23 Norman Lear Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

Norman Milton Lear initially wrote comedy sketches along with Ed Simmons for such TV shows as ‘The Martin & Lewis’ and ‘Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.’ During the mid-1950s he was the producer of the sitcom ‘The Martha Raye Show.’

In 1959, Lear created his first TV Western series, ‘The Deputy’ (1959-1961). He produced ‘Come Blow Your Horn’ (1963), ‘Never Too Late’ (1965), ‘The Thief Who Came to Dinner’ (1973) amongst others.

Lear was producer-writer of the satirical comedy film ‘Divorce American Style’ (1967), which fetched an ‘Academy Award’ nomination for writing.’ He was writer, executive-producer, and director of ‘Justice for All’ (1968), and satirical comedy ‘Cold Turkey’ (1971).

After initial lukewarm response, Lear’s sitcom about a blue-collared American family, ‘All in the Family’ (1971-1979), won several Emmy’s, achieved top ratings, and after 9 successful seasons, continued as spinoff ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’ (1979-1983). His next major sitcom ‘Sanford & Son’ (1972-1977), based on the British sitcom ‘Steptoe & Son,’ became very popular.  

Lear’s next series as producer-writer ‘Maude’ (1972-1978) was a spinoff of ‘All in the Family’ that followed topical storyline. His sitcom ‘The Jeffersons’ (1975-1985) was one of the longest-running (11 seasons) TV-series with a primarily African-American cast. His next sitcom ‘One Day at a Time’ (1975-1984) was about a divorced mother bringing up two teenagers. ‘Good Times’ (1974-1979), a spinoff of ‘Maude,’ which portrayed socio-political concerns of the time, was written by Eric Monte and developed-produced by Lear.

‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’ (1976-1977), the satirical soap-opera that Lear produced next, acquired cult status by 2004. He also produced TV-series ‘A Year at the Top’ and ‘Forever Fernwood’ (both 1977), and his production company produced the award-winning film ‘The Wave’ (1981). During 1981-1982, Lear hosted revival of the game show ‘Quiz Kids.’

Lear next produced TV shows ‘Sunday Dinner’ (1991) and ‘704 Hauser’ (1994), which weren’t very successful. After producing the TV special ‘I Love Liberty’ (1982), he executive-produced TV series ‘The Facts of Life’ (1979-1988), ‘Silver Spoons’ (1982-1987), ‘227’ (1985-1990), ‘The Powers that be’ (1992-1993), ‘America Divided’ (2018), and movies ‘The Princess Bride’ (1987), ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ (1991), ‘Way Past Cool’ and ‘Maggie Bloom’ (both 2000).

The reboot of Lear’s series ‘One Day at a Time’ (2017-2019) on Netflix received high ratings. He hosts weekly podcast ‘All of the Above with Norman Lear’ (2017--). Recently he produced the documentary ‘Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who decided to Go For It’ (2021).

Lear is recipient of numerous awards, including ‘Emmy’s, ‘Peabody,’ ‘Woody Guthrie Prize,’ ‘National Medal of Arts,’ and more.