WEBVTT

00:00:00.905 --> 00:00:04.520
Eric Hirshberg: So I assume that Norman
doesn't need much of an introduction,

00:00:04.520 --> 00:00:06.078
but TED's audience is global,

00:00:06.078 --> 00:00:07.299
it's diverse,

00:00:07.299 --> 00:00:10.309
so I've been tasked
with starting with his bio,

00:00:10.309 --> 00:00:12.598
which could easily take up
the entire 18 minutes,

00:00:12.598 --> 00:00:17.214
so instead we're going to do
93 years in 93 seconds or less.

00:00:18.340 --> 00:00:20.052
You were born in New Hampshire.

00:00:20.052 --> 00:00:21.485
Norman Lear: New Haven, CT.

00:00:21.485 --> 00:00:22.994
EH: New Haven, CT.

00:00:22.994 --> 00:00:25.084
(Laughter)

00:00:25.790 --> 00:00:27.397
NL: There goes [70] seconds.

00:00:27.397 --> 00:00:29.223
EH: Nailed it.

00:00:29.223 --> 00:00:30.308
(Laughter)

00:00:31.162 --> 00:00:32.759
You were born in New Haven, CT.

00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:34.094
Your father was a con man --

00:00:34.094 --> 00:00:35.480
I got that right.

00:00:35.480 --> 00:00:38.165
He was taken away to prison
when you were nine years old.

00:00:38.165 --> 00:00:41.860
You flew 52 missions
as a fighter pilot in World War II.

00:00:41.860 --> 00:00:42.860
You came back to --

00:00:42.860 --> 00:00:44.416
NL: Radio operator.

00:00:44.838 --> 00:00:47.203
EH: You came to LA
to break into Hollywood,

00:00:47.203 --> 00:00:49.165
first in publicity, then in TV.

00:00:49.165 --> 00:00:51.197
You had no training as a writer, formally,

00:00:51.197 --> 00:00:52.564
but you hustled your way in.

00:00:52.564 --> 00:00:53.557
Your breakthrough --

00:00:53.557 --> 00:00:54.560
your debut --

00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:56.657
was a little show
called "All in the Family".

00:00:56.657 --> 00:00:58.559
You follow that up with a string of hits

00:00:58.559 --> 00:01:00.733
that to this day is unmatched
in Hollywood:

00:01:00.733 --> 00:01:01.728
"Sanford and Son",

00:01:01.728 --> 00:01:02.729
"Maude",

00:01:02.729 --> 00:01:03.734
"Good Times",

00:01:03.734 --> 00:01:04.725
"The Jeffersons",

00:01:04.725 --> 00:01:05.727
"One Day at a Time",

00:01:05.727 --> 00:01:07.154
"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman",

00:01:07.154 --> 00:01:08.922
to name literally a fraction of them.

00:01:08.922 --> 00:01:10.699
Not only are they all commercially --

00:01:10.699 --> 00:01:11.699
(Applause)

00:01:13.809 --> 00:01:16.581
Not only are they all
commercially successful,

00:01:16.581 --> 00:01:18.579
but many of them push our culture forward

00:01:18.579 --> 00:01:20.965
by giving the underrepresented
members of society

00:01:20.965 --> 00:01:23.531
their first prime-time voice.

00:01:23.531 --> 00:01:27.107
You have seven shows
in the top 10 at one time.

00:01:27.107 --> 00:01:28.111
At one point,

00:01:28.111 --> 00:01:31.733
you aggregate an audience of 120
million people per week

00:01:31.733 --> 00:01:32.782
watching your content.

00:01:32.782 --> 00:01:35.132
That's more than the audience
for Super Bowl 50

00:01:35.132 --> 00:01:36.384
which happens once a year.

00:01:36.384 --> 00:01:37.568
NL: Holy shit.

00:01:37.568 --> 00:01:38.946
(Laughter)

00:01:39.466 --> 00:01:41.246
(Applause)

00:01:41.836 --> 00:01:44.095
EH: And we're not even
to the holy shit part.

00:01:44.095 --> 00:01:45.095
(Laughter)

00:01:45.095 --> 00:01:47.909
You land yourself
on Richard Nixon's enemies list --

00:01:47.909 --> 00:01:49.566
he had one.

00:01:49.566 --> 00:01:50.570
You're --

00:01:50.570 --> 00:01:52.338
That's an applause line, too.

00:01:52.338 --> 00:01:53.344
(Applause)

00:01:53.344 --> 00:01:56.965
You're inducted into the TV Hall of Fame
on the first day that it exists.

00:01:56.965 --> 00:01:58.389
Then came the movies.

00:01:58.389 --> 00:01:59.993
"Fried Green Tomatoes",

00:01:59.993 --> 00:02:01.038
"The Princess Bride",

00:02:01.038 --> 00:02:02.042
"Stand By Me",

00:02:02.042 --> 00:02:03.399
"This is Spinal Tap".

00:02:03.399 --> 00:02:04.400
(Applause)

00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:06.608
Again, just to name a fraction.

00:02:06.878 --> 00:02:08.541
Then you wipe the slate clean --

00:02:08.541 --> 00:02:12.512
start a third act as a political activist
focusing on protecting the First Amendment

00:02:12.512 --> 00:02:14.386
and the separation of church and state.

00:02:14.386 --> 00:02:16.200
You start People For The American Way.

00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:18.055
You buy the Declaration of Independence

00:02:18.055 --> 00:02:19.597
and give it back to the people.

00:02:19.597 --> 00:02:21.959
You stay active in both
entertainment and politics

00:02:21.959 --> 00:02:23.874
until the ripe old of age of 93,

00:02:23.874 --> 00:02:24.976
when you write a book

00:02:24.976 --> 00:02:27.107
and make a documentary
about your life story.

00:02:27.107 --> 00:02:28.648
And after all that,

00:02:28.648 --> 00:02:31.156
they finally think you're
ready for a TED Talk.

00:02:31.156 --> 00:02:32.842
(Laughter)

00:02:32.842 --> 00:02:34.746
(Applause)

00:02:37.625 --> 00:02:39.227
NL: I love being here.

00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.037
And I love you for agreeing to do this.

00:02:42.269 --> 00:02:43.476
EH: Thank you for asking.

00:02:43.685 --> 00:02:44.428
It's my honor.

00:02:44.637 --> 00:02:46.170
So here's my first question.

00:02:46.356 --> 00:02:47.865
Was your mother proud of you?

00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:49.653
(Laughter)

00:02:50.349 --> 00:02:51.619
NL: My mother ...

00:02:51.619 --> 00:02:52.786
what a place to start.

00:02:54.926 --> 00:02:55.926
When I came back --

00:02:55.926 --> 00:02:57.142
let me put it this way --

00:02:57.142 --> 00:02:59.042
When I came back from the war,

00:02:59.042 --> 00:03:04.492
she showed me the letters
that I had written her from overseas,

00:03:04.492 --> 00:03:06.795
and they were absolute love letters.

00:03:11.760 --> 00:03:13.922
This really sums up my mother.

00:03:13.922 --> 00:03:15.048
They were love letters,

00:03:15.048 --> 00:03:17.259
as if I had written them to --

00:03:17.259 --> 00:03:19.117
they were love letters.

00:03:21.359 --> 00:03:25.771
A year later I asked my mother
if I could have them

00:03:25.771 --> 00:03:30.334
because I'd like to keep them
all the years of my life ...

00:03:30.334 --> 00:03:32.146
she had thrown them away.

00:03:32.468 --> 00:03:34.628
(Laughter)

00:03:37.122 --> 00:03:38.218
That's my mother.

00:03:38.218 --> 00:03:39.983
(Laughter)

00:03:41.006 --> 00:03:47.510
The best way I can sum it up
in more recent times is --

00:03:47.510 --> 00:03:49.585
this is also more recent times --

00:03:49.585 --> 00:03:50.710
a number of years ago,

00:03:50.710 --> 00:03:54.905
when they started the Hall of Fame
to which you referred,

00:03:54.905 --> 00:03:56.495
it was a Sunday morning

00:03:56.495 --> 00:04:01.980
when I got a call from the fellow who ran
the TV Academy of Arts and Sciences,

00:04:01.980 --> 00:04:04.758
he was calling me to tell me
they had met all day yesterday

00:04:04.758 --> 00:04:09.355
and he was confidentially telling me
they were going to start a hall of fame

00:04:09.355 --> 00:04:12.321
and these were the inductees.

00:04:15.583 --> 00:04:17.147
I started to say Richard Nixon

00:04:17.147 --> 00:04:18.813
because Richard Nixon --

00:04:18.813 --> 00:04:20.870
EH: I don't think he was on their list.

00:04:21.538 --> 00:04:23.486
NL: William Paley who started CBS,

00:04:23.486 --> 00:04:27.086
David Sarnoff who started NBC,

00:04:27.086 --> 00:04:28.092
Edward R. Morrow,

00:04:28.092 --> 00:04:31.818
the greatest of the foreign
correspondents,

00:04:31.818 --> 00:04:33.013
Patty Chayefsky --

00:04:33.013 --> 00:04:35.791
I think the best writer
that ever came out of television --

00:04:35.791 --> 00:04:36.786
Milton Berle,

00:04:36.786 --> 00:04:37.923
Lucille Ball

00:04:37.923 --> 00:04:39.269
and me.

00:04:39.269 --> 00:04:40.269
EH: Not bad.

00:04:40.269 --> 00:04:43.039
NL: I call my mother
immediately in Hartford, CT.

00:04:43.039 --> 00:04:44.666
"Mom, this is what's happened,

00:04:44.666 --> 00:04:46.289
they're starting a hall of fame,"

00:04:46.289 --> 00:04:48.285
I tell her the list of names and me,

00:04:48.285 --> 00:04:49.285
and she says,

00:04:49.285 --> 00:04:52.022
"Listen, if that's what they
want to do, who am I to say?"

00:04:52.022 --> 00:04:53.370
(Laughter)

00:04:53.370 --> 00:04:54.374
(Applause)

00:04:55.581 --> 00:04:58.661
NL: So that's ...

00:04:58.661 --> 00:04:59.825
that's my Ma --

00:04:59.825 --> 00:05:01.729
I think it earns that kind of a laugh

00:05:01.729 --> 00:05:03.842
because everybody
has a piece of that mother.

00:05:03.842 --> 00:05:04.836
(Laughter)

00:05:05.196 --> 00:05:08.052
EH: And the sitcom Jewish mother
is born right there.

00:05:08.571 --> 00:05:13.266
So your father also played
a large role in your life,

00:05:13.266 --> 00:05:15.081
mostly by his absence.

00:05:15.476 --> 00:05:18.424
Tell us what happened when
you were nine years old.

00:05:18.712 --> 00:05:20.859
NL: He was ...

00:05:20.859 --> 00:05:23.587
he was flying to Oklahoma

00:05:23.587 --> 00:05:25.300
with three guys that my mother said,

00:05:25.300 --> 00:05:26.303
"Don't --

00:05:26.303 --> 00:05:28.645
I don't want you to have
anything to do with them,

00:05:28.645 --> 00:05:30.208
I don't trust those men."

00:05:30.208 --> 00:05:31.671
That's when I heard,

00:05:31.671 --> 00:05:33.132
maybe not for the first time,

00:05:33.132 --> 00:05:36.888
"Stifle yourself, Jeanette, I'm going."

00:05:36.888 --> 00:05:38.417
And he went.

00:05:38.821 --> 00:05:41.318
It turns out he was selling --

00:05:41.318 --> 00:05:43.572
picking up some fake bonds,

00:05:43.572 --> 00:05:46.947
which he was flying
across the country to sell.

00:05:47.991 --> 00:05:51.470
But the fact that he was
going to Oklahoma in a plane,

00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:55.050
and he was going to bring me
back a 10-gallon hat,

00:05:55.050 --> 00:06:01.110
just like Ken Maynard,
my favorite cowboy wore.

00:06:02.546 --> 00:06:07.236
You know this was a few years after
Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic--

00:06:07.236 --> 00:06:08.236
planes were --

00:06:08.236 --> 00:06:10.857
I mean it was exotic
that my father was going there.

00:06:10.857 --> 00:06:12.022
But when he came back,

00:06:12.022 --> 00:06:14.718
they arrested him as he got off the plane.

00:06:14.718 --> 00:06:18.973
That night newspapers
were all over the house,

00:06:18.973 --> 00:06:21.833
my father was with his hat
in front of his face,

00:06:21.833 --> 00:06:23.792
manacled to a detector.

00:06:23.792 --> 00:06:27.402
And my mother was selling the furniture
because we were leaving --

00:06:27.402 --> 00:06:28.630
she couldn't afford --

00:06:28.630 --> 00:06:31.397
she didn't want to stay
in that state of shame,

00:06:31.397 --> 00:06:33.700
in Chelsea, MA.

00:06:34.607 --> 00:06:38.216
And selling the furniture,

00:06:38.216 --> 00:06:40.910
the house was loaded with people.

00:06:40.910 --> 00:06:42.981
And in the middle of all of that,

00:06:42.981 --> 00:06:49.066
some strange horse's ass
put his hand on my shoulder and said,

00:06:49.066 --> 00:06:52.038
"Well, you're the man of the house now."

00:06:53.315 --> 00:06:59.268
I'm crying and this asshole says
"You're the man of the house now."

00:06:59.268 --> 00:07:02.387
And I think that was the moment

00:07:02.387 --> 00:07:06.497
I began to understand the foolishness
of the human condition.

00:07:07.927 --> 00:07:10.707
So ...

00:07:10.707 --> 00:07:15.415
it took a lot of years to look back at it
and feel it was a benefit.

00:07:16.605 --> 00:07:17.611
But --

00:07:17.611 --> 00:07:19.630
EH: It's interesting
you call it a benefit.

00:07:19.630 --> 00:07:20.627
Listening to you --

00:07:20.627 --> 00:07:22.872
NL: Benefit in that it gave
me that springboard.

00:07:22.872 --> 00:07:26.162
I mean that I could think

00:07:26.162 --> 00:07:29.374
how foolish it was to say
to this crying nine-year-old boy,

00:07:29.374 --> 00:07:31.468
"You're the man of the house now."

00:07:31.468 --> 00:07:34.867
And then I was crying and then he said,

00:07:34.867 --> 00:07:37.305
"And men of the house don't cry."

00:07:38.077 --> 00:07:39.633
And I ...

00:07:39.633 --> 00:07:40.628
(Laughter)

00:07:40.628 --> 00:07:42.044
So ...

00:07:44.505 --> 00:07:46.117
I look back and I think

00:07:46.117 --> 00:07:50.275
that's when I learned the foolishness
of the human condition,

00:07:50.275 --> 00:07:53.434
and it's been that gift that I've used.

00:07:54.152 --> 00:07:56.567
EH: So you have a father who's absent,

00:07:56.567 --> 00:07:59.513
you have a mother for whom
apparently nothing is good enough.

00:08:00.067 --> 00:08:05.156
Do you think that starting out as a kid
who maybe never felt heard

00:08:05.156 --> 00:08:06.702
started you down a journey

00:08:06.702 --> 00:08:08.671
that ended with you being an adult

00:08:08.671 --> 00:08:11.300
with a weekly audience
of 120 million people?

00:08:12.011 --> 00:08:14.903
NL: I love the way you put that question,

00:08:14.903 --> 00:08:18.746
because I guess I've
spent my life wanting --

00:08:18.746 --> 00:08:21.503
if anything, wanting to be heard.

00:08:25.247 --> 00:08:28.524
I think ...

00:08:28.524 --> 00:08:29.755
it's a simple answer,

00:08:29.755 --> 00:08:30.764
yes,

00:08:30.764 --> 00:08:34.158
that was what sparked --

00:08:34.158 --> 00:08:35.907
well, there's are other things, too.

00:08:35.907 --> 00:08:38.631
When my father was away,

00:08:38.631 --> 00:08:44.602
I was fooling with a crystal radio set
that we had made together,

00:08:44.602 --> 00:08:50.105
and I caught a signal that turned
out to be Father Coughlin on --

00:08:52.897 --> 00:08:54.500
Yeah, somebody laughed.

00:08:54.500 --> 00:08:55.734
(Laughter)

00:08:55.734 --> 00:08:57.042
But not funny,

00:08:57.042 --> 00:08:58.566
this was a horse's--

00:08:58.566 --> 00:09:00.338
not a horse's ass --

00:09:00.338 --> 00:09:02.821
he was very vocal
about hating the New Deal

00:09:02.821 --> 00:09:05.284
and Roosevelt and Jews.

00:09:06.256 --> 00:09:09.613
The first time I ran into an understanding

00:09:09.613 --> 00:09:12.530
that there were people
in this world that hated me

00:09:12.530 --> 00:09:15.107
because I was born to Jewish parents.

00:09:15.543 --> 00:09:19.883
And that had an enormous
effect on my life.

00:09:20.217 --> 00:09:21.472
EH: So you had a childhood

00:09:21.472 --> 00:09:25.172
with little in the way of strong
male role models,

00:09:25.172 --> 00:09:27.432
except for your grandfather.

00:09:27.432 --> 00:09:29.008
Tell us about him.

00:09:29.008 --> 00:09:31.046
NL: Oh, my grandfather.

00:09:31.466 --> 00:09:35.784
Well here's the way I always
talked about that grandfather.

00:09:37.767 --> 00:09:38.780
There were parades,

00:09:38.780 --> 00:09:40.685
lots of parades when I was a kid.

00:09:40.685 --> 00:09:42.422
There were parades on Veteran's Day,

00:09:42.422 --> 00:09:43.419
on President's --

00:09:43.419 --> 00:09:44.902
there wasn't a President's Day.

00:09:44.902 --> 00:09:46.891
There was for Abraham Lincoln's birthday,

00:09:46.891 --> 00:09:48.278
George Washington's birthday

00:09:48.278 --> 00:09:51.925
and Flag Day ...

00:09:51.925 --> 00:09:53.604
and lots of little parades.

00:09:53.604 --> 00:09:55.044
My grandfather used to take me

00:09:55.044 --> 00:09:56.794
and we'd stand on the street corner,

00:09:56.794 --> 00:09:58.421
he'd hold my hand

00:09:58.421 --> 00:10:02.223
and I'd look up and I'd see a tear
running down his eye.

00:10:03.910 --> 00:10:06.298
And he meant a great deal to me.

00:10:06.298 --> 00:10:11.680
And he used to write Presidents
of the United States.

00:10:11.680 --> 00:10:12.676
Every President --

00:10:12.676 --> 00:10:13.712
every letter started,

00:10:13.712 --> 00:10:16.556
"My dearest, darling Mr. President,"

00:10:16.556 --> 00:10:21.069
and he'd tell him something
wonderful about what he did.

00:10:21.069 --> 00:10:24.025
But when he disagreed
with the President he also wrote,

00:10:24.025 --> 00:10:25.715
"My dearest, darling Mr. President,

00:10:25.715 --> 00:10:27.534
didn't I tell you last week...?"

00:10:27.534 --> 00:10:29.113
(Laughter)

00:10:29.760 --> 00:10:34.763
And I would run down the stairs
every now and then

00:10:34.763 --> 00:10:35.918
and pick up the mail.

00:10:35.918 --> 00:10:37.213
We were three flights up,

00:10:37.213 --> 00:10:40.567
74 York Street, New Haven, CT.

00:10:41.155 --> 00:10:47.557
And I'd pick up a little white envelope
reading, "Shya C. called at this address."

00:10:50.991 --> 00:10:55.294
And that's the story I have told
about my grandfather --

00:10:55.294 --> 00:10:57.339
EH: They wrote him back
on the envelopes --

00:10:57.339 --> 00:10:59.150
NL: They wrote back.

00:11:01.024 --> 00:11:05.292
But I have shown them myself,

00:11:05.292 --> 00:11:10.581
going way back to Phil Donahue
and others before him,

00:11:10.581 --> 00:11:11.593
dozens --

00:11:11.593 --> 00:11:12.587
literally --

00:11:12.587 --> 00:11:15.177
of interviews in which I told that story.

00:11:16.405 --> 00:11:21.839
This will be the second time I have said
the whole story was a lie.

00:11:24.477 --> 00:11:28.471
The truth was my grandfather
took me to parades,

00:11:28.471 --> 00:11:30.142
we had lots of those.

00:11:30.454 --> 00:11:33.240
The truth is a tear came down his eye.

00:11:33.515 --> 00:11:37.231
The truth is he would write
an occasional letter,

00:11:37.231 --> 00:11:40.388
and I did pick up those little envelopes.

00:11:40.780 --> 00:11:44.148
But, "My dearest darling Mr. President,"

00:11:44.148 --> 00:11:46.676
all the rest of it,

00:11:46.676 --> 00:11:51.141
is a story I borrowed from a good friend

00:11:51.141 --> 00:11:56.651
whose grandfather was that grandfather
who wrote those letters.

00:11:58.768 --> 00:12:00.978
And --

00:12:00.978 --> 00:12:05.228
I mean, I stole Arthur
Marshall's grandfather

00:12:05.228 --> 00:12:07.748
and made him my own.

00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:10.171
Always.

00:12:10.171 --> 00:12:12.809
When I started to write my memoir --

00:12:12.809 --> 00:12:14.269
"Even this --"

00:12:14.269 --> 00:12:15.329
How about that?

00:12:15.329 --> 00:12:17.465
"Even This I Get To Experience".

00:12:18.957 --> 00:12:20.623
When I started to write the memoir

00:12:20.623 --> 00:12:22.272
and I started to think about it,

00:12:22.272 --> 00:12:24.442
and then I ...

00:12:24.442 --> 00:12:26.643
I ...

00:12:26.643 --> 00:12:30.607
I did a reasonable amount of crying

00:12:30.607 --> 00:12:35.402
and I realized how much
I needed the father.

00:12:35.402 --> 00:12:39.187
So much so that I appropriated
Arthur Marshall's grandfather.

00:12:39.742 --> 00:12:40.987
So much so,

00:12:40.987 --> 00:12:42.899
the word "father" --

00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:44.844
I have six kids by the way.

00:12:45.434 --> 00:12:47.566
My favorite role in life.

00:12:49.636 --> 00:12:53.719
And husband to my wife Lynn.

00:12:56.219 --> 00:13:00.700
But I stole the man's identity
because I needed the father.

00:13:01.340 --> 00:13:04.950
Now I've gone through a whole lot of shit

00:13:04.950 --> 00:13:06.715
and come out on the other side,

00:13:06.715 --> 00:13:08.481
and I actually give --

00:13:08.481 --> 00:13:09.826
the best thing I --

00:13:09.826 --> 00:13:11.958
the worst thing I --

00:13:11.958 --> 00:13:14.819
the word I'd like to use about him
and think about him is --

00:13:14.819 --> 00:13:16.689
he was a rascal.

00:13:17.329 --> 00:13:22.172
The fact that he lied
and stole and cheated,

00:13:22.172 --> 00:13:24.610
and went to prison ...

00:13:26.173 --> 00:13:29.609
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)