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Lear leaves behind a legacy of trailblazing shows that redefined the subject matter traditional sitcoms could cover. Norman Lear, the prolific and groundbreaking TV producer whose portfolio of comedies focused on social issues and advanced the idea that sitcoms could help drive the conversation about relevant and taboo subjects, has died. He was 101. Lear died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by family members, his family said. His death was attributed to natural causes. "Norman lived a life of curiosity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding...

Legendary television writer and producer Norman Lear behind series like 'All in the Family' has died at the age of 101. Variety reported that Lear died at his home in Los Angeles of natural causes on Tuesday, with a private service for close family to be held in the coming days. In a statement, his family said: 'Thank you for the moving outpouring of love and support in honor of our wonderful husband, father, and grandfather. 'Norman lived a life of creativity, tenacity, and empathy. He deeply loved our country and spent a lifetime helping to preserve its founding ideals...

Well, I made it. I am 100 years old today. I wake up every morning grateful to be alive. Reaching my own personal centennial is cause for a bit of reflection on my first century — and on what the next century will bring for the people and country I love. To be honest, I’m a bit worried that I may be in better shape than our democracy is. I was deeply troubled by the attack on Congress on Jan. 6, 2021 — by supporters of former President Donald Trump attempting to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Those concerns...

There was a time when racism could be funny. On Jan. 12, 1971, a skittish CBS television network premiered an unusual television show as a mid-season replacement in its primetime lineup. The sitcom, modeled on a successful British version, starred veteran actor Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker, a bigoted dockworker living in Astoria with his dimwitted wife, feminist daughter and liberal son-in-law. “The program you are about to see called ‘All in the Family,’ ” read a text advisory before the show (it would now be termed a trigger warning). “It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on frailties, prejudices,...

VIDEO Norman Lear was so enthusiastic about Andrew Gillum that he came to Florida to support him just before the 2018 election. He even gushed that possibly becoming governor was just the start for Gillum and that he could go "all the way!"

Screenwriter Ray Galton, who co-wrote the landmark British comedy series “Hancock’s Half Hour” and “Steptoe and Son,” has died at 88. Galton’s family said Saturday that he died Friday evening after a “long and heart-breaking battle with dementia.” […] Galton and (Alan) Simpson wrote “Hancock’s Half Hour” for popular post-war comedian Tony Hancock. Their biggest hit was “Steptoe and Son,” a sitcom about father-and-son junk dealers, which ran between 1962 and 1974. Producer Norman Lear adapted it into the U.S. sitcom “Sanford and Son.” …

Norman Lear continues to defy convention about career longevity and age. The TV icon, who today celebrates his 96th birthday, and his Act III production company have signed a two-year first look deal with Sony Pictures TV. The pact includes the option to re-imagine titles from Lear’s extensive library including All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Maude and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, among others. “I couldn’t be prouder and more excited about joining Sony Pictures Television, who has the guts to go with a kid,” Lear quipped. Sony Pictures TV, which owns the Norman Lear library, has been...

•President Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth, Vt., on July 4, 1872. He is the only president born on July 4; however, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe all died on the Fourth of July. •One lucky Philadelphian purchased a $4 picture at a flea market. Behind the picture was an original 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence. It was sold to TV producer Norman Lear for $8.1 million. •After the war, King George III rationalized that Washington would become a dictator and make the Americans yearn for royal rule. When he was told that Washington planned to...

Even as Democrats publicly and loudly decry corporatist political “dark money,” billionaire Democrats and other donors funnel hundreds of millions to radical and violent causes.   Barely a week had passed after Donald Trump’s historic upset in the November 8 presidential election, but some of the world’s richest individuals were already launching a counteroffensive. George Soros and his fellow deep-pocket funders of the Democratic Party and left-wing causes gathered with a lineup of party activists and luminaries from Hollywood, K Street, and Wall Street for a three-day “investment conference” (November 15-17) at the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C....

Lionel Richie said on Tuesday’s “Today” show that he is unsure he will attend Donald Trump’s reception for the Kennedy Center Honors.... ...Hoda Kotb asked Richie about his own plans during a live interview on “Today.” He responded, “I’m going to just play it by ear. I must tell you, I’m not really happy as to what’s going on right now with the controversies. They’re weekly, daily, hourly. But I think I’m just gonna wait it out for a minute, see where it’s going to be by that time.” “This is going to be in December,” Richie stressed. “We may...

Bud Yorkin, director of influential 1970s TV shows including “All In The Family,” “Maude,” “The Jeffersons,” “Sanford and Sons” and “Diff’rent Strokes,” died Aug. 18 of natural causes at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 89. Yorkin played a pivotal role in developing some of the most popular series of the 1970s in partnership with Norman Lear at Tandem Productions. He was nominated for three Emmys and worked on TV series that won 25 Emmys and 10 Golden Globes. His feature film directing credits included “Love Hurts,” “Twice In A Lifetime,” “Arthur 2: On...

Legendary TV producer Norman Lear stopped by the Televisison Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills to promote an upcoming PBS documentary covering his carreer that’s set to debut next year. But what seemed to most impress reporters was the 93-year-old’s opinionated tangents, covering politics, TV, America and mindfullness. Below are seven highlights from a press conference with the creator of hits like All in the Family, The Jeffersons and One Day at a Time: — On politics: “Everybody knows me to be a progressive or a liberal or lefty or whatever. I think of myself as a bleeding heart...

Some members of a Hollywood organization are questioning whether to honor Ted Cruz. The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors this year chose the conservative Senator from Texas as one of its recipients of its annual "American Spirit Award." Another is to go to liberal Calif. governor Jerry Brown. The Caucus, founded three decades ago by Norman Lear, Aaron Spelling and others, has set a meeting Monday to determine whether to stick with its plan to give a Spirit award to Cruz after some of its more liberal members objected to the selection, and some threatened to quit if the...

[Norman Lear wryly titled his memoir Even This I Get to Experience (out Oct. 14, Penguin) as a wink to his belief that even the bad times in his life were worthwhile because they made the living interesting. And over the course of 92 years, Lear has led as interesting a life as anyone in Hollywood. Born in 1922 in Connecticut, Lear lived with relatives for a time while his father spent three years in jail from 1931 to 1934 for a dodgy get-rich-quick scheme...] [All in the Family: Season 2 Carroll O'Connor's insecurities and fears drove him to great...

People for the American Way’s Leftist Diatribe Against a Brazilian Conservative By Julio Severo The American Way should be to expose and destroy tyrannies, especially socialism. But do not tell that to the People for the American Way (PFAW), which, according to WorldNetDaily, is “an atheist socialist organization which, through publications like its ‘Right Wing Watch,’ dedicates itself to the destruction of conservatives in general.” Former leftist U.S. Presidente Bill Clinton in People for the American Way The latest attack from “Right Wing Watch” was against me, Julio Severo, in a piece entitled “BarbWire Pundit Defends Brazil’s Past Violent...

CONCORD, NC, May 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The home improvement television network HGTV has canceled a proposed reality show after a left-wing website printed an “exposé” of the evangelical stars' pro-life, pro-family activism. Flip It Forward, scheduled to debut on Home and Garden Television this October, would feature brothers David and Jason Benham helping down-on-their-luck families purchase a dream home they thought they could never afford. “In each episode, the guys help a deserving family find a fixer-upper and transform it into their forever home - with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry between the brothers along the way,” HGTV...

Media Matters employees are furious that their bosses are trying to keep them from unionizing. A union-organizing committee at the liberal group released a statement Monday slamming their employers for “the unexpected and unexplained path our leadership has taken in response to our efforts to unionize,” adding that “the actions of Media Matters executives have placed employees in the impossible position of continuing to produce content espousing pro-labor values for an employer who is challenging our right to unionize.”

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Hollywood’s Obamacare ZombiesPosted By Matthew Vadum On October 15, 2013 @ 12:54 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 6 Comments If you’re sick and tired of TV news broadcasts spewing pro-Obamacare propaganda, get ready to be inundated with even more progressive health care proselytizing in the dramas and comedies that follow those news shows.For this you have the left-wing California Endowment to thank. The radical philanthropy is in the news because it is funding Obamacare public outreach efforts.As Newsmax reports, the Obama administration is “turning its focus on prime time television series, using the influential...

Jean Stapleton, a born-and-bred New Yorker immortalized in pop culture as the iconic Edith Bunker, died Friday in her Manhattan home at the age of 90. snipToday’s Queens is arguably America’s most diverse county. snipBut what of “All in the Family” creator Norman Lear? Well, according to the ZIP code listed on his political contributions, Lear lives in the Brentwood hills of Los Angeles — ZIP code 90049, to be exact. That neighborhood’s population? It’s 84 percent white, 1.4 percent black, 8.7 percent Asian, with the remainder “other” and multiracial. That almost looks like Archie Bunker’s dream spot.

Norman Lear Attacks Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove and GOP Presidential Candidates By Noel Sheppard Created 12/13/2011 - 6:51pm Television's Norman Lear, in a speech celebrating the 30th anniversary of his far-left organization People for the American Way, called James Dobson, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Karl Rove hate-mongers. In his December 5 address published at the Huffington Post Tuesday, he also accused the Republican candidates for president of having a "holier-than-thou sanctity" (video follows with transcript and commentary): NORMAN LEAR: I want to suggest we lefties start laying claim to what we see as "sacred" -- and serve...