In 1982, Lear and Perenchio bought Avco-Embassy Pictures and formed Embassy Communications as T.A.T.’s successor, becoming successfully involved in movies, home video, pay TV and cable ownership. The company became a major TV producer with shows including “One Day at a Time” and the soap-opera spoof “Mary Hartman Mary Hartman,” which Lear distributed himself after it was rejected by the networks. Communications in 1974 to be “sole creative captain of his ship,” his former business partner Jerry Perenchio told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. Lear’s business moves, meanwhile, were almost consistently fruitful. In the 1990s, the comedy “704 Hauser,” which returned to the Bunker house with a new family, and the political satire “The Powers that Be” were both short-lived. He also faced resistance from cast members, including “Good Times” stars John Amos and Esther Rolle, who often objected to the scripts as racially insensitive, and endured a mid-season walkout by Foxx, who missed eight episodes in 1973-74 because of a contract dispute. Pablo,” a rare Hispanic series, drew critical favor but couldn’t find an audience others, such as “All That Glitters” and “The Nancy Walker Show,” earned neither. Shows including “Hot L Baltimore,” “Palmerstown” and “a.k.a. Lear beat the tough TV odds to an astounding degree: At least one of his shows placed in prime-time’s top 10 for 11 consecutive years (1971-82). It was the centerpiece of the Bunkers’ rowhouse in Queens, and eventually went on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.Įven the show’s opening segment was innovative: Instead of an off-screen theme song, Archie and Edith are seated at the piano in their living room, belting out a nostalgic number, “Those Were the Days,” with Edith screeching off-key and Archie crooning such lines as “Didn’t need no welfare state” and “Girls were girls and men were men.”Ĭomedian Jerry Lewis, left, meets with Ed Simmons, center, writer Norman Lear, background right, and producer Ernie Glucksman for “The Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Show”, in New York on May 15, 1951. He called his son-in-law “Meathead” and his wife “Dingbat,” and would snap at anyone who dared occupy his faded orange-yellow wing chair. Some of his putdowns became catchphrases. 1 in the ratings and Archie Bunker was a pop culture fixture, with President Richard Nixon among his fans. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are.”īy the end of 1971, “All In the Family” was No. Jean Stapleton co-starred as Archie’s befuddled but good-hearted wife, Edith, and Sally Struthers played the Bunkers’ daughter, Gloria, who defended her husband in arguments with Archie.īut ABC passed on “All in the Family” twice and CBS ran a disclaimer when it finally aired the show: “The program you are about to see is ‘All in the Family.’ It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. Racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War were flashpoints as blue collar conservative Archie Bunker, played by O’Connor, clashed with liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Reiner). “All in the Family” was immersed in the headlines of the day, while also drawing upon Lear’s childhood memories of his tempestuous father. He created families that mirrored ours,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “More than anyone before him, Norman used situation comedy to shine a light on prejudice, intolerance, and inequality. Sending my love to Lyn and the whole Lear family,” Reiner wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Tributes poured in after his death: “I loved Norman Lear with all my heart. Lear “took television away from dopey wives and dumb fathers, from the pimps, hookers, hustlers, private eyes, junkies, cowboys and rustlers that constituted television chaos, and in their place he put the American people,” the late Paddy Chayefsky, a leading writer of television’s early “golden age,” once said.
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