biography
| name: |
Lear, Norman (Milton)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1922– )
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| biography:
| Television producer, born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. After spending only one year at Emerson College in Boston, he launched a television writing career with The Ford Star Review (1950). In 1959 he formed Tandem Productions with Bud Yorkin, producing a series of successful films as well as popular television shows. All in the Family which was derived from a British television programme but drew on memories of his father, was televised during 1971–83. It focused on a bigoted blue-collar worker named Archie Bunker, his wife Edith, whom he called ‘dingbat’, and his daughter Gloria and her liberal husband Mike Stivic; it was a multiple Emmy winner and the most popular sitcom of its time. Other television hits include Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons. His syndicated soap opera satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976–7) developed a cult following, and he broke new television ground by introducing substantive issues, controversy, and strong language to sitcoms. An outspoken liberal, he dedicated some of his immense earnings to founding People for the American Way (1981), a group that sponsors mailings, advertisements, and other outlets to combat what it regards as threats from the extreme Right. |
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