Norman Lear, Jewish creator of pioneering TV, dies at 101

(JTA) - Norman Lear, the Jewish TV pioneer behind iconic comedies of the 1970s and 1980s that helped bring social commentary and Black characters into the mainstream, has died at 101.

Lear's death was announced by a spokesperson for his family, according to The New York Times.

The decorated creator of "All In The Family," "The Jeffersons," "Maude," "Sanford and Son" and a host of other groundbreaking TV sitcoms, Lear lived and worked through just about every era of Hollywood comedy. A lifelong liberal in part, he said, because of hearing an antisemitic preacher on the radio as a child.

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