Terrible

Norman Lear used to be one of my heroes. I had such admiration for the groundbreaking work he did with All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. I have several of these in complete box sets. And yet this live performance from two classic episodes of AITF and The Jeffersons.was truly abysmal. These are talented actors and I felt bad for every one of them due to horrible direction. And yet this was an.inexplicable ratings hit for CBS and ended up winning an Emmy for best Variety Special and spawned a followup in December of '19 with Christmas episodes of AITF and Good Times. It's nice to see Norman Lear spritely and active at near-100 but sadly his good judgement must have left him if he thinks these live shows were any good. I wasn't wild about his Hispanic reboot of One Day at a Time either over the past few years. Still, the man is a living legend and the work he did back in the 70s will always be celebrated for bringing adult material to the American sitcom.