TV Legend Norman Lear Turns 101, Says He's 'Living In The Moment' As He Enters His 'Second Childhood' — Watch Video
We should all be so lucky to live as long as Norman Lear. The legendary television producer marked his 101st birthday Thursday — yes, you read that right: his 101st birthday! — by offering words of wisdom to his 60,000 Instagram followers about the "joy and privilege" of living in the moment.
"Norman Lear here, dribbling a bit because he's entering his second childhood," the sitcom titan cracks in the video below. "I have just turned 101, and that is, they tell me, my second childhood. It feels like that, in terms of the care I am getting. I get the kind of care at this age that I see children getting. And so, I am now a 101-year-old toddler, and I am thinking about two little words that we don't think about often enough: over and next. When something is over, it's over, and we have the joy and privilege of getting on to the next [thing]. And If there were a hammock in between those two words, it would be the best way I know of identifying living in the moment.
"I am living in that moment now, with all of you," he says. "Bless all of you, and our America."
A four-time Emmy Award winner for the 1970s juggernaut All in the Family, the New Haven, Conn., native also produced the hit spinoffs Maude and The Jeffersons, the Maude offshoot Good Times, One Day at a Time and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Lear was nominated for an Academy Award for writing 1967's Divorce American Style, was a producer on, among other features, Rob Reiner's classics Stand by Me and The Princess Bride, was among the first seven inductees into the Television Hall of Fame, and was the subject of the 2016 documentary Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.
Lear in the past several years has been almost as prolific, exec-producing a reimagining of One Day at a Time (featuring a Latino family) for Netflix/Pop TV, as well as ABC's Live in Front of a Studio Audience franchise of sitcom episode reenactments (which to date has taken on All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life).
Watch Lear's birthday message below, then hit the comments to commemorate the occasion (and perhaps discuss your favorite Lear shows).