LOS ANGELES â Norman Lear, the writer, director and producer who revolutionized prime time television with "All in the Family," âThe Jeffersonsâ and âMaude,â propelling political and social turmoil into the once-insulated world of TV sitcoms, has died. He was 101.
Lear died Tuesday night in his sleep, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said Lara Bergthold, a spokesperson for his family.
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A liberal activist with an eye for mainstream entertainment, Lear fashioned bold and controversial comedies that were embraced by viewers who had to watch the evening news to find out what was going on in the world. His shows helped define prime time comedy in the 1970s, launched the careers of Rob Reiner and Valerie Bertinelli and made middle-aged superstars of Carroll O'Connor, Bea Arthur and Redd Foxx.
Lear âtook television away from dopey wives and dumb fathers, from the pimps, hookers, hustlers, private eyes, junkies, cowboys and rustlers that constituted television chaos, and in their place he put the American people,â the late Paddy Chayefsky, a leading writer of televisionâs early âgolden age,â once said.
Tributes poured in after his death: âI loved Norman Lear with all my heart. He was my second father. Sending my love to Lyn and the whole Lear family,â Reiner wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "More than anyone before him, Norman used situation comedy to shine a light on prejudice, intolerance, and inequality. He created families that mirrored ours,â Jimmy Kimmel said.
âAll in the Familyâ was immersed in the headlines of the day, while also drawing upon Lear's childhood memories of his tempestuous father. Racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War were flashpoints as blue collar conservative Archie Bunker, played by O'Connor, clashed with liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Reiner). Jean Stapleton co-starred as Archieâs befuddled but good-hearted wife, Edith, and Sally Struthers played the Bunkers' daughter, Gloria, who defended her husband in arguments with Archie.
Lear's work transformed television at a time when old-fashioned programs such as âHereâs Lucy,â âIronsideâ and âGunsmokeâ still dominated. CBS, Learâs primary network, would soon enact its ârural purgeâ and cancel such standbys as âThe Beverly Hillbilliesâ and âGreen Acres.â The groundbreaking sitcom âThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,â about a single career woman in Minneapolis, debuted on CBS in September 1970, just months before âAll in the Familyâ started.
But ABC passed on âAll in the Familyâ twice and CBS ran a disclaimer when it finally aired the show: âThe program you are about to see is âAll in the Family.â It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are.â
By the end of 1971, âAll In the Familyâ was No. 1 in the ratings and Archie Bunker was a pop culture fixture, with President Richard Nixon among his fans. Some of his putdowns became catchphrases. He called his son-in-law âMeatheadâ and his wife âDingbat,â and would snap at anyone who dared occupy his faded orange-yellow wing chair. It was the centerpiece of the Bunkers' rowhouse in Queens, and eventually went on display in the Smithsonianâs National Museum of American History.
Even the showâs opening segment was innovative: Instead of an off-screen theme song, Archie and Edith are seated at the piano in their living room, belting out a nostalgic number, âThose Were the Days,â with Edith screeching off-key and Archie crooning such lines as âDidnât need no welfare stateâ and âGirls were girls and men were men.â
âAll in the Family,â based on the British sitcom, âTil Death Us Do Part,â was the No. 1-rated series for an unprecedented five years in a row and earned four Emmy Awards as best comedy series, finally eclipsed by five-time winner âFrasierâ in 1998.
Hits continued for Lear and then-partner Bud Yorkin, including âMaudeâ and âThe Jeffersons,â both spinoffs from âAll in the Family,â with the same winning combination of one-liners and social conflict. In a 1972 two-part episode of âMaude,â the title character (played by Arthur) became the first on television to have an abortion, drawing a surge of protests along with high ratings. And when a close friend of Archie's turned out to be gay, Nixon privately fumed to White House aides that the show âglorifiedâ same-sex relationships.
âControversy suggests people are thinking about something. But thereâd better be laughing first and foremost or itâs a dog,â Lear said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press.
Lear and Yorkin also created âGood Times,â about a working class Black family in Chicago; âSanford & Son,â a showcase for Foxx as junkyard dealer Fred Sanford; and âOne Day at a Time,â starring Bonnie Franklin as a single mother and Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her daughters. In the 1974-75 season, Lear and Yorkin produced five of the top 10 shows.
Learâs business success enabled him to express his ardent political beliefs beyond the small screen. In 2000, he and a partner bought a copy of the Declaration of Independence for $8.14 million and sent it on a cross-country tour.
He was an active donor to Democratic candidates and founded the nonprofit liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in 1980, he said, because people such as evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were âabusing religion.â
"I started to say, âThis is not my America. You donât mix politics and religion this way,ââ Lear said in a 1992 interview with Commonweal magazine.
The nonprofit's president, Svante Myrick, said âwe are heartbrokenâ by Lear's death. âWe extend our deepest sympathies to Normanâs wife Lyn and their entire family, and to the many people whoâ, like us,â loved Norman.â
With his wry smile and impish boat hat, the youthful Lear created television well into his 90s, rebooting âOne Day at a Timeâ for Netflix in 2017 and exploring income inequality for the documentary series âAmerica Dividedâ in 2016. Documentarians featured him in 2016's âNorman Lear: Just Another Version of You,â and 2017's âIf Youâre Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,â a look at active nonagenarians such as Lear and Rob Reinerâs father, Carl Reiner.
In 1984, he was lauded as the âinnovative writer who brought realism to televisionâ when he became one of the first seven people inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciencesâ Hall of Fame. He later received a National Medal of Arts and was honored at the Kennedy Center. In 2020, he won an Emmy as executive producer of â Live In Front of a Studio Audience: âAll In the Familyâ and âGood Timesâ.ââ
Lear beat the tough TV odds to an astounding degree: At least one of his shows placed in prime-timeâs top 10 for 11 consecutive years (1971-82). But Lear had flops as well.
Shows including âHot L Baltimore,â âPalmerstownâ and âa.k.a. Pablo,â a rare Hispanic series, drew critical favor but couldnât find an audience; others, such as âAll That Glittersâ and âThe Nancy Walker Show,â earned neither. He also faced resistance from cast members, including âGood Timesâ stars John Amos and Esther Rolle, who often objected to the scripts as racially insensitive, and endured a mid-season walkout by Foxx, who missed eight episodes in 1973-74 because of a contract dispute.
In the 1990s, the comedy â704 Hauser,â which returned to the Bunker house with a new family, and the political satire âThe Powers that Beâ were both short-lived.
Learâs business moves, meanwhile, were almost consistently fruitful.
Lear started T.A.T. Communications in 1974 to be âsole creative captain of his ship,â his former business partner Jerry Perenchio told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. The company became a major TV producer with shows including âOne Day at a Timeâ and the soap-opera spoof âMary Hartman Mary Hartman,â which Lear distributed himself after it was rejected by the networks.
In 1982, Lear and Perenchio bought Avco-Embassy Pictures and formed Embassy Communications as T.A.T.âs successor, becoming successfully involved in movies, home video, pay TV and cable ownership. In 1985, Lear and Perenchio sold Embassy to Coca-Cola for $485 million. They had sold their cable holdings the year before, reportedly for a hefty profit.
By 1986, Lear was on Forbes magazineâs list of the 400 richest people in America, with an estimated net worth of $225 million. He didnât make the cut the next year after a $112 million divorce settlement for his second wife, Frances. They had been married 29 years and had two daughters.
He married his third wife, psychologist Lyn Davis, in 1987 and the couple had three children. (Frances Lear, who went on to found the now-defunct Learâs magazine with her settlement, died in 1996 at age 73.)
Lear was born in New Haven, Conn. on July 27, 1922, to Herman Lear, a securities broker who served time in prison for selling fake bonds, and Jeanette, a homemaker who helped inspire Edith Bunker. Like a sitcom, his family life was full of quirks and grudges, âa group of people living at the ends of their nerves and the tops of their lungs,â he explained during a 2004 appearance at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
His political activism had deep roots. In a 1984 interview with The New York Times, Lear recalled how, at age 10, he would mail letters for his Russian immigrant grandfather, Shia Seicol, which began âMy dearest darling Mr. President,â to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sometimes a reply came.
âThat my grandfather mattered made me feel every citizen mattered,â said Lear, who at 15 was sending his own messages to Congress via Western Union.
He dropped out of Emerson College 1942 to enlist in the Air Force and flew 52 combat missions in Europe as a turret gunner, earning a Decorated Air Medal. After World War II, he worked in public relations.
Lear began writing in the early 1950s on shows including âThe Colgate Comedy Hourâ and for such comedians as Martha Raye and George Gobel. In 1959, he and Yorkin founded Tandem Productions, which produced films including âCome Blow Your Horn,â âStart the Revolution Without Meâ and âDivorce American Style.â Lear also directed the 1971 satire âCold Turkey,â starring Dick Van Dyke about a small town that takes on a tobacco companyâs offer of $25 million to quit smoking for 30 days.
In his later years, Lear joined with Warren Buffett and James E. Burke to establish The Business Enterprise Trust, honoring businesses that take a long-term view of their effect on the country. He also founded the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern Californiaâs Annenberg School for Communication, exploring entertainment, commerce and society and also spent time at his home in Vermont. In 2014, he published the memoir âEven This I Get to Experience.â
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Longtime AP Television Writer Lynn Elber retired from The Associated Press in 2022. Contributors include Alicia Rancilio in Detroit and Hillel Italie in New York.