navigatorentertainment ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The Norman Conquest
MEET THE MAN WHO MADE SITCOMS SAFE FOR MEATHEADS
grownup,” he says. “We dealt with
the subjects that were most on people’s minds in their real lives.
“It took three years to get All in the
Family on the air. I made three dif-
ferent pilots—100 percent the same
script—with the same leads, Carroll
O’Connor and Jean Stapleton, but
with a different
younger couple
each time.”
“We dealt
with the
subjects
on people’s
minds.”
All three pilots
are included
in the set, each
bearing the
unmistakable,
unapologeti-
cally liberal voice of the man who
still serves on the board of the advo-
cacy group he founded, People For
the American Way. —Bill Newcott
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
NO SOF T SOAP Lear coaches Mary Hartman stars Louise Lasser and Greg Mullavey.
Cracking Up
Books
YOU CAN make the
case that without
Norman Lear’s Archie
Bunker there would have been no Al
Bundy…then no Roseanne Conner…
then no Homer Simpson.
Thirty-eight years after Archie and
Edith first sat down at the upright
piano to sing “Those Were the Days,”
The Norman Lear Collection is the
perfect reminder of how Lear stood
astride the TV-sitcom world in the
1970s. The 19-disk set includes the
first seasons of All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, The Jeffersons,
Good Times, One Day at a Time, and
the groundbreaking soap parody
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
Looking back, Lear says he never
intended to revolutionize television.
“I think it just came out of being
Fruit Fest
Just an apple a day?
Forget about it when
you visit the Four Flags
Area Apple Festival
in Niles, Michigan (near
the Indiana border),
October 1 through 4.
The event features tons
of fruit-filled activities,
from the largest-apple
In I’m Dying Up Here
(Public Affairs), his
candid look at standup
comedy’s 1970s golden
age, ex–Los Angeles
Times reporter William
Knoedelseder says
boomers raised on Milton
Berle and Henny Youngman
began seeking “their own
countercultural heroes
of humor.” They found
them—Letterman and
Leno, Richard Lewis and
Andy Kaufman—working
for free at the showcase
Comedy Store on Sunset
Strip. But then came a
laughter stoppage: the
unpaid comedians went
on strike in 1979, and a
troubled comic named
Steve Lubetkin killed
himself. The funny business, we learn, is deadly
serious. —Allan Fallow
TOP LEFT: JOHN BRYSON/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES; BOTTOM: ILLUSTRATION BY INGO FAST
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Events
competition—one
past winner measured
16 inches around—to
lively (and messy)
pie- eating contests. At
Sunday’s custom-car
show, candy-apple-red
paint jobs are optional
(269-683-8870; four
flagsapplefestival
.org). —Leslie Quander
Wooldridge
16 AARP
