Television icon Norman Lear knew a thing or two about dialogue.
The series creator/writer/producer had more than 100 shows to his name over the course of his long career, many of them comedies that mined the way people talked to each other for all the humor (and tragedy) that he liked to say existed in close proximity. He created mainstays of American TV history like “All in the Family,” “Maude,” “The Jeffersons,” “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” “Good Times” and “One Day at a Time,” and he took home six Emmy Awards for his work in the medium.
Lear’s insight into relationships resonated through generations, as proven by the popularity of ABC’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” reenactments of several of his shows. He also was one of the first inductees into the Television Hall of Fame.
Lear died in 2023 at age 101. But his legacy lives on in his body of work and the way he approached human interactions, which makes him today’s Quote of the Day.
Quote of the day by Norman Lear
“The American people are so wise of heart and so ready and interested in being engaged and so interested in disagreeing; I’ve got hundreds of correspondences with people who began in some anger or hurt or upset at something that occurred on one of the shows, and because I liked the quality of the letter, I would answer, and they would respond, and I would answer. And then, suddenly I’m engaged in a real reasonable discussion.”
Norman Lear said the above during a 2004 conversation with United States Rep. Barney Frank at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Lear was at the institution as part of the Declaration of Independence Road Trip, a multi-year endeavor in which a copy of the nation’s founding document that Lear had bought traveled the country to encourage Americans to take part in civic life.
Deeper meaning of Norman Lear’s quote — being open to hearing things you might not want to hear
Norman Lear’s comments speak to a phenomenon that comes up so often among fans of television: the desire to engage with the people who make the shows we love, whether to praise their creation, argue a point, or both.
Though Lear said the quote above well before social media became what it is today, the sentiment easily applies to online discourse about TV, movies, books, politics, sports… the list is endless. When arguments are raised with respect and careful thought, they can be worth engaging in. When both parties are open to hearing the other side, and act in good faith, suddenly real conversations are able to take place.
More quotes from Norman Lear
“In a well-written script, [casting] is still the critical element. In a foolish script that often succeeds, it’s everything. Those four people, in the years of ‘All in the Family,’ I don’t know how many times we handed them a great script, we thought, and came in to see some magical thing we never knew was there.” — from Norman Lear’s Television Academy Foundation interview
“There’s humor everywhere, in every situation.” — from Lear’s CBS Sunday Morning interview
“There are two little words in the English language we don’t pay enough attention to. We accept their worth, their importance: ‘over’ and ‘next.’ Something’s over, it’s over. We’re on to next. And if there was a hammock in the middle of ‘over’ and ‘next,’ that’s the best way to express living in the moment.” — from Lear’s interview about longtime friend Ben Bradlee