Norman Lear, at the age 101 years old and transformed the way that Americans watched network TV.Before Lear, network TV was something of an alternate universe which depicted characters as somewhat otherworldly. These children were deposited beneath cabbage leaves where they were placed by storks, and they were retrieved and raised by happy parents. On those occasions when the script demanded that a couple be shown in bed, those beds were always twin beds, with both mommy and daddy fully dressed in pajamas, lest something untoward occur.
Mr. Lear's characters were, above everything, normal people, albeit somewhat over the top. His characters reflected some of the societal tumult that transformed America from the idealized fairy-tale world of the 1950s to the hyper realistic landscape of the post-Vietnam 1970s. Lear created Archie Bunker, and George Jefferson, two shows which dealt with the many aspects of racial animus in a fresh way, and showed us aspects of ourselves that made us uncomfortable. His female characters were affected by the awakening of the feminine mind, even though their struggles with self-awareness were largely played for laughs, but sometimes things got unexpectedly serious. Maude got an abortion in 1972...a year before 'Roe v Wade'. Lear understood that people learn more about moral clarity from laughing at themselves, and their foibles, than in being lectured by some humorless scold.
So Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker, has decided to leave congress at the end of the year, reducing the razor thin House majority to 2 . Unlike Norman Lear, he won't be missed.
No comments:
Post a Comment