WEBVTT

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Eric Hirshberg: So I assume that Norman
doesn't need much of an introduction,

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but TED's audience is global,

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it's diverse,

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so I've been tasked
with starting with his bio,

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which could easily take up
the entire 18 minutes,

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so instead we're going to do
93 years in 93 seconds or less.

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You were born in New Hampshire.

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Norman Lear: New Haven, CT.

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EH: New Haven, CT.

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(Laughter)

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NL: There goes [70] seconds.

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EH: Nailed it.

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(Laughter)

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You were born in New Haven, CT.

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Your father was a con man --

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I got that right.

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He was taken away to prison
when you were nine years old.

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You flew 52 missions
as a fighter pilot in World War II.

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You came back to --

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NL: Radio operator.

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EH: You came to LA
to break into Hollywood,

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first in publicity, then in TV.

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You had no training as a writer, formally,

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but you hustled your way in.

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Your breakthrough --

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your debut --

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was a little show
called "All in the Family".

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You follow that up with a string of hits

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that to this day is unmatched
in Hollywood:

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"Sanford and Son",

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"Maude",

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"Good Times",

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"The Jeffersons",

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"One Day at a Time",

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"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman",

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to name literally a fraction of them.

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Not only are they all commercially --

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(Applause)

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Not only are they all
commercially successful,

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but many of them push our culture forward

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by giving the underrepresented
members of society

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their first prime-time voice.

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You have seven shows
in the top 10 at one time.

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At one point,

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you aggregate an audience of 120
million people per week

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watching your content.

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That's more than the audience
for Super Bowl 50

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which happens once a year.

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NL: Holy shit.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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EH: And we're not even
to the holy shit part.

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(Laughter)

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You land yourself
on Richard Nixon's enemies list --

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he had one.

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You're --

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That's an applause line, too.

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(Applause)

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You're inducted into the TV Hall of Fame
on the first day that it exists.

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Then came the movies.

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"Fried Green Tomatoes",

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"The Princess Bride",

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"Stand By Me",

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"This is Spinal Tap".

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(Applause)

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Again, just to name a fraction.

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Then you wipe the slate clean --

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start a third act as a political activist
focusing on protecting the First Amendment

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and the separation of church and state.

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You start People For The American Way.

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You buy the Declaration of Independence

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and give it back to the people.

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You stay active in both
entertainment and politics

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until the ripe old of age of 93,

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when you write a book

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and make a documentary
about your life story.

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And after all that,

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they finally think you're
ready for a TED Talk.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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NL: I love being here.

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And I love you for agreeing to do this.

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EH: Thank you for asking.

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It's my honor.

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So here's my first question.

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Was your mother proud of you?

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(Laughter)

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NL: My mother ...

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what a place to start.

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When I came back --

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let me put it this way --

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When I came back from the war,

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she showed me the letters
that I had written her from overseas,

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and they were absolute love letters.

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This really sums up my mother.

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They were love letters,

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as if I had written them to --

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they were love letters.

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A year later I asked my mother
if I could have them

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because I'd like to keep them
all the years of my life ...

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she had thrown them away.

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(Laughter)

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That's my mother.

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(Laughter)

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The best way I can sum it up
in more recent times is --

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this is also more recent times --

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a number of years ago,

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when they started the Hall of Fame
to which you referred,

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it was a Sunday morning

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when I got a call from the fellow who ran
the TV Academy of Arts and Sciences,

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he was calling me to tell me
they had met all day yesterday

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and he was confidentially telling me
they were going to start a hall of fame

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and these were the inductees.

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I started to say Richard Nixon

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because Richard Nixon --

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EH: I don't think he was on their list.

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NL: William Paley who started CBS,

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David Sarnoff who started NBC,

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Edward R. Morrow,

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the greatest of the foreign
correspondents,

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Patty Chayefsky --

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I think the best writer
that ever came out of television --

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Milton Berle,

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Lucille Ball

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and me.

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EH: Not bad.

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NL: I call my mother immediately
in Hartford, Connecticut.

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"Mom, this is what's happened,

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they're starting a hall of fame,"

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I tell her the list of names and me,

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and she says,

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"Listen, if that's what they
want to do, who am I to say?"

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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NL: So that's ...

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that's my Ma --

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I think it earns that kind of a laugh

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because everybody
has a piece of that mother.

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(Laughter)

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EH: And the sitcom Jewish mother
is born right there.

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So your father also played
a large role in your life,

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mostly by his absence.

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Tell us what happened when
you were nine years old.

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NL: He was ...

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he was flying to Oklahoma

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with three guys that my mother said,

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"Don't --

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I don't want you to have anything
to do with them,

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I don't trust those men."

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That's when I heard,

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maybe not for the first time,

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"Stifle yourself, Jeanette, I'm going."

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And he went.

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It turns out he was selling --

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picking up some fake bonds,

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which he was flying
across the country to sell.

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But the fact that he was
going to Oklahoma in a plane,

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and he was going to bring me
back a 10-gallon hat,

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just like Ken Maynard,
my favorite cowboy wore.

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You know this was a few years after
Lindburgh crossed the atlantic--

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I mean it was exotic
that my father was going there.

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But when he came back,

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they arrested him as he got off the plane.

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That night newspapers
were all over the house,

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my father was with his hat
in front of his face,

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[manicled] to a detector.

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and my mother was selling the furniture
because we were leaving --

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she couldn't afford --

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she didn't want to stay
in that state of shame,

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in Chelsea, Massachussetts.

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And selling the furniture,

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the house was loaded with people,

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and in the middle of all of that,

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some strange horse's ass
put his hand on my shoulder and said,

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"Well, you're the man of the house now."

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I'm crying and this asshole says
"You're the man of the house now,"

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and I think that was the moment

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I began to understand the foolishness
of the human condition.

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So ...

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it took a lot of years to look back at it
and feel it was a benefit,

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but --

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EH: Well it's interesting
you call it a benefit.

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Listening to you --

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NL: Benefit in that it gave
me that springboard.

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I mean that I could think

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how foolish it was to say
to this crying nine year old boy,

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"you're the man of the house now."

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And then I was crying and then he said,

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"And men of the house don't cry."

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And I ...

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(Laughter)

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So ...

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I look back and I think

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that's when I learned
the foolishness of the human condition,

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and it's been that gift that I've used.

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EH: So you have father who's absent,

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you have a mother for whom
apparently nothing is good enough.

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Do you think that starting out as a kid
who maybe never felt heard

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started you down a journey

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that ended with you being an adult

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with a weekly audience
of 120 million people?

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NL: I love the way you put that question.

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Because I guess I spent my life wanting --

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if anything, wanting to be heard.

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I think ...

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it's a simple answer,

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yes,

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that was what sparked --

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there's are other things, too.

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When my father was away,

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I was fooling with a crystal radio set
that we had made together,

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and I caught a signal that turned
out to be Father Coughlin on --

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yes, somebody laughed.

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(Laughter)

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But not funny,

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this was a horse's--

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not a horse's ass --

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he was very vocal
about hating the New Deal

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and Roosevelt and Jews.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
First time I ran into an understanding

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that there were people
in this world that hated me

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because I was born to Jewish parents.

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And that had an enormous
effect on my life.

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EH: So you had a childhood

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with little in the way of strong
male role models,

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except for your grandfather.

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Tell us about him.

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NL: Oh, my grandfather.

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Well he was the way I always talked about,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that grandfather.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There were parades,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
lots of parades when I was a kid.

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There were parades on Veteran's Day,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
on President's --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there wasn't a President's Day.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There was for Abraham Lincoln's birthday,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
George Washington's birthday

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and Flag Day,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and lots of little parades.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
My grandfather used to take me,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we'd stand on the street corner,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he'd hold my hand

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I look up and I'd see a tear
running down his eye.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And he meant a great deal to me.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And he used to write Presidents
of the United States,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
every President --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
every letter started,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"My dearest, darling Mr. President,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and he'd tell him something
wonderful about what he did.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But when he disagreed
with the President he also wrote,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"My dearest, darling Mr. President,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
didn't I tell you last week...?"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I would run down the stairs
every now and then

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and pick up the mail --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we were three flights up,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
74 York Street, New Haven, Connecticut --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I'd pick up a little white envelope
reading, "Shia C. called at this address,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and that's the story I have told
about my grandfather --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: They wrote him back
on the envelopes --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: They wrote back.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But I have shown them myself,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
going way back to Phil Donahue
and others before him,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
dozens --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
literally --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of interviews in which I told that story.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This will be the second time I have said
the whole story was a lie.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The truth was my grandfather
took me to parades,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
we had lots of those.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The truth is a tear came down his eye.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The truth is he would write
and occasional letter

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I did pick up those little envelopes.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But, "My dearest darling Mr. President",

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
all the rest of it,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
is a story I borrowed from a good friend
whose grandfather was that grandfather,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who wrote those letters.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I mean, I stole Arthur
Marshall's grandfather

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and made him my own.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Always.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When I started to write my memoir --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
even this, how about that?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Even this I get to experience.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
When I started to write the memoir

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I started to think about it,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and then I ...

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I did a reasonable amount of crying

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I realized how much
I needed the father,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
so much so that I appropriated
Arthur Marshall's grandfather.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So much so,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the word "father" --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I have six kids by the way,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
my favorite role in life,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and husband to my wife Lynn --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but I stole the man's identity
because I needed the father.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now I've gone through a whole lot of shit

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and come out on the other side,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I actually --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the best thing --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the worst thing --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
word I'd like to use about him
and think about him is rascal.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The fact that he lied
and stole and cheated,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and went to prison ...

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I submerge that in the word "rascal".

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: Well there's a saying that amatuers
borrow and professionals steal.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: I'm a pro.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: And that quote is widely
attributed to John Lennon,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but it turns out he
stole it from T.S. Eliot.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So you're in good company.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: I want to talk about your work.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Obviously the impact of your work
has been written about

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I'm sure you've
heard about it all your life:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
what it meant to people,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
what it meant to your culture,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you heard the applause when I just
named the names of the shows,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you raised half the people
in the room through your work.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But have there ever been any stories
about the impact of your work

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that surprised you?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: Oh, god --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
surprised me and delighted me
from head to toe.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There was an evening wtih Norman Lear
within the last year

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that a group of Hip-Hop
impressarios and performers,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and the Academy

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
put together.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The subtext of "An Evening With ..."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
was "what do a 92-year-old Jew" --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
then 92 --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"and the world of Hip-Hop
have in common?"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Russel Simmons was among seven on stage.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And when he talked about the shows,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he wasn't talking about the Hollywood
George Jeffereson in the Jeffersons

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
or the show that was
the "Number Five" show

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
or the --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he was talking about a simple thing
that made a big --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: Impact on him?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: An impact on him --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I was hesitating over the word, "change."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's hard for me to imagine,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you know, changing somebody's life,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but that's how he put it.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He saw George Jefferson
write a check on The Jeffersons,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and he never knew that a Black man
could write a check.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And he says it just
impacted his life so --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it changed his life.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And when I hear things like that --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
little things --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because I know that there isn't
anybody in this audience

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that wasn't likely responsible today for
some little thing they did for somebody,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as little as a smile
or an unexpected "hello,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that's how little this thing was.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It could have been the dresser of the set

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
who put the checkbook on the thing

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and George had nothing to do while
he was speaking so he wrote it,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I don't know.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: So in addition to the long list
I shared in the beginning,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I should have also mentioned
that you invented Hip-Hop.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: Well --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: I want to talk about --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: Well, then do it.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: You've lead a life of accomplishment,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but you've also built a life of meaning.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And all of us strive to do
both of those things --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not all of us manage to.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But even those of us who do
manage to do both of those,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
very rarely do we figure out
how to do them together.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You managed to push culture
forward through your art

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
while also achieving [world ...]
commercial success.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How did you do both?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: When I hear that --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
here's where my mind goes when I hear
that recitation of all I accomplished.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This planet is one of a billion ...

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they tell us.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In a universe of which
there are billions --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
billions of universes,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
billions of planets

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
which we're trying to save

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and it requires a --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but anything I may have accomplished is --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
my sister once asked me
what she does about something

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that was going on
in Newington, Connecticut

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I said, "Write your [alderman]
or your mayor or something,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and she said, "Well I'm not
Norman Lear, I'm Claire Lear,"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and that is the first time
I said what I'm saying,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I said, "Claire. Everything you think
about what I may have done

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and everything you've done" --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
she never left Newington --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"Can you get your fingers close enough

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
when you consider the size
of the planet and so forth,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to measure anything I may have done
to anything you may have done?"

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So ...

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I am convinced we're all responsible

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
for doing as much
as I may have accomplished.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And I understand what you saying --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: It's an articulate deflection --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: But you have to think about the --

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you have to really buy
into the size and scope

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of the creator's enterprise, here.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: But here on this planet
you have really, really mattered.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: I'm a son of a gun.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Laughter)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: So I have one more question for you.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
How old do you feel?

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: I am the peer
of whoever I'm talking to.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: Well I feel 93.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Applause)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: [We out of here?]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
EH: Well I feel 93 years old,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but I hope to one day feel as young
as the person I'm sitting across from.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Ladies and gentleman,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the incomparable Norman Lear.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Applause)

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
NL: Thank you

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
(Applause)