Originally, with all the shows, we went looking for belly laughs.
From Norman Lear
We did an episode on Good Times which came out of a newspaper article about the incidence of hypertension in black males being higher than whites, and increasing. So we did a show in which James, the father on Good Times, had hypertension.
I think the greater responsibility, in terms of morality, is where leadership begins.
I stop and look at traffic accidents. I won't hang around, but when I hear something is terrible, as bad as it is, I've gotta look at it.
We are a country of excess. So it's not the violence, per se, but the exacerbation and constant repetition.
At great, great remove sit the head of General Electric, the head of News Corp, the head of Viacom, or the head of this giant international corporation that wants these ratings.
Granted, the writers, directors, producers, and that community make a great deal of money. But they might be choosing to do a whole lot of other things for the living they make.
There was no real controversy with All In The Family. That came from the people on the business end.
I guess because the shows were activist in their own way - the marriage of my public activism and my career activism, you know - people understand me very well. They also understand there's a very strong bipartisan part in all of this.
Nobody doubts my partisanship, but a lot of the activity is nonpartisan.
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives