Norman Lear Net Worth

Norman Lear's Quotes

• Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of these tiny successes. And big ones come too infrequently. And if you don' t collect all those tiny successes, the big ones don't really mean anything.
• [ on being 90 years old] Suddenly I walk into a room, they're ready to applaud. I'm told how great I look all the time, and they don't mean beautiful. They mean, You're alive.
• The best gift I've ever gotten, I've gotten every day of my life, and that's waking up. I love waking up. I'm a morning afternoon and evening person. There are two small words that are the most important words in the English language: 'over' and 'next'.
• [on "joyful stress" while making shows] We had the joy of doing something we cared about; the joy of seeing it score and hearing people laugh.
• I think I learned early that it's hard to be a human being. I don't care what the circumstances of one's birth, it's hard. If life hasn't made mischief for us, we'll make it for ourselves. But that's the game of life.

Interesting Facts about Norman Lear

1. In 1959 Lear produced a pilot for a situation comedy called "Band of Gold" in which James Franciscus and Suzanne Pleshette played a different couple each week. The program was considered too "experimental" and was never broadcast.
2. Long a renowned supporter of liberal political causes, he changed his party registration to Republican in 1980 and endorsed John Anderson for President, after calling the administration of Jimmy Carter a "complete disaster."
3. Supposedly based Archie Bunker, at least in part, on his own father. The elder Lear was a salesman and, by all accounts, a vulgar, reactionary bigot who was constantly railing against women and minorities. He consistantly referred to Afro-Americans as "schwartzes," a Yiddish-American term with racially perjoritive connotations, and once called young Norman "the laziest white kid I ever knew."
4. In 1980, he founded a public interest group "People For The American Way" which is a liberal group.
5. Is a brother of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
6. Acted as a consultant for Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park (1997) at the age of 80 years old. He assisted on South Park: Cancelled (2003) and came up with the idea of the giant talking taco. He also worked on the South Park: I'm a Little Bit Country (2003) episode.
7. He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1999 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.
8. Godfather to actress Katey Sagal.
9. A veteran of World War II who flew missions over Italy.
10. First cousin of David Susskind.
11. Was a mentor to Seth MacFarlane.
12. He once explained that the reason he is almost never seen without his hat, is because early in his career when he used to write for up to 18 hours a day, he'd scratch his head so much he developed a scab. His wife Frances was so bothered by this, she bought him the hat and Norman and his hat became inseparable thereafter.
13. 2017 Kennedy Center Honors honoree. Others honored that year were Gloria Estefan, LL Cool J, Carmen De Lavallade, and Lionel Richie.
14. Friends with Carl Reiner, Carroll O'Connor, Mel Brooks, Redd Foxx, Doris Roberts, Esther Rolle, Robert Guillaume, and Charlotte Rae.
15. His TV series "All In The Family" inspired Seth MacFarlane to write for television. Seth MacFarlane was his protege.