Norman Lear, who produced widely successful TV sitcoms including “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” in the 1970s, passed away at his Los Angeles home on Tuesday at the age of 101.
“Norman lived a life of curiosity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals of justice and equality for all,” his family said in a statement. “He began his career in the earliest days of live television and discovered a passion for writing about the real lives of Americans, not a glossy ideal. At first, his ideas were met with closed doors and misunderstanding. However, he stuck to his conviction that the ‘foolishness of the human condition’ made great television, and eventually he was heard.”
In 1971, Lear launched “All In The Family,” which tackled a number of topics, including racism, feminism, and social inequalities, which, at the time, wasn’t touched. The show was centered on the working-class white American Bunker family and its patriarch, Archie Bunker, who, despite his likability, was described as small-minded, irascible, and prejudiced.
Director Rob Reiner, who starred as Bunker’s…
Read the full article here