Norman Lear, iconic TV sitcom and movie producer, dies at 101
(CNN) — Famed television producer Norman Lear, whose wildly successful TV sitcoms including “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” fused comedy with trenchant social commentary and dominated network ratings in the 1970s, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced on his website. He was 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. “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.”
Beginning with “All in the Family” in 1971, Lear’s shows tackled fraught topics of racism, feminism and social inequalities that no one had yet dared touch. The show – which won the Emmy for Outstanding New Series – focused on the white working class Bunker family and its small-minded, irascible, prejudiced and oddly likable patriarch Archie Bunker.
The hit show spurred a series of similarly popular and political spinoffs, including “Sanford and Son,” “Maude,” and “Good Times.”
He was executive producer of the cult movie classics “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 establishment of the liberal political organization People for the American Way.
Even in his 90s, Lear kept working. Along with Jimmy Kimmel, a 95-year-old Lear 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 like Jamie Fox, Woody Harrelson and Viola Davis to re-create original episodes of “The Jeffersons,” “All in the Family” and “Good Times.”
In recent years, Lear and his business partner Brent Miller rebooted some of his ’70s sitcom successes, including “One Day at a Time.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
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