Norman Lear

from the Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television

Norman Lear had one of the most powerful and influential careers in the history of U.S. television. Lear first teamed with Ed Simmons to write comedy (he tells numerous stories relating how he persisted in seeking the attention of comedians like Danny Thomas, trying to convince them he could write their kind of material). After a time it worked and Thomas bought a routine from Lear and Simmons. David Susskind, too, noticed their work, and signed them to write for The Ford Star Review, a musical comedy-variety series that lasted only one season, 1950-51, on NBC. Lear and Simmons then moved to The Colgate Comedy Hour, a high budget NBC challenge to Ed Sullivan on Sunday evenings. It was a success, lasting five years. The partners wrote all the Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin material for the famous comedy team's rotating regular appearances on the show.

After the Colgate years Lear began writing on his own and in 1959 he teamed with Bud Yorkin to create Tandem Productions. Tandem produced several feature films and Lear selectively took on the tasks of executive producer, writer and, on the film Cold Turkey, director.

In 1970 Lear and Yorkin moved into television. While in England Lear had seen a comedy, Till Death Us Do Part, which became an inspiration for All In The Family. ABC was interested in the idea and commissioned a pilot, but after it was produced the network rejected it, leaving Lear with a paid for, free standing pilot. He took it to CBS which had recently brought in a new president of the network, Robert Wood. The timing was fortuitous. Anxious to change the bucolic image cast by shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Wood reacted positively to Lear's approach and gave Tandem a green light.

All In The Family first aired on 12 January 1971. Wood commented in a 1979 interview that CBS had added several extra phone operators to handle an expected flood of reactions. They never came.

The series did, however, attract its share of protests and strong reactions. Over its early life there were a continuous flow of letters objected to language and themes and challenging Lear for his "liberal" views. Looking back in 1979 Lear remarked that he responded to such criticism by stating, "I'm not trying to say anything. I am entertaining the viewers. Is it funny? That was the question." Later, when attacks on the show asked how he dared to express his views he altered his response. "Why wouldn't I have ideas and thoughts and why wouldn't my work reflect those ideas?" And of course they did.

Lear's pioneering television work brought an even more controversial series, Maude, to CBS in 1972. Lear once described the acerbic and openly liberal Maude as the flip side of Archie Bunker. Perhaps in his mind that was true in the beginning, but unlike Archie, Maude's positions on issues were not presumed to be ridiculous and her approaches to social issues were almost always presented sympathetically. The most famous episodes of Maude dealt with her decision to have an abortion. Reflecting the Supreme Court's abortion decision of 1973, Maude and husband Walter worked out their response to her mid-life pregnancy with dignity and compassion. That show sparked a storm of protest from Roman Catholics. If some viewers accepted Archie as the bigot he was, some of the religious community took Maude equally seriously.

Lear and Yorkin also moved black families to network prime time with Good Times and The Jeffersons. And Lear's satiric bent was evident in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a pioneering show he wanted to air in the daytime as part of the soap-opera scene. When that attempt failed he syndicated the series, and found it frequently relegated to late night fringe time schedules. Still, Lear saw the show as depicting "the worst of what was going on in society." At the other end of the spectrum Lear collaborated with Alex Haley and brought a classy drama, Palmerstown, USA, to the air in 1980.

Always present at story conferences of every series, even when he had as many as six on the air at one time, Lear's hand could be seen in every show. During most of the 1970s Lear he even performed as the "warm up" entertainer for the audiences assembled to watch weekly tapings of his shows, a production schedule that ran from late summer to early spring. He was fond of describing various episodes as sensitive, requiring his constant attention for just the right touch. He and executive assistant Virginia Carter spent several hours one Sunday evening discussing a single dramatic development--how to treat Walter Findley's alcoholism and Maude's response. When Lear left active involvement in television production in 1978 he left a company without a creative rudder. Few projects reached the small screen and those that did were poorly received. Much of Lear's own attention turned to the development of various media related industries, cable television, motion picture theaters, and film production companies.

But by 1980 he was alarmed by the radical religious fanaticism of Christian fundamentalists. At first he thought he would use a television series to respond. He developed a series concept, Good Evening, He Lied, in which the co-star of the show would be a woman newswriter in her thirties, very professional, trying to do her job--as a writer for an egotistical, airhead, male news anchor. A moralist at heart, Lear also proposed to have the woman be a devout, mainstream Protestant Christian, openly practicing her faith. It was a fine idea and demonstrated anew Lear's genuine respect for sincere religious convictions. NBC approved the idea but Lear did not pursue the production. He became convinced that another approach would be more effective for him, and in 1982 he founded People for the American Way to speak out for Bill of Rights guarantees and monitor violations of constitutional freedoms. By 1996 the organization had become one of the most influential and effective voices for freedom.

In the 1990s Lear returned to television with several efforts. Neither Sunday Dinner, addressing what Lear calls "spirituality" nor 704 Hauser, involving a black family moving into Archie Bunker's old house, found an audience. Lear's voice is still heard through public appearances. He has not abandoned television, but is less frequently involved. Probably, however, no single individual has had more influence through the medium of television in its 50-year history than Norman Lear.

-Robert S. Alley