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Norman Lear's Guess Who Died?

Since his well-received memoir, Even This I Get to Experience, was published in October 2014, 92-year-old Norman Lear has been making the rounds of the television and print interview circuit.

He has done dozens of interviews by now but only a few have discussed this topic that was mentioned in the online publication, Deadline:

”DEADLINE: You spoke out strongly not too long ago about the idea of a show about old people. And how you thought no way would that happen today.

“LEAR: And it hasn’t! I’ll be happy to give you a copy of a script I like a lot. I love the title, Guess Who Died? and I love several of the characters. It could be rewritten 10 ways to Sunday — but everybody has seen it, and nobody has ever called me and said let’s talk about it, and that includes very recently some people who could make it move in a flash. Not even a discussion of it.”

This is nothing new to writer/producer Norman Lear. It took him three years of haggling with nervous network ABC about All in the Family before CBS took over production of the show which went on to hold the number one Neilsen ranking for five years running, from 1971 to 1976.

Surely you remember All in the Family with your friendly, neighborhood, bigot Archie Bunker, his wife Edith, daughter Sally and her husband, Mike (Meathead).

It was a ground-breaking show but right up until three hours before the premier, CBS threatened to cancel it, as Lear explained not long ago to NPR:

”There was one line [they were concerned about]. Archie and Edith come in from church when they're not expected, because Archie didn't care for the sermon and they left. And Mike and Gloria [their son-in-law and daughter], in the house alone have decided to go upstairs...

“And Archie comes in, sees what they were — knows, basically, what they were up to. And he says, '11 o'clock on a Sunday morning?'

They wanted that line out. And when I said, 'But why?

"'Well, because he's putting his finger on what they were doing.'

“And I said, 'Well, what's the problem with that? They're a married couple, nothing happened, the camera saw nothing.'

“And they were still, 'Can't do it, can't do it.'

“I just had a sense that if they won this battle, which was almost silly, that would dictate the nature of the show and I couldn't do that. So I said, 'Well, clearly, that goes on the air or [you can] do the show without me.'"

Just a couple of weeks ago, Lear told New York Observer that he thinks his new show idea is “hilarious...It’s about people over 60 living in a retirement home and it’s funny as hell.”

”Unfortunately,” writes Observer reporter Anne Easton, “Lear’s project hasn’t been met with open arms. 'The people obsessed with the 18 to 39 age group allow us one Betty White to represent the entire older demo,' says Lear.

“'Don’t get me wrong, I love Betty White but she doesn’t a demo make, so sadly, no one will go near a project about older people and I’m learning that my influence, no matter what I’ve done in my past, is very limited at this stage.'”

For several years Lear has been flogging this show idea but the man who revolutionized what could be discussed on television, what could be joked about on television, the man who for many years delivered 120 million viewers to the network every week, can't catch any interest.

At least a good many of the print interviewers asked Lear about the show but not on television. I watched a dozen or so of those interviews and couldn't find one that asked him about Guess Who Died?

What a terrible shame that we are unlikely to ever see what the legendary iconoclast Norman Lear would do the with topic of a retirement home.

Even Jon Stewart didn't ask Lear about the show but you should watch that interview anyway for the pleasure of seeing two brilliantly funny men who take their comedy seriously, working together and showing their admiration for one another. Here are Part 1 and Part 2.


At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Mickey Rogers: He Had a Secret

Comments

Wow!

Another "cut to the chase/bone" blog. The anxiety I feel regarding the government/business cohort is validated by these two thinkers.

The danger, for me, is that coming away from watching and hearing that, makes me feel a bit satisfied that something will be done—that I don't
have to do anything because there are those in places of influence who see the problem and they will do something—

As I think about the warehousing of elders and the money to be made by that most hideous endeavor,
I wonder about the cherry-on-top of the prison warehousing sundae—there must be stockholders behind the cable "reality" prisoner "shows." So, the prison industry feels quite secure.

Not so with the elder warehousing industry, yet.

Thank you Ronni, keep us thinking and squirming.

I agree that it's a shame that ageism trumps EVEN hero-genius Norman Lear's proposal for a show on a retirement home. A shame, also, all the hahahaha on Lear's age during Part 2 of his conversation with Jon Stewart.

Back in the day, I was a huge follower of Archie Bunker and George Jefferson and their families. Watching both clips, I realized how little I knew and appreciated about the life and work of Norman Lear. Thanks to your post.

Parts 1 & 2 did not make it to my computer.....just blank
squares with a line inside in
the upper left corner!!!

Oh please Mr. Lear. You have to get your show on the air.

Do whatever it takes.

I never missed an episode of All i the Family or The Jeffersons.

The time has come, Mr. Lear. We're counting on you.

What a shame I can't see the videos just because I live in Canada.

With regard to the proposed show, when you see that the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel got a second outing (Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)because it was so popular, it's a shame that Lear's idea can't get any traction.

It's a mystery to me why those who make decisions about entertainment are so focused on young people as their audience. Don't they know there is a huge potential audience for a show about elders? Haven't they noticed that my very large generation, the baby boomers are entering old age, and that we might want to see a show about people like us? And furthermore, many of us have the money to buy products targeted to us in the advertising.

I think it goes beyond marketing only to young people. I think there's a deep-seated belief that what old people do is not interesting, and that any romance among them--which would surely come up in the story--would be disgusting rather than touching.

Perhaps we need to take a page from the younger set's book and stage some kind of a social media uprising in support of Lear's show. If TV executives were to get a sudden deluge of emails demanding that they put the show on the air, it might get through their thick heads that there's a market for it.

The BBC had a program called "Waiting for God." Its setting was an assisted living arrangement. It was wonderfully funny!Someone is missing the boat on this one, but that's television for you.

If Mr. Lear needs a technical advisor, I'm the guy. Being an "inmate" in this assisted living facility, I can safely say that there will be no end to the material. A quick glance at the case files will provide hours of knee slapping entertainment. Hopefully, as he did with "All in the family", there will a great deal of pathos along with the humor.

Your message If Lear could get this show on the air I would re-enlist for satellite t.v. I disconnected 3 years ago because there was so little to watch for the expense.

But I loved Archie Bunker and George Jefferson, and it is time to get old people visible. Norman Lear is the best source for a smart and funny look at the reality of "homes"

Mr. Lear should take it to BBC and then maybe we'd get it here via Netflix.

Don't the powers that be know about us at all? I am enjoying watching the British series -- Last Tango in Halifax. I have wondered why there is nothing remotely similar on American TV.

Great blog Ronni and the comments make it even more valuable. The next time we break bread together remind me to share my own version of not being able to get important ideas through to even the fifty and sixty year olds that run some things around our beloved City, and those concerned with all of "us" as we continue to age in "homes" or our own residences.

"All In the Family" was, and is, my all time favorite show and will never be surpassed.

I used to watch "Waiting For God" on PBS and, as Lucy Locket pointed out, it was hilarious. In that show it wasn't the kids who had sex on Sunday mornings; it was the unmarried elders.

Our Puritan heritage has stifled us from recognizing and/or admitting to the realities of life.

Norman Lear, like his shows, is A-1 and so far no one has bested him. And I doubt that they ever will. He is a national treasure.

How about a simple name change from who died to "Look who's still here?" Our generation has the numbers. Why not the clout? We need the laughs!

"Last Tango in Halifax" can and does appeal to many viewers and "Waiting for God" has been hitting the nail on the funnybone (I know..mixed metaphor, but you know what I mean) for a long time. Actually it is probably too close to the bone for the accountants who make decisions about TV programs. Well maybe someone can come up with a "senior" version of "Keeping Up With the K'S". It would have to be better than anything the K family can put out. I'd bet Lear could develop such a show.

Sex, religion, money and politics which used to be taboo subjects for real discussions on TV are now so ubiquitous that I would not be surprised to see those issues slipped into "Sesame Street". But age and death are still too far out for most programmers.

Network TV is a wasteland with all those reality shows, made for little or no money, no actors to have to pay residuals, no talent, no interest on my part.... it's no wonder everyone is getting Netflix and no one is watching network TV.

The BBC has had many shows about elderly people that have been hugely popular -- besides those already mentioned. In fact, Norman Lear's "All in the Family" was a take-off of a BBC original and was not something Lear thought up himself... however, it was great that Lear was able to get the show on network TV.

I would definitely watch it. Sounds ready made for Nexflix.

I have couple of other points. I think it sad how much standards have changed. Back then the sensors didn't want an innocent line in the show. Today there is awful raw scenes, dress codes are unheard of and.. Well I'll get off my soap box.

There was a show couple of years ago that thankfully didn't make it. I watched 1 time. Older people playing dirty tricks on people.

Celia is right. The Brits seem to have gotten the memo. They aren't afraid to star people over 60 in their shows. I just watched Bill Nighy, who is 65 according to the internet, playing a romantic lead in a PBS spy thriller from England. Their tv is so much better than ours.

While we're lauding Mr. Lear and his classic shows, I have to give a shoutout to "Maude" and the fantastic Bea Arthur.

Sweet Sue and others...
To clear up any confusion, Maude was a spinoff of All in the Family that was also created by Norman Lear.

Watching the trailers for any shows currently on TV and there's all manner of weaponry, bigger guns, bigger explosions, blood and bodies everywhere, killings galore, but no, no, mustn't mention "...who died." Seems the producers aren't afraid of killing perhaps as much as the specter of their own demise.
And on another note, I live in a senior community and at a recent gathering I mentioned to someone that I just know there's a sitcom in here somewhere. Material for it abounds! Keep after 'em Mr. Lear-you've a great idea!

What a great idea! It would shed some light on the younger generation and maybe, just maybe, it might help them to understand what it's all about growing old and be kinder and gentler to the aging community.
Prayers are lifted up for your script, Mr. Lear!

I sincerely agree with the posts above...networks, Netflix etc. wake up! We need more good quality programming that makes us laugh. I hope to see this on the air very soon!

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