Rarely has a luminary
from television history been so honored on the occasion of his death like Norman Lear.
Lear died Tuesday at age 101. He is being rightfully remembered as, quite possibly, the most influential
producer of prime-time shows in the history of television.
On Wednesday night, all five broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW -- simultaneously aired an in-memoriam card
(pictured above) honoring Lear at 8 p.m. Eastern at the onset of prime time, a territory he ruled for the better part of the 1970s.
The honors and remembrances continue Friday night with a
one-hour special on CBS, the network that partnered with Lear to make TV history. “Norman Lear: A Life On Television” airs from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern.
Norman Lear began his
conquest of 1970s television with “All in the Family” in January 1971. The show emerged as America's top-rated prime-time show in its first full season, 1971-72, and remained No. 1 for
four seasons more.
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The Norman Lear TV shows on CBS reached a crescendo of sorts in the 1974-75 season when four of them were in the top 10 when the season ended: “All in the
Family” (No. 1), “The Jeffersons” (No. 4), “Good Times” (No. 7) and “Maude” (No. 9).
All four shows were constructed around characters representing
four different social scenarios.
“All in the Family” was about a working-class white man railing against the changes happening all around him in his neighborhood, his city -- New
York -- and the world.
“The Jeffersons” was about a black man (one-time next-door neighbor of Archie Bunker) who became a successful businessman prosperous enough to “move on
up” to a well-to-do white neighborhood in Manhattan.
By contrast, “Good Times” was about the struggles of a low-income African-American family experiencing hardships and
“good times” in a Chicago housing project.
“Maude” was about a vocal, opinionated, married woman living in an upper middle-class community within commuting distance of
Manhattan.
They were all breakthroughs in their way, but “All in the Family” was the father of them all. All these years later, it remains a wonder that the show was picked up in
the first place.
Decisions to pick up, pay for, and air shows in the network television era were certainly, if not solely, dependent on their potential for profits from commercials.
CBS execs no doubt felt the hair on their arms stand up when they took the first meetings with Lear and he described what would come out of the mouth of Archie Bunker.
But somehow they must
have still felt sponsors would go for it sufficiently to make money on it. I suppose they asked some of them and came away thinking they could get away with it.
Networks back then tended to
proceed with extreme caution on these kinds of things. The aim of their business was to entertain people, not tick them off.
And yet, “All in the Family” made it onto prime-time
television in America in 1971 and became arguably the most infamous and sensational TV show that ever aired.
Tens of millions watched it, and came back every week to do it again. They took
sides -- basically, Archie vs. Meathead.
The battle lines were already drawn anyway, to paraphrase an old song from 1966. The strife of the 1960s was also old by 1971, which may have been one
of the reasons CBS felt it was safe then to experiment with this new kind of situation comedy.
Television shows, particularly back then, rarely if ever ran ahead of cultural and social trends.
At best, TV attempted to keep pace with them or, in many cases, stay at least a few steps behind them until it felt safe to embrace them.
Perhaps Norman Lear's greatest gift was that he may
have been the only one who believed -- in fact, knew -- that the TV times they were a-changin’, and he became handsomely compensated for his prescience.
As noted here several times
previously, the 1960s were TV's silliest decade. They began with a talking horse and ended with a flying nun.
The Lear shows are justifiably remembered and revered
today for their bravery, but also, let it be said, for their earning power. The former would not have been possible without the latter.
But the lifespan of
the Lear era in television was relatively short-lived. By the end of the 1970s, TV went in other directions.
You might say the 1970s in television were
bracketed by “All in the Family” in 1971 and “B.J. and the Bear” in 1979. At least “Bear” the chimp didn’t talk like Mr. Ed.