Norman Lear: The Man Who Made Sitcoms Think

Another day, another loss. On December 5, news broke of Norman Lear’s passing. If you’re too young to understand the significance of his death, Norman Lear was the predominant satirical voice of the 1970s. On any given day of the week, you could find one of any number of his shows topping Neilson charts. And they STILL air in reruns today, over 50 years after they first hit the airwaves.

Norman Lear was the king of the sitcom, the sultan of the spin-off, and the wizard of wit. Beginning with All in the Family (his Americanized version of the British series Till Death Do Us Part), Lear’s empire seemingly multiplied with each passing year. All in the Family gave us Maude (which subsequently the show Good Times spun out of), The Jeffersons (which received its own spin-off, Checking In), Archie Bunker’s Place (another continuation starring Carroll O’Connor), Gloria, and 704 Hauser.

Though he already had quite a full plate, Lear helped his producing partner Bud Yorkin spearhead the remake of another British series, Steptoe and Son. This became the classic Redd Foxx series Sanford and Son. And wouldn’t ya know it, they managed to mine another three spin-offs from the show!

If that wasn’t enough, he concurrently had another universe of shows that took place in the fictitious town of Fernwood. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was the first of these, a parody of daily soap operas. In the short span of 18 months, he managed to produce 325 episodes of the series. After Mary Hartman ended, he turned his eye to parody late night talk shows on Fernwood 2-Night. Showcasing the bizarre oddities (and its second season retooling named America 2-Night).

And then there was One Day at a Time. A show about a divorced single mother raising her two teenage daughters. While it originally aired from 1975-1984, Mr. Lear remade the series for Netflix in 2017. Yep, here he was in his 90’s, still vying for laughs.

He remains an inspiration to comedy writers around the world. Without his voice, the laugh of the world gets a bit quieter.