Why Did He Wear That White Hat? New Norman Lear Biography Reveals Real Story Behind His Sitcoms
When you think Norman Lear, you think of All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time — or the man in that little white hat who brought us some of the most taboo-busting, beloved sitcoms of all time. But what do you really know about TV’s most iconic pioneer, besides the legacy of his shows?
Author and adjunct professor Tripp Whetsell set out to capture the story of the man behind the shows in his new book, Norman Lear: His Life & Times — the first in-depth biography of the iconic writer, producer and social activist. Whetsell, author of The Improv: An Oral History of the Comedy Club that Revolutionized Stand-Up, is uniquely connected to the material; he not only shares an alma mater with the late Lear (that would be Boston’s Emerson College), he teaches a course there on Lear and his classic sitcoms, too.
From Lear’s birth in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1922, through his death in Los Angeles in December 2023 at the age of 101, Whetsell captures it all in a monumental, unflinching, delightfully fascinating read.
And he doesn’t just document Lear’s life — he also catalogs its strong influence on his work. “From ‘stifle,’ ‘dingbat,’ and ‘meathead’ to Archie’s beer-stained easy chair, countless aspects from [Lear’s] own life can be found sprinkled throughout his signature sitcom and other shows,” Whetsell writes. For example, the All in the Family episode about how Edith and Archie met was masterfully based off the circumstances of Lear’s own parents’ meet-cute some 50 years earlier.
Just a Few Things You’ll Learn About Norman Lear
1. Norman Lear’s father served a three-year prison sentence when he was just 9 years old, a wound that would linger in Lear’s psyche for the rest of his life.
2. Lear was one of the highest paid comedy writers in the early 1950s, penning variety show sketches for the likes of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Martha Raye and George Gobel, among others.
3. Sitcoms weren’t his only talent. He also wrote and produced films throughout the 1960s, including the Frank Sinatra-starring Come Blow Your Horn and the Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds laugher Divorce American Style, among others.
4. His signature white hat was given to him so he wouldn’t pick at his scalp.
5. Filming All in the Family was no easy task, as Lear and Carroll O’Connor had a very stressful relationship. While both geniuses respected one another, O’Connor’s belligerence over scripts made for some impossible times. Redd Foxx, John Amos, Esther Rolle and Louise Lasser are a few others Lear would battle with, creatively and personally.
Rowan & Littlefield
Norman Lear: His Life & Times is available now at bookstores and online.
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April 2019
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