CNN
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Famed television producer Norman Lear, whose hugely successful sitcoms including “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” combined comedy with biting social commentary and dominated network ratings in the 1970s, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, he said. His family announced. His website. He was 101.
“Norman lived a life filled with curiosity, perseverance and compassion. “He loved our country deeply and spent his life helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all,” his family said. “He began his career in the early days of live television and discovered a passion for writing about real life.” For Americans, not about shiny idealism. At first, his ideas were met with closed doors and misunderstanding. However, he stuck to his conviction that it was the “foolishness of the human condition” that made for great television, and eventually he was heard.
Beginning with “All in the Family” in 1971, Lear’s shows tackled themes charged with racism, feminism, and social inequality that no one had yet dared touch. The show — which won an Emmy for Outstanding New Series — focused on the white working-class Bunker family and their narrow-minded, irascible, prejudiced, and strangely likable patriarch, Archie Bunker.
Director Rob Reiner, who played Bunker’s opposite-politician brother-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stevich in the sitcom, praised Blair on social media on Wednesday.
“I loved Norman Lear with all my heart. He was my second father. I send my love to Lynn and the entire Lear family,” Reiner said InvolvedD in a statement.
“All in the Family” sparked a series of similarly popular and political films, including “Sanford and Son,” “Maude,” and “Good Times.”
In his 2014 memoir, “Even This I Can Experience,” Lear said attributed The success of his series of stories drawn from the real experiences of his writers added to the veracity of the characters they developed.
“Audiences themselves have taught me that you can get some great laughs on the surface with funny performers and good jokes. But if you want them to belly laugh, you have a better chance if you can get them to care first,” he wrote. “.
He was an executive producer of the classic films “The Princess Bride” and “Fried Green Tomatoes,” and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for “Divorce American Style.” His political advocacy led to the creation of the Liberal Political Organization People for the American Way.
Even into his nineties, Lear continued to work. Along with Jimmy Kimmel, Lear, 95, produced and hosted three episodes of “Live in Front of a Studio Audience,” which won Primetime Emmy Awards in 2019 and 2020. The series used current stars such as Jamie Foxx, Woody Harrelson, and… Viola Davis will recreate original episodes of “The Jeffersons,” “All in the Family” and “Good Times.”
Before his 100th birthday in 2022, Lear credits his longevity to working with Lux, baking, the love of his family and laughter.
“I like to wake up in the morning with something on my mind, something I can work on…to come to some conclusions,” Lear said.
In recent years, Lear and business partner Brent Miller have relaunched some of his 1970s sitcom hits, including “One Day at a Time.”
In a 2020 interview with CNN, Lear spoke about renewed interest in his decades-old comedy series, and the continuing importance of the politically conscious comedy he pioneered. He also joked about networks’ continued reluctance to address hot-button issues.
“It’s a new group of executives, [but] Same old buildings. “They have been reincarnated.”
But Lear objected to his performances being described as “edgy,” both then and now.
“What other people wrote about him was edgy, but I never thought he was edgy,” he said. “We were simply dealing with problems that existed in our culture.”
