Norman Lear, One Of The Greatest TV Producers Of All Time, Is Dead At 101

News

Norman Lear, the pioneering television producer, screenwriter, and activist who shaped the face of sitcoms as we know them, has died. The six-time Emmy winner who was the creative force behind shows like "All in the Family," "Maude," and "The Jeffersons" was 101 years old. He died of natural causes. Lear's official Instagram account posted the following message:

It is with profound sadness and love that we announce the passing of Norman Lear, our beloved husband, father, and grandfather. Norman passed away peacefully on December 5, 2023, surrounded by his family as we told stories and sang songs until the very end.Norman lived a life in awe of the world around him. He marveled at his cup of coffee every morning, the shape of the tree outside his window, and the sounds of beautiful music. But it was people—those he just met and those he knew for decades—who kept his mind and heart forever young. As we celebrate his legacy and reflect on the next chapter of life without him, we would like to thank everyone for all the love and support.

Born 17 years before NBC's first television broadcast would wow audiences at the 1939 World's Fair, the Army veteran-turned-comedy writer came of age during a time when the brand-new medium was ripe for the taking. Across a career that spanned well over half a century, Lear took television and molded it into something touching, funny, and politically vital. 

He began his career in Hollywood writing for variety shows, and even tried his hand at film directing with the Dick Van Dyke-led "Cold Turkey," but his most enduring work came in 1971. That's when he introduced the world to the racist Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and his more progressive family, both pioneering and immediately nearly perfecting the sitcom moral story with "All in the Family."

Lear's taboo-shattering sitcoms changed television forever

"All in the Family" started a cultural debate that still rages today, about how — if at all — prejudice can be best fought on screen. While Archie Bunker's presence on primetime quickly became a Rorschach test for the American people (and was so pervasive, it even came up on the Watergate tapes), Lear was already brainstorming other projects that would speak to TV viewers everywhere. Not content to revolutionize the medium just once, he soon launched one of the earliest sitcoms starring a Black family, "Sanford & Son." Over the years, Lear would go on to create or develop several other groundbreaking series that centered on characters of color, including "The Jeffersons," "Good Times," and the Netflix reboot of his '70s series "One Day at a Time."

Lear also co-created "Maude" with his then-producing partner Bud Yorkin, and shattered several more television taboos across the Bea Arthur-led sitcom's six seasons. An ideological opposite to Archie Bunker, Arthur's Maude Findlay was a fiery feminist, outspoken liberal, and champion of civil rights. In a famous 1972 episode titled "Maude's Dilemma," married, middle-aged Maude decided to get an abortion after an unexpected pregnancy. The episode aired before the passing of Roe v. Wade, was the first TV series to openly discuss abortion, and was more candid about the topic than many shows are even today.

He was also an outspoken activist

While his progressive work in the sitcom sphere has been hailed as groundbreaking, Lear made it clear that he always considered it a no-brainer to do the right thing in his writing. In a 2017 interview for Cosmopolitan, Lear called TV's unwillingness to engage with abortion even now "pathetic." Noting that the establishment hopes to make money off of "underestimating the intelligence of the American people," Lear put his philosophy towards TV writing and on-screen activism succinctly: "There's a sense that people are stupid, and we have to protect them. They're not! And we don't!"

Across his storied career, Lear never tried to protect his audiences, but instead spoke to us intelligently, with comedy that was always shot with sincere emotion, and via cultural conversations that dug into the flawed heart of America. The prolific writer-producer had a hand in making over 100 TV shows, but his knack for changing the world went beyond writing and producing. Lear was also an outspoken activist who, as part of a group of wealthy Los Angeles liberals who were dubbed the "Malibu Mafia," had a direct hand in some of the 20th century's most important political moments.

In the early '70s, Lear and the Malibu Mafia helped set up a defense fund for Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who faced charges for his involvement in the release of the damning government documents known as the Pentagon Papers. In the '80s, Lear founded People For The American Way, a progressive advocacy group that helped stop Ronald Reagan's controversial 1987 Supreme Court nomination. The group continued taking a stand for what's right for decades, as did Lear: when the celebrated artist was announced as a Kennedy Center honoree in 2017, he even refused to visit the White House under President Trump.

His work brought the world immeasurable humanity

Throughout his storied career, Lear remained as optimistic as he was outspoken. "I emphasize the common humanity," Lear told USA Today in 2017 when speaking about "One Day At A Time," but it's an edict that can easily apply to all of his works, and to the hundreds of shows that have pulled inspiration from them in the decades since. He added, "To laugh at them and live with them for a half-hour is to share in their humanity."

There's no way to measure the amount of humanity that Lear has shared with audiences throughout his truly incredible career. He's changed countless hearts across countless episodes of television, and left an enduring mark on not just his chosen medium, but on the nation and the world, too. We may not be able to measure the depth and breadth of his impact, but we can at least put a number to his impressive life: thank you, Norman Lear, for over a century's worth of laughter and emotion. May his memory be a blessing.