Andy Sullivan: Against the Grain

Thu, 12/14/2023 - 5:59pm — Diane Dyer

The word “prolific” more than applies to television legend Norman Lear, the visionary behind any number of memorable television shows. However, prolific hardly conveys the pivotal role he played in transforming the medium, even our culture. In the words of CBS Sunday Morning’s Mo Rocca: Norman Lear, who died at the age of 101, didn’t invent the situation comedy. But more than anyone else, he made sure it said something important. Mr. Lear once said “my slide rule is if I care, you care. If I laugh, you laugh. If I think it’s serious, you’ll think it’s serious”.

Without him, it’s unlikely we would’ve ever met Sanford & Son, Maude, The Jeffersons, the families from Good Times and One Day At A Time or that grumpy, grandstanding daddy of them all, Archie Bunker. Lear once said “when I began to cast All In The Family, my first thought, the only one I had in mind that was a name I knew and a face I knew or personality I understood, was Mickey Rooney. He thought it was ridiculous that I was thinking of doing a show about a bigot. He told me “You’re gonna get killed in the streets. They’re gonna shoot you dead”.

Norman Lear understood that the America of 1971 was ready for the warts and all realness of Archie Bunker. As he told chief medical correspondent and his own son-in-law, CBS chief medical correspondent, John LaPook “there’s nothing that unites people more or better than laughter. I like to think what they saw was the foolishness of the human condition”.

Finding the funny in the serious began early for Norman, when he was growing up working-class in Connecticut. He was 9 years-old when he found out his father was going to prison. His father was convicted of selling fake bonds and sent to prison for three years. Lear remembered that a neighbor put a hand on his shoulder and said “well, you’re the man of the house now, Norman. And a man doesn’t cry. Ultimately, it taught me there’s humor in every situation”.

The year’s worldview was also shaped by trips to New York City, looking out the train window into the apartments of Harlem. “They felt like they were eight feet away. They were probably thirty feet. They were very close. And the windows leading into the apartments were very visible. They were largely African American. And I used to wonder about them: who were these families? What were they thinking? What were their problems? I also had something in common with them. I knew by then as a Jewish kid, there were people who hated me simply for that reason. And I understood by then that black people had it worse than I had it”.

Just a few years later, Lear would look out different windows a world away. During World War II, Lear served as a radio operator and gunner, flying more than 50 bombing missions over Germany and Italy. His escort during some of these dangerous flights? The famed, all-black, Tuskegee Airmen. In 2015, Lear met one of them, Professor Roscoe Brown, face-to-face for the first time. Brown told Lear “I shot down a jet over Berlin on a mission that you were on, March 24, 1945”. Lear exclaimed “how amazing is it that the two of us flew the same mission over Berlin the same day”?

Norman Lear understood the price of freedom and was willing to pay real money for it. In 2000, he and internet entrepreneur David Hayden spent over $8 million for one of 25 surviving copies of the Declaration of Independence. It was not for himself, but for the public. It was exhibited across the country for more than three years. In 1981, Lear founded the progressive advocacy group People for the American Way. “The pleasure of being part of 250,000 people who are seeking to remind America of the tradition of religious liberty and pluralism and diversity in this country”. The group ran public service announcements to spread their message. Norman Lear was not the retiring type. On most mornings, well into his 90’s, he was up early and working out. He kept close connection with his large extended family, including his wife Lynn, his six children and four grandchildren. “The soundtrack of my life has been laughter”. Norman Lear kept creating until the very end. During the pandemic, he inspired his followers over social media. He shared this with his daughter Kate and his son-in-law: when thinking about death, I don’t mind the going. It’s leaving that is a problem for me. Going, who knows what’s out there. It can’t be all bad. But leaving, I can’t think of anything good about leaving”. R.I.P sir. Your genius will certainly be missed.