Norman Lear, Sitcom King Who Changed TV -- And America

 Norman Lear appears during the "American Masters: Norman Lear" panel at the PBS Summer TCA Tour on Aug. 1, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)
Norman Lear appears during the "American Masters: Norman Lear" panel at the PBS Summer TCA Tour on Aug. 1, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)
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Norman Lear, Sitcom King Who Changed TV -- And America

 Norman Lear appears during the "American Masters: Norman Lear" panel at the PBS Summer TCA Tour on Aug. 1, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)
Norman Lear appears during the "American Masters: Norman Lear" panel at the PBS Summer TCA Tour on Aug. 1, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)

Norman Lear was television's prolific genius whose trailblazing sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s revolutionized US entertainment -- and helped change the way a nation saw itself.

With boundary-breaking shows like "All In the Family" and "The Jeffersons," Lear -- who has died aged 101 -- helped millions of viewers confront their deepest fears, frailties and prejudices, as well as their aspirations, with humor and humanity.

Among his milestones was creating the first African American nuclear family regularly appearing on television: the Evans clan on "Good Times," beginning in 1974.

He injected the sensitive subjects of race, class, inequality and politics like the anti-war movement into his work, breaking the sitcom mold and beaming modern visions of family life into millions of US households.

Lear abandoned the idealistic representation of American families seen on shows like "Leave It to Beaver" (1957-1963) and adopted a more real-world depiction -- and in so doing, he changed the face of television.

"What was new was that we were engaging in reality," the famed creator said in the 2016 documentary "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You."

Fellow comedy star Mel Brooks hailed Lear as "the bravest television writer, director and producer of all time."

Lear's family, in announcing his death, said Wednesday their patriarch wrote about real life, "not a glossy ideal."

"At first, his ideas were met with closed doors and misunderstanding. However, he stuck to his conviction that the 'foolishness of the human condition' made great television, and eventually he was heard."

In the mid-1970s, at the height of his eight-decade career, Lear had five sitcoms airing in prime time -- an era before cable or streaming, when Americans watched television collectively.

Broadcaster CBS estimated at the time that a staggering 120 million Americans watched Lear programming each week.

The six-time Emmy Award winner wrote, produced, created or developed roughly 100 specials and shows including 1980s mega-hit "The Facts of Life" and the long-running "One Day at a Time."

His revolutionary comedy also earned him a spot on President Richard Nixon's so-called enemies list.

Blue-collar comedy

Lear's most explosive creation was "All In the Family," a blue-collar comedy so audacious that its first episode, in 1971, came with a disclaimer.

The half-hour show featured abrasive patriarch Archie Bunker, lovably irascible but bigoted, narrow-minded and clashing with his liberal relatives.

It marked a TV paradigm shift.

"Television can be broken into two parts, BN and AN: Before Norman and After Norman," writer and producer Phil Rosenthal said in the 2016 documentary.

Lear, donning his trademark porkpie hat, also produced or funded such big-screen classics as "The Princess Bride" and "This is Spinal Tap."

But television was his magic medium.

Never far from the surface in Lear's shows were the issues gnawing at American society: misogyny, racism, women's rights and political division.

He dug deep into the exigencies of Black life. And while "Good Times" was intended as a white audience's window into Black America, "The Jeffersons" represented the American Dream for Black people.

Over 253 episodes from 1975 to 1985, "The Jeffersons" portrayed African American success through an unapologetically Black couple "movin' on up" in New York society.

'Enemy' of the family?

Norman Milton Lear was born on July 27, 1922, into a Jewish family in New Haven, Connecticut.

His mother emigrated from Russia, and his father was a salesman who served time in jail and had a bigoted streak that embarrassed his son -- but also served as source material.

Lear attended Emerson College in Boston but dropped out to enlist in the US Army, flying 37 World War II bombing sorties as a radio operator and gunner.

By 1949 he moved to Los Angeles, where he found success writing for TV variety shows.

He also produced films including 1963's "Come Blow Your Horn" starring Frank Sinatra, and in 1967 received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay for "Divorce American Style."

With "All In the Family" and the TV shows that followed, Lear's influence skyrocketed.

So did his concern about the mix of politics and religion.

Criticism from conservative circles poured in, with televangelist Jerry Falwell calling Lear "the number one enemy of the American family."

Lear pushed back against the burgeoning religious right, and in 1981 founded People For the American Way, a group promoting civic engagement and freedom of expression and religion.

Lear's work ethic was legendary. After his 100th birthday, he collaborated with TV host Jimmy Kimmel on "Live in Front of a Studio Audience!" specials in which star-studded casts performed remakes of classic Lear shows.

A pioneer on multiple fronts, Lear's portrayal of true-to-life traumas sealed his reputation.

In a watershed 1972 episode of "Maude," the title character agonizes over terminating her pregnancy, a plotline that brought the abortion fight to prime time one year before the Supreme Court guaranteed the right to abortion.

Half a century later, Lear -- who married three times and had six children -- told "E! Insider" the issues his sitcoms addressed carry equal resonance today.

"The culture has shifted and changed... but the way families experience life is pretty much the same," he said.



Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
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Brian Wilson's Top Five Beach Boys Songs

Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Musician Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys performs onstage at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. KEVIN WINTER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

From the carefree sound of California surf music to the sophistication of later darker works, here are five of the top hits penned by influential Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson.

'Surfin' USA' (1963)

"Surfin' USA" was the Beach Boys' first global hit, taken from their eponymous debut album. A youthful ode to sea, sun and girls, it became an anthem for the West Coast and beyond.

It demonstrated Brian Wilson's increasing songwriting prowess as well as the band's unique vocal sound achieved thanks to double tracking.

"We'll all be gone for the summer/ We're on safari to stay/ Tell the teacher we're surfin'/ Surfin' USA," it rang out.

Wilson intentionally set his lyrics to the music of "Sweet Little Sixteen," by Chuck Berry, leading Berry to take legal action.

'California Girls' (1965)

On the big hit of the summer of 1965, Wilson's cousin Mike Love burst into song to celebrate the sun-tanned women of California.

"I wish they all could be California girls," the band members sang in seemless harmony.

It was also the first song written by Wilson under the influence of LSD, "which could explain why the accompaniment seems to move in a slow, steady daze at odds with the song's bright, major-key melody," Rolling Stone magazine wrote.

'God Only Knows' (1966)

It took Wilson just 45 minutes to write "God Only Knows," the legendary eighth track on the album "Pet Sounds" which has gone down as one of the greatest love songs ever.

Sung by brother Carl Wilson, Brian's rival Paul McCartney declared it to be his favorite song of all time and said it reduced him to tears.

But the record company and other members of the group were wary at the new turn in style.

'Good Vibrations'(1966)

"Good Vibrations" was a massive commercial success, selling one million copies in the United States and topping charts there and in several other countries including the UK.

At the time the most expensive single ever made, the "pocket symphony" was recorded in four different studios, consumed over 90 hours of tape and included a complexity of keys, textures, moods and instrumentation.

The song was a far cry from the group's surf-and-sun origins and the enormity of the task brought Wilson to the brink. He was unable to go on and complete the album "Smile," of which the song was to have been the centerpiece.

- 'Til I die' (1971) -

On side B of the album "Surf's Up,'Til I die" was composed in 1969 by a depressed Wilson worn down by mental illness and addiction.

He wrote in his 1991 autobiography that it was perhaps the most personal song he had written for the Beach Boys.