Doc Corner: Norman Lear's Golden Age of TV
Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 11:44AM Glenn here with our weekly look at documentaries from theatres, festivals, and on demand.
We get told time and time again that we are in a golden age of television, and it’s impossible to deny that the expansion of the viewing landscape has resulted in a boon of creativity that can be seen in every single corner of the television globe. There are times throughout the brisk Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You where it appears directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are attempting to suggest that this golden age was birthed some 40-odd years ago when Norman Lear was the centre of the small screen universe with a collection of series to his name that not only snagged record-busting ratings, but also critical acclaim and pop culture buzz that saw his shows watched by some 120 million American a week.
You could say he was like David E. Kelley and Shonda Rhimes of his day.
While guest appearances by the likes of Amy Poehler, Jon Stewart and even George Clooney highlight his influence both creatively and politically, Ewing and Grady’s film is far too concerned with the man himself to truly dive into the reverberations of his work on modern television...
Wouldn't it have been far more interesting to see how great moments in modern TV like, for instance, Peggy on Mad Men so eloquently detailing giving her baby up for adoption wouldn't have existed without Bea Arthur's Maude choosing to have an abortion on an episode of television viewed by over 65 million people in prime time? Certainly more so than hearing how how Lear owns the Declaration of Independence. At one point, prominent TV producer Philip Rosenthal even says as much:
Television can be broken into two parts – before Norman and after Norman.
And while that sentiment is certainly true, Just Another Version of You trades on its audience’s knowledge of this concept more than actually demonstrating it. [more...]
Lear – in case you didn’t know – is the creator of All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and many more with many of those series’ most prominent moments featured. In an effort to not simply be wall-to-wall clips, Ewing and Grady utilize a device in which Lear watches projections of clips and chart his reaction all these decades later. It’s effective to see the man get obviously very emotional watching famous television moments like Archie Bunker being confronted by his racism as he witnesses a Puerto Rican woman given birth in an elevator. Another storytelling device involving a child version of Lear is admirable as a means of adding some visual flavour to the story, but is less necessary.
What the film could have used more of, however, was the likes of Esther Rolle who starred in Good Times and speaks of her clashes with Lear in her efforts to have an African American family represented on television without buffoonery. It is scintillating to hear her speak so frankly while surrounded by so much fawning politeness of how she thinks Lear failed at this by sending Jimmie Walker’s character and his catchphrase of “dyn-o-mite!” into the stratosphere of popular culture. “To make him the most popular black in America”, Rolle says, “was putting us all down.”
Moments like this are too fleeting, but this is something we have come to expect from this sort of overly reverential, uncritical paean documentary, the likes of which we are seeing with more and more frequency. Ewing and Grady – Oscar nominees in 2007 for Jesus Camp – have made an entertaining film, and one that will likely inspire much warmth in older audiences, but as a work of filmmaking it lacks enough of those truly special moments to transcend mere tribute and work as cinema.
Release: Opens this week in NY, next week in LA, before opening around the country. Will air on PBS later in 2016.
Oscar Chances: The affection many have for Lear will not likely be enough to prevent the film being over-shadowed by bigger subjects in more widely-discussed films.
Reader Comments (4)
Thanks for this review. Lear was unquestionably an important figure in television, but as Esther Rolle points out, there were some real issues with his output, across most of his shows (Good Times, for one, started out really good in its first season or so, then quickly devolved into pandering, often downright embarrassing nonsense). Documentaries that become hagiographies serve no one, except the reputations of those they wish to exalt.
Glenn: If we're going to compare this to comics?
Golden Age of TV: 1951 (I Love Lucy)-1964 (end of Rocky and Bullwinkle and The Twilight Zone, the last two major holdouts constructed from 50s mentalities).
Silver Age of TV: 1966(Star Trek, Green Hornet, Batman, Dark Shadows, Mission: Impossible, The Monkees, That Girl)-1977 (end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show).
Bronze Age of TV: 1983 (80s Chipmunks, Inspector Gadget and The A-Team, with Miami Vice, The Cosby Show (can we admit it's a shame who was behind it but admit it was still a well constructed program) and V: The Series about to follow the next year)-1995 (last episode of Batman: TAS).
Animation Age of TV: 1997-now. (South Park, King of the Hill AND Daria all dropped here. So, yeah. This is where the rise of TV animation fully "began" (yes, The Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead were precursors, but those could have just stayed flukes, but to have three critically successful, not pitched at six-ten year olds (Daria's pitched younger than those first two (I'd never call it an "adult cartoon"), but I'd guess the minimum age for it is still thirteen), cartoons drop in the same year? That means something.) as an all quadrants thing, and I'm not sure it will ever entirely stop.)
Modern Age of TV: 2007-now. Yes, I know people throw the "New Golden Age thing" around, but let's not. Can we please start converting TV eras to roughly conform to the comics lingo? It makes the most sense, and it doesn't create this ever arrogant idea of "The Golden Age just means 'your childhood.'"
Norman Lear deserves to be remembered, I'm glad this doc exists, if only to show younger people the reality of social issues back in the 70's.
I liked Maude the best, and avoided "Good Times" because of Jimmie Walker. I'm sorry it's not a bit more balanced, but Lear was extremely effective at expanding what could be said or done on TV. He was a force for good over-all.
Not so coincidentally -- since the PR machine is out for this documentary -- i heard Norman Lear interviewed on the radio this weekend about "all in the family" and it was really interesting/funny.
I want to see this doc since Lear's influence is before my time so i didn't SEE this influence though i've learned how much it's actually there.