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The cause of death of groundbreaking TV producer Norman Lear has been revealed,two weeks afterhis death at 101.
The creator of All in the Family died on Dec. 5 from cardiopulmonary arrest (a.k.a. cardiac arrest), according to adeath certificateobtained byTMZ. Congestive heart failure is listed as an underlying cause on the certificate from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Lear died at his Los Angeles home, surrounded by family. “Norman lived a life in awe of the world around him,” his family wrote in a statement. “He marveled at his cup of coffee every morning, the shape of the tree outside his window and the sounds of beautiful music. But it was people — those he just met and those he knew for decades — who kept his mind and heart forever young.” Lear’s family added that he was “surrounded by his family as we told stories and sang songs until the very end.”
The TV producer smashed boundaries with politicized sitcoms such asAll in the Family,helped diversify network television with showsThe JeffersonsandGood Times,and used the half-hour comedy to address social issues and taboo, hot-button topics.
Before Lear and his pioneering seriesAll in the Family, network sitcoms had as much edge as a butter knife. “BeforeAll in the Family, there were a lot of families on television, but the biggest problem they faced was Mom dented the fender or the boss is coming to dinner and the roast is ruined,” Lear once said. “America had no racial problems, no economic problems. Women didn’t get breast cancer; men didn’t get hypertension.”
All thoseissues and morewere addressed in theshows Lear developed, produced, and sometimes wrote.All in the Family,Maude,The Jeffersons,Sanford and Son, andGood Times, among others, brought political and social awareness to TV. As Robert Redford once said of Lear, “He brought humanity, edge, humor, and vulnerability into the mainstream, and we owe him a great debt for that.”
