Norman Lear, showrunner for the ages, has died

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

He made it to 101.

Not only did ALL IN THE FAMILY get spinoffs. Many of those spinoffs did too. There were so many that MAD magazine created a few more for Bentley, JJ and others.

RIP

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Rest in peace Mr. Lear.

 

[auntiehill]

Holy cow, I didn't even know he was still around. Maude, Good Times, The Facts of Life, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time...these are the shows I watched as a kid. He wrote or produced (or both) all of these shows. He certainly had a knack for it.

Hats off to you, sir.

 

[bdub76]

Lots of 90+ folk dying lately. I hope I last that long.

The live versions of his shows are definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen them.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Holy cow, I didn't even know he was still around. Maude, Good Times, The Facts of Life, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time...these are the shows I watched as a kid. He wrote or produced (or both) all of these shows. He certainly had a knack for it.

With the exception of THE FACTS OF LIFE, those four shows and three more were all on the air during 1976 and 1977. (Add the five-episode-per-week MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN, SANFORD AND SON and of course ALL IN THE FAMILY, and you have an embarrassment of riches. Did Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes or Stephen Bochco ever match that?

Yet he also had lots of short-lived attempts which were quickly shot down in the ratings. Three of them were SUNDAY DINNER, IN THE BEGINNING and the HAUSER STREET follow-up. (Hauser Street was the Bunkers' original address.) I probably stuck with them in their brief entireties.

I keep considering buying all the MAUDEs, which may be more entertaining for older adults than teens. I liked ONE DAY AT A TIME from the get-go and bought the complete original series. The same goes for MARY HARTMAN. It almost goes for ALL IN THE FAMILY, except the final year is Rob Reiner-free, which IMO neuters it. ARCHIE BUNKER'S PLACE has no Edith, Mike or Gloria except for special return episodes, but otherwise it stands all right on its own. It's aged well.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Here's another mind-blower:

Alan Dean Foster---and other notable writers--wrote treatments for a still-unpublished novel based on MAUDE'S DILEMMA (the historic 1973 abortion episode). You might say it was a change of pace for him....possibly his sole comedy adaptation.