Normal Lear on PBS

Tonight on PBS's American Masters you can learn more about a great comedy writer in Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.  I have listened in on many interviews of Mr. Lear over the years, but it will be nice to watch this documentary sum it up and share more stories from his friends.  Here is a summary of what to expect from PBS:

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.

Breaking down the fourth wall to create an evocative collage where past and present intermingle, Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp, 12th & Delaware, DETROPIA for Independent Lens) reveal a psychologically rich man whose extraordinary contributions emerge from both his personal story and his own self-professed childlike view of the world. Just Another Version of You traces how a poor Jewish kid from Connecticut started writing for The Colgate Comedy Hour with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, created All in the Family and became one of TV’s most successful showrunners. All character-driven, with theatrical sets and live audiences, Lear’s TV series changed not only the face of national television but the content of national discourse. Bringing provocative subjects like war, poverty and prejudice to 120 million viewers every week, Lear proved that social change was possible through an unlikely prism – laughter – and created some of the greatest moments in television history.

All in the Family and his other shows remain as a time capsule covering past events, and it is needed just as much today, though I am not sure the show could be made today in our politically correct environment.  That said, it is possible we are still discussing these issues in a new way.  

Whether you are watching Black-ish, Just Off the Boat, or The Real O'Neils, the sitcom stories today tend to be told by the groups feeling the outsider pressure rather than the outsiders stating their obnoxious views (except for The Simpsons, of course).  Maybe that integrates the audience into the world of the "other" and is a more effective way to change views.  Maybe.  But I still look back on Norman Lear as a master of the craft who changed television and, more importantly, changed America by holding a mirror up to us and making us cringe.  Homer Simpson cannot replace Archie Bunker in this regard.