Goodbye to Norman Lear.

"Norman Lear, Whose Comedies Changed the Face of TV, Is Dead at 101/As the producer of 'All in the Family' and many other shows, Mr. Lear showed that it was possible to be topical, funny and immensely popular" (NYT).

 
“You looked around television in those years,” Mr. Lear said in a 2012 New York Times interview, referring to the middle and late 1960s, “and the biggest problem any family faced was ‘Mother dented the car, and how do you keep Dad from finding out’; ‘the boss is coming to dinner, and the roast’s ruined.’ The message that was sending out was that we didn’t have any problems.”

ADDED: I've written about Norman Lear on this blog a few times:

July 27, 2022: I blogged Norman Lear's NYT piece — "On My 100th Birthday, Reflections on Archie Bunker and Donald Trump" — and said: "Lear says Archie, if he were around today, would probably watch Fox News and vote for Trump. Probably?! He also imagines that Archie would have disapproved of the January 6th incursion on the Capitol. But why? Seems to me he'd approve, but Lear doesn't want him to, so okay. "

"[T]elevision — the medium for which I am most well-known — did not even exist when I was born, in 1922."

"The internet came along decades later, and then social media. We have seen that each of these technologies can be put to destructive use — spreading lies, sowing hatred and creating the conditions for authoritarianism to take root. But that is not the whole story. Innovative technologies create new ways for us to express ourselves, and, I hope, will allow humanity to learn more about itself and better understand one another’s ideas, failures and achievements. These technologies have also been used to create connection, community and platforms for the kind of ideological sparring that might have drawn Archie [Bunker] to a keyboard.... Reaching this birthday with my health and wits mostly intact is a privilege.... Let us encourage one another with visions of a shared future. And let us bring all the grit and openheartedness and creative spirit we can muster to gather together and build that future."

Writes Norman Lear, on his 100th birthday, in "On My 100th Birthday, Reflections on Archie Bunker and Donald Trump" (NYT)

Progress: "ABC censored out a number of racially charged words that had been used in the original episodes."

I'm reading "What you missed on ABC's live version of 'All in the Family' and 'The Jeffersons.'"

The headline is right. I missed it. I was interested enough to have blogged about it when I read about it a while back, but I didn't notice it was on, so I missed it. Like old-time TV! You have to keep track of when it's on. Now, I could have DVR'd it if I'd noticed it was about to be on, but it wasn't promoted enough for me to see that, even though I'm on line every day, reading many MSM news sites (as well as Facebook and Twitter). I'd have checked it out, and I am checking out articles about it, including the above-linked report on "What [I] missed." #1, I missed the censorship.

In the "All in the Family" episode, which aired first, the Bunkers played host to the Jefferson family after Edith (Marisa Tomei) accidentally volunteered to have her home be the site of a going away party. Archie (Woody Harrelson) is annoyed by the idea of having a black family in his home. What unraveled was a discussion about race and privilege, with Archie on the defensive as his son-in-law and daughter (Ike Barinholtz and Ellie Kemper) tried, as always, to educate him on the new world order. The script was performed exactly as it had been written for a 1973 episode called "Henry's Farewell."

... except that Jamie Foxx (as George) screwed up his lines and broke character to say "It's live." Mm. Yeah. It was live, but it wasn't "Saturday Night Live." You had time to practice your lines, and you're inviting us to watch a prime-time live-TV event. Maybe that's why the show wasn't promoted enough for me to notice in time to tune in.

Look at how Entertainment Weekly fawningly covers Foxx: "Jamie Foxx Hilariously Flubs Line in Live 'All in the Family' Remake and Recovers Like a Champ." I'm sure the actors who didn't screw up appreciate that this is what's getting the coverage:

We said anything could happen! #LiveInFrontOfAStudioAudience #TheJeffersons #AllintheFamily pic.twitter.com/d8lNCjUzD3

— ABC (@ABCNetwork) May 23, 2019

"My God... he’s black," said Norman Lear, introducing Andrew Gillum, and his joke "killed"...

... according to the NYT, in "Jimmy Buffett and ‘MAGA’ Hats: Scenes From the U.S. Just Before a Tight Election" (an article that has a correction note about misspelling Buffett's name in the original headline.)

Andrew Gillum is the Democratic Party nominee for governor in Florida. Norman Lear is the ancient TV producer and political activist. Lear is 96 years old, so maybe he has the privilege to use the sort of humor that Americans less obviously close to the end no longer risk.

Sally Quinn — who says "Dancing is my religion" — denounces Bristol Palin's success on "Dancing with the Stars" as "unholy."

And this strangely sanctimonious journalist — she's writing in the always awful "On Faith" section of The Washington Post — condemns Palin voters for "cheating" 7 paragraphs after she confesses to doing something that is at least as much cheating as what the Palin fans are said to be doing.

My husband and I are "DWTS" fanatics.  We plan our social life around it, often regretting invitations that fall on the night of the show....

Ridiculous!

Not only that, but I vote.  Under the show's rules, you're allowed to vote five times on one line. I have six lines at home and my cell, so I vote as many times as I can for my favorite. 

So this lady, this longtime Washington powerbroker, has 6 phone lines, and she maxes each line out, each week, voting 30 times. But that's the show's rules. They can't tell how many individuals vote are voting. They can only see phone numbers. So if your family of 5 watches the show and you — you economic losers — only have one phone, you can make 5 calls. Sally Quinn happens to have 6 phone lines, so she gets 30 votes — under the rules.

This season, I'm voting for Jennifer Grey all the way. She is by far the best dancer on the show.

She's voting correctly. For the best dancer. You stupid people are voting for Bristol Palin. Lord knows why.

.... Brandy - a fabulous dancer -- was eliminated last week. She was definitely my runner up. (Jennifer has to win. She's head and shoulders above everyone else.) We were having a dinner party and I made my guests leave the table to watch the final half of DWTS. Norman Lear was with us. Norman is not a DWTS follower but got caught up in the moment too. As the music started and I waited breathlessly to see Bristol be told she was out. I was squeezing Norman's hand when Brandy, not Bristol, was sent home. I couldn't believe it. Neither could the judges and studio audience. Derek  and Jennifer's mouths dropped open. Boos could be heard.

Oh, the social life I'm missing! Norman Lear! Ah! And I'm stranded out here in the heartland where I can only imagine the sparkling, witty conversation. Perhaps: "The American voters are pretty damned stupid"... that sort of thing.

It seemed Bristol and her partner were just as surprised. Brandy cried. I have to confess I teared up. It just didn't seem right.

Bloggers, columnists and TV commentators jumped on the results.  There must be cheating going on, they said.  It was all a tea party plot. That could be the only explanation for this appalling miscarriage of justice.

Sarah Palin's detractors point to the Christian right as the culprits here. The say groups organized voting schemes to game the system and were telling each other how to cheat when voting at ABC.com.

Commenters on the conservative blog Hillbuzz.org said they had figured out how to enter more votes than the rules allow by creating fake e-mail addresses. One person posting on Hillbuzz said "Lord have mercy, I voted for three hours online! I got 300 in."

What is a "fake e-mail address"? The rules say you are allowed 5 votes from each email address, just as you are allowed 5 votes from each phone number. Some people have multiple phone numbers and some have multiple email addresses. What's the difference? All I can think of is that you have to spend money to have multiple phone numbers, and you can get multiple email accounts free. It feels so right for rich folk to get more. I love when liberals slip up like that.

I never remember all Ten Commandments off the top of my head, but there should be one that says, "Thou shalt not cheat while voting on 'Dancing with the Stars.'" Polls have shown that the majority of tea party members are conservative Christians. Are these Christians who are voting 300 times and not using valid email addresses? Doesn't it offend their sense of fairness, if not ethics and morals?

Well, that whole paragraph offends my sense of reason. You're just assuming that the votes are coming from Christians, imagining that these Christians pontificate about morality, and accuse them of cheating when they seem to be following the same rules that let you vote on 6 phone lines? You're blind to your own hypocrisy, even as you have a platform in the Washington Post where you can preen and try to look like you have something especially important to say about religion.

Lear on how Democrats can feel good again.

Let's see how The Huffington Post is huffing along this morning. I see Norman Lear has posted:

I have had it with elected officials depending on polls and focus groups and fingers in the wind to instruct them as to what direction they should take us. We sent them "to the hill" from which, presumably, they are the ones with the 360 degree view. In their emotionally crowded lives, average working class voters should be able to rely on those they send to the hill to get the complete picture, and then have the courage to lead. To lead, not return to them for instructions.

I cringe for that great body of voters every time I hear them disparaged --"Can't they see they're voting against their own self-interest?"-- by us Democrats, liberals, progressives, whatever we are calling ourselves at the moment. We owe them empathy, understanding, leadership.

Translation: Stop hand-wringing about why the great mass of people can't understand things and just tell them how it's going to be. Then, instead of that nasty feeling you have now -- caused by thinking the American people are stupid -- you can start feeling good -- thinking what a fine, empathetic person you are for respecting the way ordinary people devote themselves to family and work and not to politics.

And I will give Lear credit: That was nicely written, in an appropriately readable, bloggy style.