From its agreeably cockeyed title and lack of an "as-told-to" co-author to its broad historical scope and dishy detail, Norman Lear's Even This I Get to Experience (italics his) is a refreshing breeze from one of Hollywood's greatest institutions. A 92-year-old TV titan (and oh, by the way, World War II combat veteran, filmmaker and First Amendment activist) should feel entitled to cruise through a boastful victory lap in a book like this, but Lear largely resists that time-worn impulse. His deeper digging yields an impressively substantive tale. Credit the sheer accumulation of experience and accomplishment, giving him great material to work with, but also credit the execution--Lear says the volume was more than 20 years in the making.
Studded throughout the book are a host of interesting takeaways for the business-minded reader--of which there will be many, given Lear's impressive run as an Emmy-winning, game-changing creative force behind shows such as All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, Good Times and The Jeffersons. One central theme, for example, is Lear's counsel to stay alert for inspiration to strike anytime. He tells an amazing story about his arrival in Hollywood, with wife and baby daughter in tow. He hadn't even unpacked after the long drive from Connecticut when, during what was planned to be a quick trip to the newsstand to pick up a newspaper to search the classified apartment ads, he noticed a production of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara at the Circle Theatre. The noted venue's performance of one of Lear's favorite plays featured character actor Alan Mowbray and the Oscar-nominated Dame Gladys Cooper, and in the audience was none other than Charlie Chaplin. Lear, at this point a failed showbiz publicist trying to support his new family and knowing his future lay in creative endeavors, stayed for the show and ignored the responsible impulse to return home promptly.
Many parts of this nearly century-long life are worth considering, but of course the most magnetic for many readers will be his interactions with network executives, collaborators and cast members on the shows in the 1970s that wound up redefining the medium of television. One of the secrets to Lear's longevity and success is his willingness to let talent be talent. Even so, the book offers numerous reminders of why it's important not to acquiesce or accommodate too often--to bend but not break, in other words. Carroll O'Conner chafed constantly about the material he was asked to deliver as Archie Bunker, questioning lines and plots on nearly a daily basis. Lear held on to his convictions about the character. Similarly, when Esther Rolle and John Amos, two of the lead actors on Good Times, objected to a storyline dealing with teen sexuality, Lear drew a line in the sand. He writes, "They couldn't win unless they were sufficiently flexible to open up to another point of view occasionally in the service of the show, maintaining their convictions even when performing something counter to those convictions. Sadly to say, they weren't."
