98 | SEPTEMBER 22 • 2022 

100-YEAR-OLD SPECIAL, 
HERE’S JOHNNY! CELEB 
JEOPARDY, GANGSTER 
AUCTION

ABC will broadcast Norman 
Lear: 100 Years of Music 
and Laughter on Thursday, 
Sept. 22 (9-11 p.m.). Lear is 
a legendary comedy writer 
and comedy series creator/
producer. He hit the “centu-
ry mark” last July.
Lear, a WWII combat vet-
eran, has won six Emmys 
and many other awards. 
He’s best known for cre-
ating a long list of hit 
comedy series, including 
All in the Family, Sanford 
and Son, Good Times, The 
Jeffersons, Maude, Mary 
Hartman, Mary Hartman 
and One Day at a Time.
 He will appear on the 
special, which is hosted 
by Jimmy Kimmel, Jennifer 
Aniston, Octavia Spencer 
and Amy Poehler. (Replay 
on Friday on Hulu). 
Lear is also well-known 
for his political activism, 
which includes founding 
People for the American 
Way, an organization ded-
icated to the separation of 
state and religion. 
 It’s no surprise that an 
African American actress, 
Oscar-winner Octavia 
Spencer, is on hand to 

honor Lear. When Lear was 
honored at the Kennedy 
Center Honors in 2017, 
several African American 
celebs took the stage to 
say “nice things’ about 
Lear. They said what I 
thought — Lear broke the 
“TV color line” more than 
anyone else.
In the ’60s, there were 
just two shows that had a 
black star: the “lame” com-
edy Julia, starring Diahann 
Carroll, and I Spy, co-star-
ring Bill Cosby. All in the 
Family (began 1971) regular-
ly had Black guest actors. 
Three Black guest actors 
on All in the Family were 
“spun-off” into their own 
series, The Jeffersons.
 Lear followed this up 
with two other Black fam-
ily comedies — Sanford 
and Son and Good Times. 
These three TV series were 
a huge breakthrough that 
many Black people haven’t 
forgotten. 
Lear still has a production 
company, and I just read 
that the company will pro-
duce a new “greenlighted” 
comedy series for Amazon 
featuring a Black couple. 
By the way, Lear cast a 
lot of Jewish actors in star 
roles: Rob Reiner, 75 (All 
in the Family), Bill Macy 
and Bea Arthur (Maude), 
Louise Lasser, 83 (Mary 
Hartman) and Bonnie 
Franklin (One Day). 
Speaking of the ’60s — it 

has been announced that 
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 41, 
will play Johnny Carson 
in a bio-series called King 
of Late Night. Carson, of 
course, was the top late-
night talk show host from 
1962 until he retired in 
1992.
Jay Roach, 65 (Austin 
Powers movies) will direct 
and the script is by David 
Milch, 77 (Deadwood). 
Milch wrote the script five 
years ago and now, sadly, 
has Alzheimer’s.
Gordon-Levitt does look 
a lot like Carson. But his 
casting is a bit ironic in that 
no Jew has ever hosted 
a long-running late-night 
talk show on the four big 
broadcast networks. The 
most popular explanation 
is that only “white bread” 
hosts, like Carson, could 
appeal to the huge national 
audiences these shows 
used to get — and maybe 
there is something in that: 
Jerry Lewis (ABC) and 
Joan Rivers (Fox) flopped 
pretty quickly when they 
hosted.
In any event, to make up 
for this “injustice” — I think 
more Jews should play 
famous non-Jewish hosts. I 
was thinking that comedic 
actor Josh Peck, 35, has 
a prominent chin and he 
could easily play Jay Leno. 
Still elusive is a Jew who 
could play Dick Cavett, 
David Letterman or Jimmy 
Fallon. 
In the near future, there’s 
Celebrity Jeopardy. It 
will premiere on ABC on 
Sunday, Sept. 25 (8 p.m.). 
The (sole) host is Mayim 
Bialik, 46. The celeb con-
testants include actor/
writer BJ Novak, 43, and 
stand-up comedian Iliza 
Shlesinger, 39.
On Aug. 28, large col-
lections of items that once 

belonged to notorious 
gangsters went up for 
auction in Los Angeles. 
The items included doc-
uments, photos, furniture 
and personal stuff, like 
watches. For sale were 
items that once belonged 
to famous Jewish gang-
sters Mickey Cohen (a 
character in movies Bugsy 
and LA Confidential); Ben 
“Bugsy” Siegel (in Bugsy, 
The Godfather [called Moe 
Greene] and many other 
films); and Meyer Lansky 
(Bugsy, Godfather, Part II 
[called Hyman Roth] and 
many others). 
Cohen’s stuff was bor-
ing furniture. A lot of cool 
Siegel stuff, however. Lots 
of “desk stuff” with his ini-
tials engraved, interesting 
photos and even home 
movies. Lansky’s stuff was 
cool, like Siegel’s. But one 
item was a “super-dup-
er shocker” and it went 
for $28K! It was Lansky’s 
Medal of Freedom. 
No doubt, the Mafia 
and its associates, like 
Lansky, helped the Allies 
invade Sicily in 1943. It is 
“believed” that Lansky got 
the medal for his “Sicily 
help.” It’s also believed 
that President Truman 
gave Lansky the medal in 
a secret 1946 ceremony. 
But nothing is now veri-
fied, other than it was in 
Lansky’s effects when he 
died. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

U.S. STATE DEPT.

Norman Lear

STEVE JENNINGS/GETTY IMAGES FOR TECHCRUNCH

Joseph Gordon-Levitt 

MARK NEYMAN / GPO

Mayim Bialik

