By Carol Badaracco Padgett, Folio: Eddie Award-winning writer and editor who covers the professional film and television industry
Producer Autumn Bailey-Ford was a young teen when she watched “The Jeffersons,” one of legendary screenwriter, producer and director Norman Lear’s fan-favorite TV sitcoms that aired until 1985. “I just remember how hilarious George was,” she recalls. “At that time, it was rare to see a lot of diversity on-screen and I realize now how important that was for today’s continued efforts.”
“Sanford and Son” and “All in the Family” are also Lear sitcoms Bailey-Ford remembers watching. Looking back, Bailey-Ford can clearly identify the special things Lear’s content brought to viewers like herself. “His work, like so many others in that space, impacted me because it showcased the challenges that various families face in a way that felt human, relatable and funny,” says Bailey-Ford, founder of Atlanta-based Autumn Bailey Entertainment (ABE), which has delivered 42 film and TV productions over the past 19 years. “There aren’t a lot of shows the whole family can watch together and truly enjoy. I appreciate how [Lear’s] sitcoms did that. They started conversations and fostered community.”
Art imitates … art
Through recent film projects such as “Tulsa” (2020) and “On a Wing and a Prayer” (2023), produced by her company, Bailey-Ford has channeled Lear to some degree. The independent comedy/drama “Tulsa,” for example, is about an addict biker (Tommy, played by co-director and writer Scott Pryor) whose life is changed forever when he discovers he has a nine-year-old daughter.
Norman Lear with television icon Carol Burnett
In MGM-distributed thriller/drama “On a Wing and a Prayer,” starring Dennis Quaid, filmed in Atlanta, and which Bailey-Ford produced alongside Roma Downey, a family’s harrowing experience during the emergency landing of a small aircraft gives them new insight into life’s preciousness. “I think there’s so much power in having integral and necessary conversations through art,” Bailey-Ford says. “I appreciate how [Norman Lear] did that through his sitcoms—while keeping a smile on our faces. Through films like ‘Tulsa’ and ‘On a Wing and a Prayer,’ ABE shares in that mission.”
On social media, another prolific Atlantan in entertainment publicly remembered Lear’s work: Tyler Perry.
On his Instagram page, the actor, filmmaker, playwright, and founder and CEO of Tyler Perry Studios posted an image of himself sitting next to Lear, both looking contentedly into the camera. A portion of Perry’s inscription read:
“Not long ago I had the pleasure of meeting one of my heroes. He invited me to lunch at his home and as we sat and talked and laughed, I got a chance to tell him how he had helped save my life. I shared with him that he taught me to dream a bigger dream by his example. He was 100 years old at the time, but sharp as ever. Full of wisdom and great advice, and I took it all in. Just before I left, I asked, ‘At 100 years old what are you looking forward to?’ Without any hesitation he said, ‘Tomorrow.’ It was such a simple but powerful lesson to live your life fully one day at a time. And ‘One day at a Time’ just happened to be the name of one of his many hit TV shows, along with ‘Maude,’ ‘All in the Family,’ ‘Good Times,’ ‘Sanford and Son,’ and so many other incredible shows. They were the only thing that brought laughter and joy to me as a child, who was living a daily nightmare. I’m so glad that I had the chance to say to him, thanks to his vision and work, he gave me many ‘tomorrows’ to look forward to.”
From the framework of Lear’s far-reaching legacy and contributions, Bailey-Ford believes that entertainment professionals keep absorbing one another’s work, finding ways to comment on society, make the world laugh at itself, and most of all, keep passing it on. “I just want to remind entertainment professionals to utilize your network. You never know who shares your dreams and skills. Work together and don’t be afraid to build with what you have. When you believe, you can achieve.”
A glimpse into Lear’s formative years
Norman Lear giving a speech at a Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony
Perhaps Lear gave viewers like Perry the same gift he was given: the ability to use the art of television and film to transcend a difficult childhood.
Norman Milton Lear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in the summer of 1922. But by the time he was nine years old, according to a Time Magazine report—“Remembering Norman Lear, TV Titan and Icon of American Progressivism,” Dec. 6, 2023, by Judy Berman—his nuclear family had shattered. When his father was arrested for selling fake bonds, Lear was separated from his mother and sister, sent to live with uncles, and eventually wound up with his grandparents.
In “Even This I Get to Experience,” Lear’s New York Times bestselling memoir, he wrote of his father, “When I was a boy, I thought that if I could turn a screw in my father’s head just a sixteenth of an inch one way or the other, it might help him to tell the difference between right and wrong.”
According to Berman’s piece for Time, Lear’s father actually became the model for the character of Archie Bunker in “All in the Family.” Archie, of course, was a blue-collar family man and World War II veteran—bigoted, short-tempered, stubborn and still, somehow, lovable.
Lear is credited as saying this to NPR about the character of Archie: “I had a father who was a bit of an Archie Bunker. He was, in my mind, a long way to what became Archie Bunker.”
When actor Carroll O’Connor auditioned for the role of Archie Bunker, Lear reported knowing right away, deep down to his core, “This is Archie.” Ironically, the two would clash on set when O’Connor would attempt to do his own script rewrites. As MeTV described the tension, “both men felt they had responsibility for Archie Bunker.”
When asked if the trouble was worth it, Lear reportedly said this about having O’Connor in the role, “So worth it.”
In real-time with Lear
Atlanta resident Margaret Bush-Ware (auntie to local entertainment executive LaRonda Sutton) was a talent coordinator for Sammy Davis Enterprises in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Since Davis Jr. and Lear were friends, Bush-Ware became friends with the legendary sitcom creator, too. “Norman was genuinely a nice guy,” Bush-Ware describes. “He showed respect to everybody and he didn’t talk down to anyone. He was a down-to-earth, real human being.”
Of Lear’s beloved calling card, she notes, “He would take a social issue and turn it into something funny, make it comical.”
Bush-Ware accompanied Davis Jr. to the set of “All in the Family” for a 1972 Season 2 episode (No. 21), where Sammy Davis Jr. made a cameo appearance. In the episode, Archie Bunker was moonlighting as a taxi driver and lands Davis Jr. as a surprise passenger. When Davis Jr. accidentally leaves his briefcase in Archie’s cab, he later drops by the Bunker house to pick it up. Inside, Davis Jr. gets to experience Archie and his views in all their absurd and offensive glory.
In the final scene, as Davis Jr. exits the Bunker household and unfazed by Archie’s antics, Bush-Ware made a suggestion that Lear wholeheartedly embraced: have Davis Jr. kiss Archie on the cheek on his way out the door.
“So Norman did it, and it was a hit,” she recalls.
Once kissed, Lear had O’Connor turn to the camera and cement the comic scene in history—with a look that only Archie could deliver.
It was star stuff, and classic Norman Lear (July 27, 1922-Dec. 5, 2023).
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