Whether you’re figuring out where to start or where to catch up with your old favorites, here are Norman Lear’s 7 most essential TV shows and where to watch them.
Norman Lear wasn’t just an epochal talent — he was highly prolific to boot. So much so that the legendary producer, who died Tuesday at 101, had at least one TV series, and as many as nine at once, on the air throughout the entire period between 1971 and 1986.
In honor of that influence, the five broadcast networks will pay tribute to Lear at the start of prime time Wednesday, with CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and the CW simulcasting an in memoriam card at 8 p.m. Pluto TV will be hosting marathons of “All in the Family,” “Maude” and “Sanford and Son” beginning Wednesday at 4 p.m. On Sunday, Me TV will air episodes of “All in the Family,” “Good Times” and “Sanford and Son” following a rerun of the Lear-hosted retrospective “The 200th Episode Celebration of All in the Family.”
In the meantime (or if you’re a cord-cutter), to help you get a handle on where to start with Lear, or where to catch up with your old favorites, we asked our critics to compile a list of his seven most essential TV shows and where to stream them.
Prime-time television was revolutionized by “All in the Family” when it premiered in 1971. The half-hour sitcom dared to tackle politics and social ills in a comedy set in the cramped Bunker household, where bigoted, grousing patriarch Archie (Carroll O’Connor) laid bare America’s changing values in the midst of the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and women’s liberation. Hate him or love him, Archie was a reflection of a country in flux, and “All in the Family” a demarcation point for the changing nature of TV comedy.
