I guess because the shows were activist in their own way - the marriage of my public activism and my career activism, you know - people understand me very well. They also understand there's a very strong bipartisan part in all of this.

Early life
Lear was born in New Haven Connecticut the son of Jeanette (née Seicol) and Herman Lear who worked in sales. The Lear organization was one of the most successful independent TV producers of the 1970s. Communications (T.

Norman Milton Lear (born July 27 1922) is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family Sanford and Son One Day at a Time The Jeffersons Good Times and Maude. As a political activist he founded the advocacy organization People For the American Way in 1981 and has supported First Amendment rights and progressive causes.