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This post was originally published on July 27, 2022, to mark Norman Lears 100th birthday.
We are republishing it after the news ofLears death,alongsideKathryn VanArendonks obituaryfor the TV legend.
Television as we know it could not exist withoutNorman Lear.
July 27, 2022, marks Lears 100th birthday.
I got a standing ovation for my routine.
I said, So wait a couple of months.
Two and a half months later, he cast me inFacts of Life.
Its like a fairy tale.
In 1982, he hired me to do a special calledI Love Liberty.
It was a huge show with Christopher Reeve, Barbra Streisand, Robin Williams.
There was an audience of thousands, and I was the only newbie.
I went into my comedy routine, and nobody laughed.
I was pouring sweat.
I think I need help.
Everybody was staring at me.
Norman came running down from the control booth and up onto the stage.
He put his arms around my shoulders and said, Geri, are you okay, sweetheart?
I said, Norman, Im fine, but the material sucks.
He put his hands on me and said, Geri, your mic wasnt on.
I got a standing ovation, and he let me do the whole thing over.
Norman has been a surrogate dad for me throughout the years.
He is always funny and always catches you off guard.
My friend David Zimmerman and I interviewed him forAbilitymagazine, and that was also right around his birthday.
It was so unexpected.
I was doing theater in New York, and I couldnt meet with Norman and I apologized.
I made an appointment.
I was sitting on a bench by myself.
Norman came down the hall, in his little white hat, surrounded by four people.
He looked at me and said something to his line producer, who nodded.
I later asked him on the set what he had said.
It was, Shes pretty, so I sure hope she can act.
We go in, and he started talking about the show.
He had such great vision about what he wanted to do.
He wanted Rose Cumberbatch to be a religious woman.
I asked, What religion?
Norman said, What?
Do you know what that means?
He said, No, tell me.
He is signing you, not the web link.
He liked to give the good news to people.
Later that night, Norman called, and I acted surprised.
So this is going to be the first time he heard about that.
On the set, it took me two weeks to call him Norman.
It was Mr. Lear.
Hed say, Everyone should call me Norman.
And Id say, Nor … Mr. Lear.
But then I got there.
Norman taught me a lot.
One thing is about being genuine and transparent.
Id visit him in his office, and one time his receptionist was going out to a store.
It was such a lovely experience being with Norman.
He decided he wanted to create an aura about me.
I thought it would just be a couple of actors.
I walked in the door and said, Oh my Lord.
There was Gregory Peck and his wife, Quincy Jones, Maya Angelou.
I felt so privileged that he invited me and introduced me to these people.
So I hadnt even read the704 Hauserscript, even though I never told Norman that.
That day I got a call from a friend from Chicago that her brother had just ODd.
But Norman says, Wait.
Can we talk to you?
Id like to thank you for coming in here.
But after the pilot, Jeff Sagansky and Peter Tortorici at CBS wanted to fire me.
When I saw Norman in the production offices afterwards, he said, Kiddo, wheres your fucking hair?
He always called me kiddo.
I said, It grows back quickly, trust me.
Then a week later he called and said, Kiddo, I have good news and bad news.
The good news is they picked up the show.
The bad news is they want me to fire you.
They made Norman audition other actors.
I went into a funk.
I was depressed, I wasnt eating.
I was having my major shot yanked out from under me.
Norman realized I was willing to fight for my job.
He threw the resources of his company behind me.
We did that for three days.
Then he says, Shave all your hair off again.
When Im bald, I look younger.
Now Im completely bald, and I still get carded going to buy booze.
I go in and do my thing with John Amos the next day and walk out.
About ten minutes later, I hear Norman saying, Wheres kiddo?
Im choking up just thinking about that.
Russell(played Thurgood Marshall Cumberbatch on704 Hauser)
He will always reverse the spotlight.
Thats just who he is.
I was like, Honestly, I dont know that you should.
He goes, What?
He said, Well, what do you think we could do to combat that?
I said, Im going to speak for this Latina in this family in this city and be super-specific.
Hopefully that specificity will ring universal.
He was like, Well, lets just do that.
He made it sound so easy.
Id never been in a situation where that had happened.
When we shot the pilot, it was very emotional.
My parents were there.
Rita Moreno was wearing a wig to look like my mother.
The full circle of that night was tremendous.
I got really emotional with Norman.
I was like, Thank you, sir, for changing my life.
Thats just who he is.
I guess he saw something in me, and Im glad he did because he changed my life.
Of course, in my brain, all I heard was,Youre terrible.
Youre about to be fired.But he really was loving and wanted to help me.
He really had faith in me when I never had faith in me.
It was the kindest place to work.
He was always a stabilizing force, for sure.
I felt like a real human being who was nurtured and treated with kindness.
I was coming right offAmerican Graffiti, and obviously, he knew I had this crazy family.
Certainly, in hindsight, it was an appropriate thing to say.
I remember conversations when wed all be at the read-through table.
We had that freedom to say those things.
There was a lot of give and take but it was always, always a group conversation.
Norman would be there for the first read-through on Monday and then new script pages would come in.
Theyre different colors you get pink pages, then blue pages, then you get goldenrod.
But midweek, one would come down, and it would be a full script.
I was always excited when we would get the Lear Polish.
We always had a data pipe censor at run-through, and Norman fought them tooth and nail.
You were allowed to say jackass but you couldnt say ass, and Norman just thought that was ridiculous.
He advocated for stuff that wasnt allowed on TV.
We were portraying and representing a very underserved and large portion of the American population the single mom.
I dont think his goal was to piss people off.
Well, maybe it was, knowing Norman.
But he wanted to shake things up.
He wanted to push the envelope.
He wanted to bring a voice to communities that werent represented as worthy of having a voice.
Ive known you since youre a baby!
Its more of two grownups interacting.
When I was 40, I still felt like a child around him.
I dont feel like a child around Norman anymore.
He saw something in me that I certainly didnt see in myself.
Hes just a good man.
I used to carry a notebook and pen around with me everywhere, filled with doodles and stories.
Here is this titan of industry respectfully listening to a tweenager tell him about her unicorn scribbles.
Nowherewas a magic beast in real life!
When I started working with Norman, he was only 93 years old.
We were working on a docuseries on inequality.
The initial idea was to bring him on as executive producer.
This was a celebrity-correspondent-driven docuseries, so we got the idea of putting him on camera as a correspondent.
Once he decided to be part of it, whatever we would ask he would do.
He was into it.
Norman came to New York City to investigate housing inequality, exploring gentrification and outright discrimination.
He was the perfect correspondent.
He was very at home on camera.
Hes extremely comfortable in his own skin without being conceited or a peacock.
When we met him, he couldnt have been lovelier.
It was the first moment I found out I was starting to go bald.
I truly had no idea.
It took me another 30 years to lose the hair, but he was right.
And no, he did not give me one of his hats.
When we createdThe Powers That Be, it gave us a chance to really work with Norman.
Id always been a huge fan of his, but we have very different sensibilities.
But he was incredibly generous even though we were brand new and had done television for five minutes.
He treated us with respect and listened to our ideas.
There was no sense of ego.
David Crane(co-creator ofFriendswith Marta Kauffman)
Think of the publicity we would get!
I first met Norman years and years and years ago.
I said, What!?
and he said, Rita, how old are you?
I said, Im 66, and he said, You dont begin to look your age.
Youre also very cute, and thats okay, but you could just never be Charlies wife.
Now get the hell out of here.
I truly wept bitter tears.
Then he said, Oh, the one with Charlie Durning.
I said, You have no idea how that affected me!
We talked about it, and he said, Well, you know, that makes sense to me.
Would you be interested?
I said, Yeah.
But wait a minute.
What is it about?
I mean, am I gonna be dancing naked somewhere?
He said, Oh my God, no, no.
Thats the second time I met Norman Lear.
You must say yes or Im not interested.
She has to be sexual.
The idea that she can no longer conceive is meaningless.
She has to be a sexual person.
And boy, did they run with that.
There were times when they gave me stuff to do and I said, Are you serious?
Can we get away with this?
Shes always talking about her husband and how they love to shtup, which I just adore.
Its one of the things that people just were crazy about when it came to Lydia.
Its sort of likeAll in the Family.
Hes always been so forward-looking and very courageous.
At least thats how I see it.
And I dont think Norman was ever afraid.
Norman is a very, very mischievous guy.
I think we could get a lot of publicity with this.
Lets spread a rumor that youre having my child, my love child.
I said, Norman, my ovaries are over and done with!
They were over and done with years ago!
He said, It doesnt matter.
Think of the publicity we would get!
He was laughing he wasnt dead serious, but he was, you know?
After a while it did amuse people whenever it was brought up.
I decided to call the child Moishe, very Jewish.
It was either that or Shlomo.
I think you should say hello to your child.
I signaled, waved my arm, and said Moishe, come over.
I kept telling him to come and he wouldnt.
I said, He just wont come.
Hesplaying, implying that the child was masturbating.
I said, Oh God, he does this so much.
This is how we are with each other.
The first few episodes were him watching us closely and offering opinions when he had them.
But the fourth episode was a departure.
From the very beginning, Norman was not on board with this episode.
We said, Trust us, we really believe in it.
He did, but he was like, I just dont get what youre doing with this.
I dont think its going to work.
Even after the table read: still skeptical.
We got to the first run-through and it went well.
It went very well.
Gloria and I were happy.
We were like, Oh, shit.
Then he takes a big pause and he goes, But you live and learn.
And then he couldnt have praised us more.
I think that was the moment he could trust us.
We were very, very nervous showing him the movie.
We rented a cinema, and were sitting there trying to watch him while he was watching.
Theres a lot going on in this movie.
He said, A couple of the kids arent in the shot.
Ive got to have all my kids.
Can you use a photograph, at least?
yo, is there any way?
He just wanted to verify all the people he loved were seen at least once in the movie.
When the movie premiered in Los Angeles, we were doing Q&As for both sold-out screenings.
At one, this woman stood up whod gone to grade school with him like 80 years ago.
She gives this gushing speech, Norman, I always remember this and this about you.
Youre such a memorable person.
Do you remember me?
He goes, I have no fucking idea who you are, honey.
But Im so glad you came!
It was brutal honesty, but nobody was mad about it.
His timing is impeccable.
Now I dont say it anymore, because the oldest person I know is a total mensch.
My oldest friend is Norman Lear, and he is the truest mensch that I know.
It was the first time he was meeting my son, who was like 8 at the time.
I went to introduce them, and my son said, Mom, how do we know burning sandals?
Norman goes, Whos burning sandals?
and I said, He means Bernie Sanders.
Norman just died laughing.
He delighted in that so much.
And when he stopped laughing, he said, You got the wrong progressive Jew, kid.
Hes a real progressive.
you’re able to change his mind, which is a wonderful quality in someone.
You see people get less and less open-minded as they get older.
Ive known him for almost all of his 90s, and hes gotten more and more open-minded.
Norman told him, Call your dad, and gave him this salient advice.
It gave Hasan this huge confidence boost.
Finally, it was his turn to talk, and Norman said, I thought you looked familiar.
He just dropped the mic.
Marilyn was very close to his wife, Frances.
Our kids grew up at the same time.
He had a wonderful screening every Friday night that we were invited to.
One of the funniest moments was when there was a movie John had to review.
He asked if he could show it, and Norman said, Of course.
Then Norman put a towel over his right shoulder and he became the waiter.
They ad-libbed for the rest of the movie, and it was hysterical.
I still laugh at it.
Mel and Carl were just hilariously funny.
Im 96 years old.
And as I am, hes working every day, writing.
Thats what we do.
We see each other once every few weeks, and we just talk.
And not about the old days were talking about the new days.
Besides being funny, his shows all have had something to say about life and all phases of life.
He was so ready for anything that was different, new, interesting, and imaginative.
The love of life and creativity was there all the time.
He used them as a commentary on life.
It was not just to get laughs.
The truth has no boundaries as far as generation is concerned.
And what he dealt with was the truth.
We laughed a lot together.
We had our differences during the course ofGood Timesand some of the subsequent shows.
We were both very passionate about our respective positions in regards toGood Times.
When Norman and I got together again, we did704 Hauser.704was, of course, the Archie Bunker household.
Well, Norman took one look and said, Oh, no, this will never do.
Youre going to buy a wig,andyoure going to pay for it.
There was no broaching it.
We had to do it his way.
Because invariably, it was the right way.
He was right about that I dont know what possessed me to get that haircut that way.
I think I was just being recalcitrant.
So it worked out all right.
It worked out just fine.
We got back together again and had a reunion after all those years on his live show.
Norman did not bite his tongue about the things that he was passionate about politically and socially.
He addressed it head-on and did so very, very skillfully and sensitively.
You dont want to mess that up.
Norman was so gracious and cool.
Youd expect someone at 97 to be just a figurehead, but he wasnt.
He was more than just a participant he was fully a member of their family.
It was really special to see.
Id never heard ofMary Hartman, Mary Hartmanbefore that.
Id watchedAll in the FamilyandThe JeffersonsandGood Timesgrowing up in reruns, so I knew a lot of his work.
ButMary Hartmancompletely blew my mind.
Its an amazing satire, and it takes women and mental illness seriously.
Its my favorite thing ever.
He watched our taping and hung out with us afterward to talk shop.
It was such an honor to have him care about what we were making.
I was really grateful to have his blessing.
Again, a gracious and down-to-earth person who cares about telling important stories.
It was a very surreal night.
I got to be backstage with him, Carl Reiner, and Rita Moreno and watch them interact.
Its almost like I cant even track where his influence begins because theres so much of it.
Norman Lear is one of the most patriotic people, and writers, ever.
And hes a lovely person.
I think he was the first professional television writer who did not come over from radio.
You dont have to draw anything out of Norman; he is an extrovert.
No matter the topic, he is always funny.
He respects comedy as a vehicle for talking about tougher, more challenging ideas.
He would warm up the audience before each live taping.
On my office wall, I have a picture of Norman warming up the crowd before the first episode.
you might see the look on everybodys face first that he even showed up and then that hessofunny.
Nine times out of ten, it was Norman who found the joke that worked better.
Norman takes nothing for granted, and thats been true for as long as Ive known him.
