What The World Needs Now Is..."Norman Lear: Just Another Version Of You."
Last night watched the joyous, poignant documentary called "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You" that just aired on PBS. It could not have come at a better time.
C99 family, I can't emphasize enough how much this may do for your beleaguered spirits. With the nightmarish current scenario of media, pundits, former Leftists, friends and family having gone mad from being bitten by the big Fear bug it's good and wise and uplifting to the spirit to be reminded of the stalwarts through the generations who have stood strong for liberal values and views, no matter how the political winds were blowing.
I was interested in learning more about the great and heralded creator of so many socially aware sit-coms that dominated my childhood and gave to us my favorite tv show, All In The Family (at one point in the 70's I think he had 7 of the top 10 shows on tv).
Yet this was much more than a biography of a socially conscious, subversive, satirical genius. It was an invigorating reminder that standing tall for social advocacy, with biting and brave but compassionate satirical power, can help defeat the dragons of Fear, political correctness and debilitating preconceptions. It was a reminder of how potent conviction about what's right can be, in the face of inert moderation, incrementalism and commercial constraints.
Quick overview, with some bits that jumped out:
The show was apparently viewed by its network as so completely controversial and potentially such a legal problem that it actually aired a disclaimer before the very first episode:
There was a great clip that contained a recorded conversation between Nixon and Erlichman discussing "All In The Family" (they referred to it as something like, "a show about a guy called Archie") as a communist menace that needed to be tackled because it props up Leftist and hippie views (need to look again on YouTube to see if there's an individual clip of this).
The guy's 92 years old and as vibrant as ever, still overflowing with the kind of forward-thinking, fundamentally human progressive notions and righteous indignation that says we're all one and feel the same things, "just another version of you," so to speak.
Mike Wallace: What's your beef against the networks?
N.L.: I spend hour upon hour arguing with censors about the tiniest things.
M.W: The network often takes the position that Norman Lear and the others in the creative
community, I mean, how can they do this? How can they bite the hand that feeds them?N.L.: I consider that the creative community are the hands that feed, and they're biting our
hands.
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Watch Full FilmPremiere date: October 25, 2016 | 1:24:03 | Video expires November 24, 2016
With unprecedented access to Lear, his work and his massive personal archives, American Masters — Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You combines stories from his turbulent childhood and early career with his groundbreaking TV success (All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Maude) and social activism. The documentary also features colorful stories from Lear’s family, friends and collaborators, including John Amos, George Clooney, Alan Horn, Bill Moyers, Rob Reiner, Phil Rosenthal and Russell Simmons, as well as cinéma vérité moments with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Jon Stewart, Amy Poehler and Lena Dunham.
Comments
It's On Deck. Right After Idiocracy, Which Has Become a Horror
film for me these days.
Amazing what 3 or 4 years can do...
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
I thought it was good too
caught it last night. Democracy now had an extended interview with him yesterday too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S-OlOoEEZc (20 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSwbnoCo8UQ (12 min)
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks for the links Lookout.
Been meaning to watch those after hearing about it.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
evening mark...
i saw most of it last night and thought it was quite good. it was a solid lesson in how creative culture can move social attitudes and create the consciousness changes that precede political changes.
hey Joe. We liked it so much we wished it was longer.
Really drove home the point of how powerful good satire is.
As George Bernard Shaw said, "Mark Twain and I are in very much the same position. We have to put things in such a way as to make people who would otherwise hang us, believe that we are joking."
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Norman Lear, truly a National Treasure of the highest order
I have fond memories of watching "All in the Family" with my dad. He would not stop laughing, sometimes until he cried. Mostly at Archie's buffoonery. My dad was not a racist man. nor was he misogynistic by any stretch, but still a man of his times; meaning that he believed in the patriarchal family model which, being the 70's, caused him more than a few introspective struggles. It occurs to me that watching Archie's character helped him to deal with that, albeit unwittingly. Gloria's stance demonstrating feminist leanings without being militant for the most part was also helpful.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Definitely a national treasure, sojourns.
Thanks for sharing your memories.
All those shows together defined tv pop culture for me throughout the 70's, which was the last time I actually watched sitcoms, as a grade/middle school boy. As kids my brother and sister and I also loved Good Times, and would imitate JJ around the house.
But most especially for me it was All In The Family. Cut to the bone sometimes as a kid growing up on Long Island, with grandparents who lived in city like the Bunkers, who also had those accents (though not quite as heavy), the doting grandmother we had, the racism but much less pronounced, the consequential arguments and debates that were fascinating and a bit intimidating for a young boy not used to hearing such conversation. Great moral struggles alongside barrels full of laughs. All In The Family was so real, honest and naked.
To this day Carol O'Connor's facial expressions to me are a work of art.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Excellent Tribute Last Night to Norman Lear
I watched the show last night and I knew he had created all those socially-significant television sitcoms, but even so, it was quite impressive that he had multiple shows ranked in the Top Ten in the same year.
This is from an article in 2014. The below photograph shows Lear in Rome during World War II.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
I heard his interview
on Democracy Now! and wished I had my teevee for this one.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11