Lear made us laugh and look at real issues
NORMAN LEAR is a co-producer of Netflix’s new, well-received revival of his 1975 classic One Day at a Time, marking a welcome return to television for the sitcom legend who had seven shows airing at once during the 1970s. But Lear – or at least, his influence – has never really left the TV landscape.
Lear, now 94, established a unique brand of American television in the 1970s: family shows that confronted real, often serious, issues while still making audiences laugh.
Earlier sitcoms tended to be more rosy – ignoring issues such as economic or health problems and focusing instead on household quandaries, childhood mischief and the like.
Maude featured the first TV character to get an abortion. The original One Day at a Time followed a single mother at a time when divorce was taboo. All in the Family called out Archie Bunker’s bigotry, while its spin-off The Jeffersons also navigated uncharted small-screen territory with upwardly mobile black couple George and Louise Jefferson.
Most recently, Lear’s blueprint has inspired ABC’s Blackish and NBC’s The Carmichael Show. The latter, a multi-camera sitcom, more closely resembles Lear’s shows, delving boldly into issues such as race, class and politics.
“Let’s do Norman Lear today,” is how Blackish creator Kenya Barris pitched his show. “He told honest stories and he told stories that other people wouldn’t tell. And he told them unapologetically with courage – not just bravery, but courage.”
The admiration is mutual. Lear visited the Blackish set last year, brainstorming with the show’s writers. Now in its third season, Blackish has comedically tackled everything from the N-word to the ugly history of racism connected to America’s public swimming pools. And the show won critical acclaim for an emotional episode about police violence.
Lear’s influence can also be seen on Seth MacFarlane’s raunchy animated comedy Family Guy. Outside of television, Lear’s legacy is also reflected in hip-hop. Rapper Common recalled The Jeffersons as funny.
Getting an audience to laugh had always been the primary goal, said Lear, who recently watched that happen on the set of the Netflix revival. “It’s as spiritual and deep and profound as anything I know… Just watching a couple of hundred people laugh from their gut.” – The Washington Post