Norman Lear, the famed television producer of such hit ’70s sitcoms as All in the Family and The Jeffersons, as well as the founder of the left-wing advocacy group People For the American Way, died on Dec. 5 at the age of 101.
A statement from Lear’s family on his website read, “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. 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.”
Starting with All in the Family, Lear’s shows touched on topics that no other comedy show had before. Topics included themes about racism, feminism, gay rights, and social inequality. The show centered on the working-class Bunker family and its patriarch, Archie, the narrow-minded bigot who still managed to be a likable character. All in the Family spawned numerous spinoffs, including hits such as The Jeffersons, Maude, and Good Times. Spinoff flops included Checking In, Gloria, and 704 Hauser.
Norman Milton Lear was born July 27, 1922, in New Haven, Connecticut. His parents were of Russian Jewish descent. Lear was raised Jewish, which included a bar mitzvah ceremony. He had a younger sister, Claire, who died in 2015. Lear began attending Emerson College in Boston but dropped out in 1942 to join the military.
Lear joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in September 1942 and was a radio operator and gunner on Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers in the 772 Bomb Squadron. He flew 52 combat missions, including bombing campaigns of Germany, and was awarded the U.S. Armed Forces Air Medal.
After World War II, Lear started a career in public relations. His cousin Elaine introduced Lear to her husband, Ed Simmons, an aspirant comedy writer. The duo began writing comedy sketches for Martin and Lewis, Rowan and Martin, and The Colgate Comedy Hour. The first TV series Lear created starred Henry Fonda as Chief Marshal Simon Fry in The Deputy. Lear wrote two feature films starring Dick Van Dyke, and directed one of them, Cold Turkey.
It was in 1968 that the first pilot for what would become All in the Family aired. It was based on the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part. ABC rejected it and rejected another in 1969. CBS picked up the series after the third pilot aired. Ratings were poor but it did well in summer repeats and went on to win several Emmy awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series. It became the top-rated TV show for the next five years.
Other hit shows — Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and Maude (both spinoffs of All in the Family), Good Times (a spinoff of Maude and one of the first TV shows to feature a nuclear African American family), and One Day at a Time — followed. All the shows featured themes and topics that were typically verboten before they appeared. Phil Rosenthal, the creator of the series Everybody Loves Raymond, said of Lear’s impact on television, “Television can be broken into two parts, BN and AN: Before Norman and After Norman.”
Lear was an outspoken liberal. He was a member of the “Malibu Mafia,” a group of influential and wealthy men who donated money to various liberal causes, including the defense of Daniel Ellsberg who released the Pentagon Papers, supporting George McGovern over Richard Nixon in 1972, and providing life support for the liberal magazine The Nation. In 1981, Lear created People For the American Way, a left-wing advocacy group that he said was a counter to the rising influence of the religious right. The organization was behind the successful effort to thwart President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.
He married three times, first to Charlotte Rosen from 1943 to 1956. He married Francis Loeb in 1956, separating in 1983 with their divorce completed in 1985, for which Francis received a settlement of $112 million. In 1987, Lear married Lyn Davis, who survives him. Lear has six children from the three marriages, with a span of 47 years separating the youngest from the oldest.
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Jay Caruso is a writer and editor residing in West Virginia.
