“A funny story about Norman Lear on the day of his passing, if that’s alright…” From comedian Alex Edelman.
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Discussion 6 comments
Could any kind soul paste the story in the comments for those of us without twitter accounts? Twix no longer renders threads for unauthenticated users
Yes, please!
Same. I deleted my account and can't see anything on that hellsite. (I do so dearly wish people would at least mirror to Mastodon, if they can't give up Twitter/X.)
I'm too lazy to format it more nicely, I'm afraid, but here's the thread:
For reasons that continue to baffle me, I got to host Norman’s 100th Birthday special for ABC.
Just the live show, I’m barely in the filmed thing, but it was very cool.
I did a monologue, sat at a two person table with Quincy Jones and watched a parade of amazing people... / (Tom Hanks was there!) say nice things about the guy that changed American TV forever. A few days later, I get a phone call from Norman saying some nice things and asking if I could drop by his house. He has an idea he wants to run by me. / Obviously I tell him to go through my agent - just kidding, I move a flight to make it work and clear the whole day and show up 30 minutes early./ I sit in the backyard with Norman and his executive/close friend Brent Miller and we chat for a gorgeous amount of time about the state of the world until Norman pitches this idea for a show and…/ It’s really brilliant. It’s funny and relevant - about inter-generational warfare and disinformation and the echo chambers that we live in - and it has a distinctive title. And his pitch is so solid! He doesn’t *seem* 100 - he seems 95, 96 max.../Anyway, after the pitch, I’m like, “Norman that’s amazing. And that title is so distinctive and cool. Is it a reference I'm missing?” He's not sure and tells me to Google. So I do. There’s a “TV movie” with the same title listed on IMDB from 1983. It means a pilot was made, probs / “Oh, how funny." said Norman, "who starred in it?”
“Charles Durning” “Oh! I worked with him, he was lovely. Who directed it?” “Joan Darling.”
“Oh, we did Mary Hartman together,” said Norman, “she was just wonderful. Who produced it?” "It was produced by Norman Lear." / Norman looked at Brett. He looked at me. “Well. Fuck. I guess I am 100 years old.” Norman Lear forgot more TV than I will ever write. He was the nicest and most conscientious powerhouse you could ever hope to meet. I’ll miss him terribly. Bye, Norman.
Hero of the day! Thank you!
Ah thank you, Caroline!
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