Norman Milton Lear rose to fame in the 1970s due to his freakish predilection for writing and producing TV shows that Americans couldn’t get enough of. “The Jeffersons,” “Maude,” “Good Times,” and “Sanford and Son” all came to be because of Lear. His first foray into the medium, “All in the Family,” appeared in 1971. It was the top-rated show from that year until 1976 and remained on the air until 1979.
Lear, who went from his success with “All in the Family” to pioneering sitcoms featuring black families, died on Dec. 5. Given the silliness of the current age, obituaries celebrating his legacy are obliged to find grievances with certain aspects of his work. One noted that “he leaves behind a legacy that is problematic, groundbreaking, and memorable.” Another mentioned his “complicated” legacy. Yet another reminded readers that he “erased” his “Good Times” co-creator.
What meatheads. Of course, he was problematic and has a complicated legacy! While Lear was always a liberal, and always one in good standing, a folly of modern liberals is to constantly evaluate the past through the modern lens. And through such a lens, the past is always found wanting, at least to those with too much free time and immovable chips on their shoulders.
Not that any of this would likely be shocking to Lear himself. When “All in the Family” took off, he was shocked at the audience’s reception to the patriarch of the family, Archie Bunker. Archie was written as the
