Norman Lear, King of 1970s Sitcoms Dies at 101

[ProfD]

Norman Lear created the blueprint for sitcom TV:

 

 https://www.vulture.com/2023/12/remembrance-norman-lear-19222023.html

 

Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons and Good Times were among Lear's most popular sitcoms. 

 

Those were the days of TV long before cable and syndication.

 

Back in those days, folks had to wait weekly to watch those shows.

 

 Nowadays, TV shows can be pulled up on demand or watched as a marathon. 

 

Those TV shows were created a half-century ago. Time flies.

[Stefan]

@ProfD

It appears that most would say it was Norman Lear. But there were a few folks before Lear who employed a similar concept. 

https://collider.com/honeymooners-sitcom-impact/

The bottom line is that folks could debate this all day and well into the night. 

Nice lede-in. 

[ProfD]

3 hours ago, Stefan said:

But there were a few folks before Lear who employed a similar concept.

Surely, it could be debated that sitcoms of the 1950s inspired Lear. 

 

IMO, the credit Lear gets is that his sitcoms featured diversity in casting and he wrote scripts tackling a wider range of issues  reflecting those times. 

 

The main benefit Lear had was color TV in more ways than one.

[Pioneer1]

What I want to know is whatever happened to SAUL TURTLETAUB...lol.

That name used to tikle me when it came on during the opening theme to Sanford and Son...lol.

I'll tell you EXACTLY where a lot of the inspiration for a lot of our good funny shows of the 70s came from....

 

England!

 

Sanford and Son got a lot of their material from a British show out of the 40s and 50s called  "Steptoe and Son".

And All In The Family (Archie Bunker) got most of their material form another British show out of the 50s and 60s called "Till Death Do Us Part".

They ripped off Steptoe and Son BIG TIME....lol.

I started watching the British version and actually started to like it.
Believe it or not, both British shows were more edgy and politically sharp than the Americanized versions.

[ProfD]

2 hours ago, Pioneer1 said:

I'll tell you EXACTLY where a lot of the inspiration for a lot of our good funny shows of the 70s came from....

As I mentioned before, white folks aren't original or creative. They steal, er, get ideas from others.

[Stefan]

@ProfD

I believe Norman Lear receives outsized respect for his memory due to "All in the Family." That was the beginning of his gaining fame.

@Pioneer1

Comedy writer Saul Turtletab passed away in April 2020. He was a great writer. While he worked on Sanford and Son, he also wrote for What's Happening and the "Mary Tyler Moore Show."

[ProfD]

8 minutes ago, Stefan said:

I believe Norman Lear receives outsized respect for his memory due to "All in the Family." That was the beginning of his gaining fame.

Agreed. He couldn't miss afterward. Drove that train straight through a town called success.

[Pioneer1]

HIs shows had spin-offs after spin-offs....lol.

I think Maud was a spin-off of All In The Family.
The Jeffersons was a spin-off of All In The Family.
Esther Roll and John Amos played in Maud and later got together for Good Times.

I'm not going to lie, I LOVE those old shows.

They were more "real" with their social commentary than a lot of the shit we see on television (if you even watch it) today.

They were talking about the President, saying "nigga", addressing the most controversial issues of the time....openly.

And they had LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCES who added to the entertainment.

 

[Cynique]

The first TV sitcom with an all-black cast was Amos 'n Andy  which first appeared on television beginning in 1951, running for 3 more years.  It was based on a radio show whose black characters were originally played by white actors in dialect.  This TV show was quite funny and wasn't  that stereotypical; it didn't preach or send a message but, like Sanford and Son, was just about hapless characters who could've been of any race. Still, at that time, there were those who panned it.       

 

In hindsight, however, this show is now given credit being in the van guard of its genre.  I don't know who directed or produced it but it wasn't Norman Lear. You can get more information by Googling it, and watching episodes from it on YouTube.

[Stefan]

Good to see ya again. Cynique.