Which Norman Lear sitcom is/was your favorite?

All in the Family

The others were not even close.

 

Fernwood 2 Night by a mile for me (no doubt that I grew up in a town that was a cultural

Like many, I find the majority of his work to have not aged well, and that there's nothing compelling enough (nostalgic or otherwise) for me to go back and invest any of my time in revisiting it.

 

All in the Family, but Sanford and Son is a very close second.

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I like the All in the Family episode where two black guys, played by Clevon Little and Demond Wilson, break into the house. McNabb calls to warn Archie, and after Clevon Little answers and talks to him, he repeats, out oud, the racial slur that McNabb (who thinks he is talking to Archie) calls them. While I don't find racial slurs funny, in general, the scene just cracks me up based on the way Clevon Little and Demond Wilson react. No show before, during or after All in the Family would ever get a laugh with that line.

 

After going back and watching some of these recently on the low budget TV channels, I must confess that they come across as very brash and somewhat insulting. Maude is a good example. Don't tell me they are a product of the times in which they were made. Other shows from that period don't really feel this way. I always liked Sanford and Son when I was around 10-12 years old, but now when I try and watch it, I can do nothing but cringe at the bad dialogue.

 

First, thank you for the kind words...

I had forgotten the two scenes that you mentioned but now that you have, I agree that they were both wonderful scenes, and both very well acted by Carroll O'Conner and Jean Stapleton respectively.

I loved Edith. Despite her dinginess, she posessed a inner well of common sense wisdom that only came out when it was really required but whenever it did, it was always spot on correct. I loved the way that she always steered Archie in the right, good direction, even when he initially wanted no part of it. Her strength was a gentle one , but whenever her family needed it, it was there.

And the obvious love and friendship that she and next door neighbor Louise Jefferson felt for each other seems rather common place now, but back then, with the racially charged 60's and some of it's more horrific events still a recent memory, it was really a very touching thing and really underscored the inner beauty of her character. Here was a person who was incapable of bigotry or hatred. She treated everyone she met with caring and respect.

One of my favorite Edith scenes (out of many) was when Gloria announced that she and Michael wanted to get married and of course Archie reacts in his typical "over my dead body" fashion. Edith gently tries to sway Archie by saying that Michael is really a wonderful person and that they obviously love each other and of course, gets nowhere.

Finally, she realizes what she has to say and slowly and deliberately says to Archie (paraphrasing) "If you continue to act this way we could lose her."

When Archie continues his rant against Michael, Edith looks him straight in the eye and with that inner strength raising her voice just enough says a second time ... "We...could ..lose ..her..." The stark reality of that possibility is enough to stop Archie in his tracks, but he needed Edith to get through to him and make him fully aware that she was absolutely correct.

I guess it's obvious from my two posts how much I loved this show. You can argue the relative merits of any of Norman Lear's succesive shows, but with All In The Family, Norman Lear hit the ball clear out of the park IMO .

 

Sanford & Son here.

 

He had a bunch of great shows... but for me Maude was the best.

 

Will anyone pick Archie Bunker's Place? What a load of crap that was!

 

I recently watched the episode after Edith dies - I remember when this was originally on. The last few minutes (where Archie finds the shoe) are very touching. Only worthwhile scene from the whole series I think.

I voted for All in the Family without hesitation. I don't think it is "dated" so much as a snapshot of the times.

 

I also liked how Mike got his liberalism handed to him by Lionel. Carroll O'Conner was a great actor.

 

"Get out of my chair!"


I was convinced that they based that character on one of my Grandfathers, it was uncanny.

 

No one has said 704 Hauser????

 

an incredibly touching episode, and we were upset over her passing!

 

it always seemed strained...the flow was gone for Archie...

 

not much for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman...any fans?

 

AITF should have ended here because it would have been the greatest ending ever but greed poisoned that. It limped along and died a slow painful death.

 

like many other shows do, and on the flip I'd rather it die out and end rather than being cancelled with no closure!

 

There were some moments in the last season with Stephanie that I thought were really good. Like the episode when they find out she was Jewish and at the end Archie gives her the star of David pendant. As good as some of the episodes in the earlier series I thought.

I had to look this up, but I guess there was only one season after the original cast left. Then it became Archie Bunker's Place - they might as well have changed the name right away.

 

It's been so long since I've seen it, but is that the scene where Archie is talking to Edith's memory in their bedroom and he says some thing like "Well you did it to me again Edith. We both knew that I was the one who was supposed to go first. And the worst thing is...you didn't even give me a chance to say goodbye...." and starts crying ?.

If so, that was another of my all-time favorite scenes from O'Conner.

 

That scene was a very touching one for me.

I was able to see this episode again within the last 3 years or so so that scene is still fairly vivid in my memory. He tells Stephanie in a surprisingly gentle voice. " You have to really love someone very much to give them something like this."

To me , his giving Stephanie the Star Of David pendant is a rather nice metaphor that expresses his blossoming love for the child helping him to begin to overcome one of his deepest seated prejudices.

 

First season of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The run should have ended with her breakdown on the David Suskind show. Unsurpassed after all these years, for me.

 

I just caught an episode of PBS' Pioneers of Television show about actor/comedians who made the transition to TV, and I was impressed that Jimmy "J.J." Walker was quite articulate and even eloquent about the clash of personalities on his show Good Times. He said that Norman Lear was livid that Walker was playing his character very broadly, with a lot of yelling and big punchlines ("DY-NO-MIIIIITE!"), and that actor John Amos, who played his father on the show, was upset that the show was perpetuating a lot of black stereotypes. Amos was angry enough that he eventually quit the show and had to be written out; the mom, Esther Rolle, also eventually quit over disputes over pay and screen time. Walker defends what he did by saying that all he was trying to do was to be funny, and that was the main thing viewers wanted. The show went 6 seasons and 133 episodes, so you can't deny its commercial success... but it was a sucky show. And yet I'm not sure a more serious show could have worked as a mass-market series.

One funny factoid: Jimmy was a lot older than he appeared to be in the show, since he played a kid still in high school. He was actually 27 at the time (10 years older than his character), and only eight years younger than John Amos' character! I don't think Good Times was a good show, but I'd have to say it was a classic 1970s show of its kind, and you don't see a lot of series on the air doing much with low-income families. Roseanne Barr has been very vocal about that, and has tried to get several new shows on the air like that but without success (mirroring her Roseanne show of the late 1980s/1990s).

 

Jimmy Walker is hysterical. This is an interview worth reading: http://www.avclub.com/article/jimmie-walker-good-times-guyver-fans-and-kicking-p-203359

 

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