62 | DECEMBER 21 • 2023 J
N

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at thejewishnews.com

TV Groundbreaker
N

orman Lear, pioneering tele-
vision producer of comedies, 
died at 101. He was active, 
still working, until his last days. Lear 
had a remarkable career, creating such 
groundbreaking sitcoms as All in the 
Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, 
Maud and Sanford and Son, to name 
just a few. Along the way, he brought 
independent, feminist 
women, successful 
African Americans, 
LGBTQ people and 
other minorities to the 
small screen as lead 
characters and stars of 
his shows.
Lear was born in 1922 
in Connecticut to Jewish parents who 
had Russian and Ukrainian roots. He 
received a scholarship to Emerson 
College but left during WWII to serve 
in the Army Air Corps, where he was 
a radio operator and gunner on more 
than 50 bomber missions. After the 
war, Lear moved to Los Angeles and 
began his long career in television.
Lear would later speak about one deep 
influence from his early years. He grew-
up listening to the extreme bigotry and 
prejudice espoused by Father Charles 
Coughlin, the infamous “Radio Priest,” 
Charles Lindberg and others spouting 
prejudice against Jews in the 1930s. It 
left a deep impression on Lear, and this 
experience would influence his work 
thereafter.
Perhaps no other sitcom displayed 
Lear’s imprint more than the hugely pop-
ular, truly pathbreaking, All in the Family. 
Its lead character, Archie Bunker, was 
a working-class white man, who could 
always be relied upon to spout common 
prejudices and biases of the contemporary 
era. It was shocking to American audi-
ences to hear publicly such tropes usually 
reserved for private conversations.
There are several good stories about 

Lear and that sitcom in 
the William Davidson Digital Archive of 
Jewish Detroit History. He was first men-
tioned in the March 28, 1971, issue of the 
JN: “Television Bigot Draws Ire of ADL; 
CBS-TV Defends Renewal of Series.” 
The bigot in question was Archie Bunker 
played by actor Caroll O’Connor. The 
title of the JN article says it all, but Lear, 
co-producer and story consultant, stated 
that the program sought to first, entertain, 
and second, to cause viewers to examine 
their own prejudices and ideas.
A year later, editor/publisher Phil 
Slomovitz’s weekly Purely Commentary 
column filled a page with analysis of All 
in the Family, asking did the sitcom go 
too far? Should it be toned down? Lear 
never backed away from the wildly popu-
lar show’s main character and motif (July 
21, 1971). 

By the way — O’Connor 
confided to friends that he 
despised being approached 
by bigoted fans on the street, 
who congratulated him on 
his character’s “telling the 
truth.” 
Lear is also credited with 
helping others succeed in 
showbiz. Detroit-born and 
raised comedian Mike Binder 
said that Lear “gave him expo-
sure,” when, after seeing Binder do an 
amateur night comedy routine, he put 
him in an ABC TV series (Nov. 8, 2002). 
When Lear was honored at the Kennedy 
Center in 2017, several African American 
celebrities spoke about him breaking the 
“TV color line” (Sept. 22, 2022). 
Lear has been the subject of many arti-
cles, books and documentary films. One 
film, Just Another Version of You, pre-
miered in 2017 and was reviewed in the 
JN (Aug. 4, 2017). 
Perhaps an article in the July 10, 1992, 
JN said it all. “Norman Lear is Still the 
King of Night Time Television Comedy.” 
Indeed, Lear’s reign was a long one. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN archives, 
available for free at thejewishnews.com.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

