Norman Lear Looks Back (And Ahead) at 100: What’s Changed Since the ‘Maude’ Abortion

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...ms-1235210859/

The pioneering and perennially busy producer discusses the secret to longevity (no joke: It’s laughter) and the creative throughline to several decades of sitcoms: "The foolishness of the human condition has amused me since I was 9."

BY LACEY ROSE

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

“I’m the one in the white hat,” Norman Lear announces as he and his producing partner, Brent Miller, several decades his junior, appear in Zoom boxes in late August.

At 100, the “newly minted centurion,” as he proudly describes himself, still appreciates a laugh. After all, the white hat has been the signature of Lear’s aesthetic for the vast majority of his career — which, at one point, included having seven series on the air and a weekly audience of more than 120 million. A sitcom savant, as Lear has been dubbed over the years, he’s responsible for such barrier-breaking, cultural behemoths as All in the Family, Good Times, Maude and The Jeffersons.

Many of his shows, part of a catalog now largely owned by Sony Pictures Television, have been reimagined, as One Day at a Time was for Netflix and Pop TV, or revisited, as The Facts of Life and Good Times were for Live in Front of a Studio Audience, an Emmy-winning collaboration between Lear and Jimmy Kimmel for ABC. On Sept. 22, the same network will air Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter, a star-studded special commemorating Lear’s latest milestone, which he celebrated in July with family at his farm in Vermont.

The THR Icon, who’s also a World War II combat veteran, a major philanthropist, a father of six (and grandfather of four) and the oldest Emmy winner in history, insisted that Miller join him as he opened up about the “glorious fights” at his childhood dinner table, the battles he waged with network censors and the career renaissance he’s experiencing at age 100.

Fair enough. I did want to ask you about Maude‘s abortion episode, which has been referenced aplenty in the wake of Roe v. Wade‘s reversal. I’m curious if you think, in 2022, you’d be able to air that episode.

LEAR I don’t think there’s anything I would have to do differently. I think everything we talked about then would be relevant now. Maude’s story at that time could be Maude’s today. And it ended with Maude having made up her mind to have the abortion, and the extraordinary Bea Arthur as Maude saying to Walter, her husband, played by the extraordinary Bill Macy, “Am I doing the right thing?” I’ll never forget his last line, and this is exactly the way I feel about it: “Maude, in the privacy of this bedroom and the privacy of our lives, we’re doing the right thing.” In the privacy of one’s life, one makes those decisions. A woman, it’s her body, and I say that as the father of five daughters.

How serious are you about revisiting it for the next installment of Live in Front of a Studio Audience, assuming you get to do more?

MILLER If we end up doing another one, it’s certainly one to explore. It’s not only one of the most influential episodes of television of all time, it’s the 50th anniversary. Based on everything with the Supreme Court, it feels like, why not?