With the news “One Day at a Time” will return to TV via the retro channel Antenna TV, I thought it was a good time to check out all the Norman Lear sitcoms of the seventies. What was the best? What has held up and what hasn’t?
All in the Family by a landslide.
All In the Family was a groundbreaking show. They tackled social and political issues and didn’t pull any punches. In a lot of ways I think it was edgier even than shows now. The sitcoms of the 50s and 60s tended to present a rather whitewashed version of America. I can’t think of any earlier show that really did what All In the Family did.
All in the Family was groundbreaking, done extremely well, and had a stellar cast. That combination cannot be beat.
I voted for All in the Family.
My guess is that One Day at a Time has not aged very well
as a TV show.
Sanford and Son was consistently funny and lacked the shrill, preachy tone that All in the Family and (even more so) the other shows had too much of the time. Now, as then, I tune in a comedy to have a few laughs, not to get lectured. AitF was groundbreaking TV and very influential, but it doesn’t hold up as comedy.
All in the Family was a racist show
I like Sanford and Son (even though until this topic I didn’t realize it was Norman Lear)
A vastly more interesting poll would be “Best Norman Lear sitcom that isn’t ‘All In The Family’”
I agree. I was watching some reruns of All in the Family about ten years ago and I was surprised at how bad they were. The series had been great in its time for its willingness to face controversial issues of its time. But once that time had passed, the show failed to hold up as just a sit-com.
Either he’s whooshing you or he got whooshed.
I was immediately going to vote for All in the Family, but when I saw Mary Hartman on the list (forgot that was a a Lear show) I say it wins by a mile. That show was no less than three decades ahead of its time. So much so it went over the heads of 99% of the audience. There are dozens more shows like it today (high-brow, laugh-trackless and studio audience-less) comedies than All in the Family, which was a ground breaking show for its time, but today just seems like kitsch. Its sort of in the same boat as* I Love Lucy*, it was never (and will never be) the funniest, it was just the first…
Mary Hartman was highbrow? Maybe that’s why (at 15 years old) I thought it was the crappiest piece of shit of a show ever. I recall that it was supposed to be funny, but it had no laugh track, and was not filmed in front of an audience which was almost unheard of back at that time (1976 -1977).
Are there episodes on Youtube? I can’t Youtube from here.
Yes, that’s exactly why. It was shot on videotape with no audience or laugh track because it was supposed to be a parody of a daytime soap opera, but that went ridiculously over the top (a lot of daytime soaps almost did this anyway but still took themselves seriously). I was only about ten when it was on and I didn’t get it either, but I remember my older brothers & sisters finding it hysterical. It’s available on DVD.
Mary Hartman kind of blew my mind. I saw plenty of soap operas since my mom had them on so it was exactly everything that needed to be made fun of.
Sanford and Son was pretty funny.
Jeffersons and All in the Family were brilliantly written.
It’s a tough call.
I think if I saw One day at a time now I think all the sexism and feminism would be too much to bear. I’d rather watch Kate and Allie
In answer to your question “what has held up and what hasn’t?” I say none of them have held up well.
All in the Family was groundbreaking and my choice as the best, but I find it nearly unwatchable now. It was very much a product of is its time, as I think all his shows were.
Fernwood 2Night, even though it wasn’t a sitcom per se.
That’s a mistake in the OP. Mary Hartman morphed into Forever Fernwood after Louise Lasser left.
Now, Fernwood 2 Night was funny!
Aha!
I still go with 2Night. It was brilliant satire!
What? No Hot L Baltimore?