood Boulevard.[88] He received other numerous honorary accolades, including:[89][90]
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Lear was an outspoken supporter ofFirst Amendment and liberal causes. The only time that he did not support theDemocratic candidate for president was in1980 when he supportedJohn Anderson overJimmy Carter because he considered theCarter administration to be "a complete disaster".[91]
Lear was one of the wealthy Jewish Angelenos known as theMalibu Mafia.[92] In the 1970s and 1980s, the group discussed progressive and liberal political issues, and worked together to fund them. They helped to fund the legal defense ofDaniel Ellsberg who had released thePentagon Papers,[93] and they backed the struggling progressive magazineThe Nation to keep it afloat.[94] In 1975, they formed the Energy Action Committee to opposeBig Oil's powerful lobby in Washington.[93]
In 1981, Lear foundedPeople for the American Way (PFAW), a progressive advocacy organization formed in reaction to the politics of theChristian right.[93] PFAW ran several advertising campaigns opposing the interjection of religion in politics.[95] PFAW and other like-minded groups succeeded in their efforts to block Reagan's 1987nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.[96] Lear, a longtime critic of the Religious Right, was an advocate for the advancement ofsecularism.[97][98]
Prominent right-wing Christians includingPat Robertson,Jerry Falwell, andJimmy Swaggart have accused Lear of being anatheist and holding an anti-Christian bias.[97][98] In the January 21, 1987, issue ofThe Christian Century, Lear associateMartin E. Marty (aLutheran professor of church history at theUniversity of Chicago Divinity School between 1963 and 1998) rejected those allegations, stating the television producer honored religious moral values and complimenting Lear's understanding of Christianity.[98] Marty noted that while Lear and his family had never practicedOrthodox Judaism,[98] the television producer was a follower of Judaism.[98]
In a 2009 interview withUS News journalist Dan Gilgoff, Lear rejected claims by right-wing Christian nationalists that he was an atheist and prejudiced against Christianity. Lear held religious beliefs and integrated some evangelical Christian language into his Born Again American campaign. He believed that religion should be kept separate from politics and policymaking.[97] In a 2014 interview withThe Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles journalist Rob Eshman, Lear described himself as a "total Jew" but said he was never a practicing one.[99]
In 1989, Lear founded the Business Enterprise Trust, an educational program that used annual awards, business school case studies, and videos to spotlight exemplary social innovations in American business until it ended in 1998. He announced in 1992 that he was reducing his political activism.[100] In 2000, he provided an endowment for a multidisciplinary research and public policy center, theNorman Lear Center, that explored the convergence of entertainment, commerce, and society at theUSC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.[101]
Lear served on the National Advisory Board of theYoung Storytellers Foundation. He wrote articles forThe Huffington Post. He was a trustee ofThe Paley Center for Media.[102]
In 2001, Lear and his wife, Lyn, purchased aDunlap broadside—one of the first published copies of theUnited States Declaration of Independence—for $8.1 million.John Dunlap printed about 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Twenty-five copies survive today and only four of those are in private hands.[103]
Lear said in a press release and on theToday show that his intent was to tour the document around the United States so that the country could experience its "birth certificate" firsthand.[104] Through the end of 2004, the document traveled throughout the United States on theDeclaration of Independence Road Trip, which Lear organized, visiting several presidential libraries, dozens of museums, as well as the2002 Olympics,Super Bowl XXXVI, and theLive 8 concert in Philadelphia. Lear andRob Reiner produced a filmed, dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence—the last project filmed by famedcinematographerConrad Hall—on July 4, 2001, atIndependence Hall inPhiladelphia. The film is introduced byMorgan Freeman andKathy Bates,Benicio del Toro,Michael Douglas,Mel Gibson,Whoopi Goldberg,Graham Greene,Ming-Na Wen,Edward Norton,Winona Ryder,Kevin Spacey, andRenée Zellweger appear as readers.[105] It was directed byArvin Brown and scored byJohn Williams.[106]
In 2004, Lear establishedDeclare Yourself which is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign created to empower and encourage eligible 18- to 29-year-olds in America to register and vote. It has registered almost 4 million young people.[107][needs update]
Lear was one of 98 "prominent members of Los Angeles' Jewish community" who signed an open letter supporting theproposed nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers led by the United States. The letter called for the passage of the bill and warned that the ending of the agreement by Congress would be a "tragic mistake".[108]
Lear was married three times.[15] His first marriage was to Charlotte Rosen in 1943. They divorced in 1956.
He was married toFrances Loeb, from 1956 to 1985.[109] They separated in 1983, with Loeb eventually receiving $112 million from Lear in their divorce settlement, part of which she used to foundLear's magazine.[35]
In 1987, he married Lyn Davis, who survived him. When she met Lear in 1984, Lyn was in the process of earning a doctorate inclinical psychology. She later became a documentary filmmaker through her production company Lyn Lear Productions.[110]
From his three marriages, he had six children.[111] He was a godparent to actress and singerKatey Sagal.[112]
Lear died at his Los Angeles home on December 5, 2023, from cardiac arrest, as a complication of heart failure. He was 101. His body was cremated.[113][114]
Numerous celebrities paid tribute to Lear, includingJimmy Kimmel,Bill Clinton,Tyler Perry,George Clooney,John Leguizamo,Jon Stewart,Valerie Bertinelli,Bob Iger,Rob Reiner,John Amos,Billy Crystal,Quinta Brunson,Rita Moreno,Mark Hamill,Ben Stiller,Albert Brooks and more.The Simpsons' episode 9 from the 35th season ends with the words "In memory of Norman Lear" and a picture of Lear where he is depicted as a character from the Simpsons.
The chart does not include the made-for-television moviesThe Wave, which aired on October 4, 1981, orHeartsounds, which aired on September 30, 1984.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Norman Lear Hall of Fame Induction 1984,Television Academy | |
| Good Times With Norman Lear – Dispatches From Quarantine, June 29, 2020, Silver Screen Studios |
