LOS ANGELES.- Norman Learthe screenwriter, director and producer what a revolution television in prime time with All in the Family, The Jeffersons y Maude, bringing political and social unrest to the world of television comedies, died. He was 101 years old.
Lear died last night – December 5 – in his sleep, surrounded by his family in his Los Angeles home, said Lara Bergthold, a spokeswoman for his family.
He was a liberal activist with an eye for popular entertainment, creating bold and controversial comedies that were embraced by viewers who watched the nightly news to find out what was happening in the world. His shows helped define prime-time comedy in the 1970s, launching the careers of Rob Reiner and Valerie Bertinelli and turning Carroll O’Connor, Bea Arthur and Redd Foxx into middle-aged superstars.
“Lear took television away from the foolish wives and foolish fathers, the pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, private detectives, junkies, cowboys and thieves who made up television chaos, and put in their place the American people,” the late Paddy once said. Chayefsky, screenwriter from the early golden age of television.
The tributes came after Lear’s death: I loved Norman Lear with all my heart. He was my second father. Sending my love to Lyn and the entire Lear family, Reiner wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Norman used the sitcom to shed light on prejudice, intolerance and inequality. “He created families that mirrored ours,” Jimmy Kimmel said.
Norman Lear’s impact on TV
All in the Family It dealt with current news and at the same time drew on Lear’s childhood memories of his tempestuous father. Racism, feminism and the Vietnam War were flashpoints when blue-collar conservative Archie Bunker, played by OConnor, argues with his liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Reiner). Jean Stapleton played Edith, Archie’s confused and kind-hearted wife, and Sally Struthers played the Bunkers’ daughter, Gloria, who came to her husband’s defense in an argument with Archie.
Lear’s work transformed television at a time when old-fashioned shows like Heres Lucy, Ironside y Gunsmoke. CBS, Lear’s flagship network, will soon implement its rural purge and cancel shows like The Beverly Hillbillies y Green Acres. The innovative comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Showabout a single career woman in Minneapolis, debuted on CBS in September 1970, just months before it began All in the Family.
success of All In the Family
ABC twice rejected All in the Family and CBS published a disclaimer when it finally aired the show. The program you are about to watch is All in the Family. It seeks to shed humorous light on our weaknesses, prejudices and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show, in a mature way, how absurd they are.
At the end of 1971, All In the Family was number one in the ratings and Archie Bunker was a pop culture fixture and counted President Richard Nixon among his fans. Some of his put-downs became slogans. He called his son-in-law Meathead (idiot) and his wife Dingbat (stupid), and yelled at anyone who dared to occupy his faded yellow chair. The chair was the centerpiece of the Bunker rowhouse in Queens and was eventually displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
About the producer
Lear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 27, 1922, the son of Herman Lear, a securities broker who was sentenced to prison for selling counterfeit bonds, and Jeanette, a housewife who helped inspire Edith Bunker. Like a sitcom, his family life was full of oddities and resentments. “A group of people who lived on edge and at the top of their lungs,” he explained during a 2004 appearance at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
FUENTE: AP
