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The Television Artistry of Norman Lear

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Horace Newcomb
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Extract

The November 10, 1975, episode of “Maude” was a brilliant presentation. Bea Arthur, the star, offered a tour-de-force performance, a one-woman show, a monologue in which she revealed to her psychiatrist her deepest fears, her most profound sense of self, of personal loss, and the search for personal meaning. The psychiatrist was present; we saw the back of his nodding head, an occasional movement of his hand scratching notes on a pad. He grunted at times. Arthur moved about a large ornate set. The office was decorated in high Victorian style with drooping plants, mirrors, heavy carved furniture, oriental rugs, and the psychiatrist's high-backed chair. This decor lent depth and richness to the scene, providing contrast to the single performance, the single moving actor.

Type
Research Article
Information
Prospects , Volume 2 , October 1977 , pp. 109 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

NOTES

1. TV Guide, 02 16, 1974.Google Scholar

2. Television Quarterly, Winter 1972, pp. 51–52.Google Scholar

3. Saturday Evening Post, 09 12, 1959, p. 86.Google Scholar

4. “Communication, Values, and Popular Television Series,” in Television: The Critical View, ed. Newcomb, Horace (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1976), pp. 11–12.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 12.

6. Ibid., p. 13.

7. Ibid.

8. “Counters in the Social Drama: Some Notes on ‘All in the Family,’” in Newcomb, , Television, p. 37.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., p. 38.

10. Ibid., p. 40.

11. Ibid., p. 41.

12. Ibid., p. 42.

13. Aden, , “The Media Dramas of Norman Lear,”Google Scholar in Newcomb, , Television, p. 29.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., pp. 33–34.

15. Kasindorf, Martin, “Archie and Maude and Fred and Norman and Alan,” New York Times Magazine, 06 24, 1973, p. 22.Google Scholar

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid., p. 17.

18. Hano, Arnold, “Can Archie Bunker Give Bigotry a Bad Name?” New York Times Magazine, 03 12, 1972, p. 124.Google Scholar

19. Kasindorf, , op. cit., p. 17.Google Scholar

20. Hano, , op. cit., p. 124.Google Scholar

21. Kasindorf, , “Archie and Maude,” p. 13.Google Scholar

22. Ibid., p. 18.

23. Arlen, , “Media Dramas,” pp. 30–31.Google Scholar

24. Kasindorf, , “Archie and Maude,” p. 17.Google Scholar

25. Hano, , “Archie Bunker,” p. 124.Google Scholar

26. Arlen, , “Media Dramas,” pp. 29–30Google Scholar. It is important to note here as well that Lear is an acknowledged “devotee of psychoanalysis.” Cf. Kasindorf, , “Archie and Maude,” p. 18.Google Scholar