Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You Page #6

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-Norman was enjoying

a hell of a run.

At one point, he had 6

of the top 10 shows on the air.

It was a house of hits.

I mean, he's irrepressible.

He's unstoppable.

-Well, I want

to congratulate Norman Lear.

I understand that he just

sold his acceptance speech

as a new series.

[ Laughter ]

-"Mary Hartman,"

"All in the Family,"

"The Jeffersons,"

"Maude," "Good Times."

Some people are saying

Lear is doing too much,

he's spreading

himself too thin.

Why so much?

-Why so much?

-Action.

-Fella,

you're 10 times the man I was.

[ Laughter, applause ]

-Once more for the boss.

-Oh, geez.

-Hey!

-Hello!

-Boy, Norman's always

in here, man.

-Okay.

-Okay, cast.

-Good to see you.

We don't have to nail down

a story this meeting.

[ Intercom buzzes ]

Oh.

I'm sorry.

Hello?

Good night, love.

See you tomorrow.

-Goodbye, and thank you.

-They just sent her over.

-I had a show on the air.

I had another show on the air.

Yes, no.

Bep-bep-bep-bep-bep.

It required another ear.

So I grew another ear.

It required a broom up my butt

so I could sweep the floor

at the same time.

I love the expression

"...or go blind."

I didn't know

whether to...or go blind.

[ Laughs ]

There was a moment when

I had five families on the air

and one in Encino

on Mooncrest Drive.

The families on the air

needed me

for every breath they took.

The family on Mooncrest Drive

seemed to get along just fine

with limited me.

I think I was too busy

struggling to be

a good provider.

-My dad was extraordinarily busy

during those years --

the TV years.

He would be in the zone

and in his office,

barricaded for a couple of days.

And then he emerges with

this beautiful piece of writing.

He was so, you know,

at the top of his game.

But my mother was not

a great fan of Hollywood.

You know, certain things

are expected of mothers

that are not expected

of fathers,

especially in that generation.

So they had

a difficult marriage.

At some point, my mother

rented an apartment,

and nobody knew where it was.

Nobody had the address.

But she didn't come home

one night.

-I was going

from building to building.

It was a small apartment,

entirely furnished by its owner

but for some photographs

and a rug I recalled us buying

years before in Morocco.

Frances was lying on it.

And her [Sighs]

Frances...

Choking back a scream,

I'd reached for a pulse

I could not detect

while the super called 911.

In the emergency room

at Cedars-Sinai,

the first doctor to see her

said she was just minutes away

from leaving us.

When I left the hospital,

Frances was in a private room

and out of danger.

She was manic-depressive.

We -- It was...

We didn't know

she was manic-depressive

until she was 50.

And our marriage was so --

We were having

such a difficult time.

She wanted to move to New York.

I didn't want to move

to New York.

And, at some point, she left.

-Around the time that Norman

and Frances split up,

Norman sat up and said,

"I have an announcement

that I want to make."

-The great Norman Lear, the king

of situation comedy, leaves,

and without

a whole lot of notice.

And he asked me to come over

and basically

take over the shows.

And for me,

it was as if the Pied Piper

said to me, "I'm leaving.

Here's my flute.

Good luck."

-Norman, why are you

quitting the business

of television comedy?

-Well, I'm not so much quitting

the business as leaving it.

But we figured it out,

and it comes

to 16 television series

and 700 hours

of prime-time television.

It's hard

for me to say the words,

it stuns me so.

And I've loved it.

I've had a marvelous time

doing it.

I just want to exercise

some other muscles.

-I was not thinking

I was leaving

the entertainment business.

I was thinking it's

all the entertainment business.

- Onward, Christian soldiers

-I'm sick and tired

of hearing

about all of the radicals

and the perverts

and the liberals.

It's time for God's people

to come out of the churches

and change America.

-We have

a threefold responsibility.

Number one -- get people saved.

Number two -- get them baptized.

Number three --

get them registered to vote.

-Looking at the things

that Jimmy Carter supports,

I'm not sure

that Jesus Christ...

well, I know that Christ

would not support that platform.

-Praise God.

Let's be happy about this.

-We've got to raise up an army

of men and women in America

who call this nation back

to moral sanity and sensibility.

I call that the moral majority.

- Amen

-Ready?

Any time.

-It isn't the Moral Majority.

It is the religious New Right.

The Reverend Falwell

is very good at what he does,

and he somehow manages to

push himself so far to the front

that attention must be paid.

I was concerned about what

I was seeing on television --

the proliferation

of TV evangelical ministers

mixing politics and religion.

Thundering with the Bible!

You know,

calling this a Christian nation

and waving it like it was a bomb

or a bomb threat.

So I thought,

"I want to take the flag

and the Bible back

for all of us,

and the way I know how to do it

is television."

[ Cheers and applause ]

-I'm the one

that they're singing about.

Yeah, I'm the Stars

and Stripes Forever.

Star-Spangled Banner.

You can call me Old Glory,

but let's just keep it simple.

Just call me Flag.

Oh, say, can you see?

Okay.

A little flag humor.

You know, I'm 204 years old.

People say, "Flag,

how do you stay so young?

Is it jogging?"

No.

"Is it tennis?"

No.

It's waving.

[ Laughter ]

-Norman was gonna do

a comedy movie

about the rise

of the religious right,

and then he realized

that it was much deeper.

This was not just a movie,

and this wasn't just something

that was funny.

And that's

why he decided to retire

from his successful

television shows

to really devote his life

to activism.

The Constitution's ban

on the establishment

of an official religion

and its guarantee

of the free exercise of religion

are clear and unchallengeable.

The separation of church

and state, pluralism,

and free debate,

and the struggle

against intolerance --

We must nourish them all

if we are to preserve

the American way.

-It was in the fall of 1978

that he told me

he was gonna found

People for the American Way

and told me what the substance

of the organization would be,

what its purpose was.

And I said to him,

I said, "Look, Norman,

you're a wealthy

Hollywood Jewish liberal."

Those who will, and do, disagree

with you

are powerful entities

themselves,

and you could be headed

for a rough ride here.

-I would like to know

if Mr. Lear believes in God.

Perhaps he does,

but there are many of us,

after so many vicious,

distorted attacks

against

Bible-believing Christians,

who wonder maybe he's

on an anti-Christian kick.

-You are not opposed --

Let's clear up

a popular misconception.

You are not opposed

to fundamentalists

getting involved in politics.

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