By ScheerPost Staff / Original to ScheerPost
“Truly brilliant in its honesty as one would expect from the man who transformed television from a myopic center of banality into a medium of accountability. All of the major controversies that confront us today from war and peace on through race relations, gay rights, gender equality, freedom of and from religion, economic inequality, the right and obligation to challenge power and the powerful and the reality that the American idea would always be a work in progress was brought into the American home by this genius,” ScheerPost’s own Bob Scheer wrote, when he was offered to be the first to review Norman Lear’s book Even This I Get to Experience on Amazon.
Listen to part one Bob’s interview with Norman Lear on Scheer Intelligence here.
Lear’s career speaks for itself when looking at its importance in American history. A six time Emmy winner, a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and Kennedy Center Honors only paints a fraction of the picture of Lear’s impact.
Throughout his catalog of brilliant shows, Lear pioneered the interest and importance of discussing crucial topics in today’s world. “Sanford and Son” paved the way for Black family shows in a television environment saturated with white characters. “All in the Family” brought working class and other pertinent issues that were deemed “unsuitable” for television at the time to the forefront of the silver screen. Racism, antisemitism, infidelity, homosexuality, women’s liberation, rape, religion, miscarriages, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence—common topics in today’s day—were controversial and groundbreaking to discuss and intertwine in a sitcom.
His founding of the People for the American Way, a non-profit that sought to challenge the Moral Majority, a Christian right organization built to serve as a political force, brought education and research to progressive causes. Declare Yourself, a nonpartisan, non profit campaign that aimed to register and encourage young voters, has registered 4 million people since its inception in 2004 at the behest of Lear.
Lear’s official Instagram page posted a regular “Breakfast Thoughts” video with an irregular twist: reflecting on 100 years of life. Watch below:
ScheerPost appreciates and commemorates Norman Lear’s life and wishes him and his family the best on this special day.
Listen to part two Bob’s interview with Norman Lear on Scheer Intelligence here.
half way through, aye Norm????
what progressive on earth doesn’t celebrate lovely Norm Lear’s 100th??? wish, however, he would have reminded Dem n Indi voters how important this mid-term election is. no tellin’ what happens if Repub. obstructionists get more power in D.C in the 118th US Congress.
“those that vote abdicate their power”. ‘Elections: A Trap for Fools’. JP Sartre
celebration of LGBT—Camille Paglia compares USA to 5th century Rome
Sartre perceived 3 evils: cowardice homosexuality, infanticide
why is a college drop-out trickster that has amassed 200 million$ celebrated—society of the spectacle…money worship—-Adorno described all of Hollywood, organized sound in USA as a “consciousness industry” that reflected ruling class interests and values
Norman Lear pioneered sitcom pleasure found in ordinary American life, not Rockwell ‘whiteness’ fantasies. ‘Giligan’ comments are illiterate and stupefyingly dull, but typical of CONservatives.
is Ricky triggered?
“the american liberal /progressive wants to preserve the essence of the past, the american conservative wants more and more progress. the European radical wants to hasten the transformation of the future, the European conservative wants to preserve the essence of the past ” Geoffrey Gorer
quite obvious for a Marxist–I suspect Ricky has never lived in a civilized nation
“sitcom pleasure”. astonishing Ricky
“americans cannot feel pure pleasure”. Zizek
“americans are not at all happy–they feel themselves lacking. all the sensitiveness has dried up in americans. the crystallization of love is impossible in United States. I do not envy their kind of happiness; it is the happiness of a different and inferior species”. Stendhal
I have admired Norman Lear for years. Happy Birthday!