THE GROUNDBREAKING NORMAN LEAR COMEDIES
84”
SCREEN MATCH!
CURATOR’S NOTE: “Right out of high school, I wrote jokes for comics & scripts in need of ‘punch up.’ One night I was standing in the back of a Los Angeles comedy club known to aJract casKng agents & talents scouts, and my client—who went on to become a major headliner in Las Vegas—was on stage geNng some very nice laughs. APerwards, the club owner let us know television producing legend Norman Lear was in the audience and wanted to say hello, which was thrilling. The next day, my agent phoned to say Norman Lear wanted to meet me (specifically, not the comic), and while I never menKoned at the club that I was his writer, Mr. Lear sorted it out and asked if I would work on a script. I savored the month or so that we worked together, and experienced he was a kind gentleman who would walk clear across the office just to tell you he liked the sweater you were wearing. A few years later, while walking through a warehouse where studios stored sets & props they hoped might be useful again, I stopped dead in my tracks when I noKced the corner of a set wall with vintage, careworn wallpaper that looked familiar to this former husky couch potato; it was Archie & Edith Bunker’s living room from All in the Family , sadly sandwiched between a failed game show set and a crumbling, snowy mountain top carved out of Styrofoam! Usually, it wasn’t a good thing to end up in deep studio storage, the last stop before being broken down by sledge hammers and hauled to a landfill. I felt I had to call Mr. Lear, who created the hit show, and he was happy to arrange a meeKng. I shared my new preservaKon mission, and my thinking that his classic set & furnishings should live on under far beJer condiKons. I was also eager to tell Norman that his old friend Johnny Carson had recently released his Tonight Show set to me: ‘Ha! I’m having lunch today with Johnny and I’ll be sure to ask him about this,’ he said. At this point, I must have beamed one hellulva smile, as Lear asked what I was thinking: ‘Somewhere in a restaurant, Johnny Carson and Norman Lear are going to be siNng around and talking about me. Today is a good day!’ Norman laughed, and without further hesitaKon said, ‘If Johnny trusts you with his set, that’s good enough for me. Take it, it’s yours!’ Norman Lear had as many as five top sit-coms on the air at the same Kme, and instead of renKng five sound stages and lighKng packages, he shrewdly had sets taken down aPer every taping, then erected the next one to be shot on the same stage, saving substanKally on rental costs. However, there was a cost endured by the sets themselves, the areas of the walls that were braced or connected together now looking like Swiss cheese from hundreds of set-ups and strikes over a hit run. In 1970, the Bunker home walls were iniKally covered with older wallpaper to communicate their economic status, likely from the mid-1960s and certainly out of stock even then. Therefore, what series decorators and later my collecKon care team had to deal with was when bits of the wall covering peeled off or tore, there was no replacement paper to be found, and the only soluKon was for an arKst with a paintbrush to in-paint the flowers or paJern that was missing. Similarly, all of Edith Bunker’s animal bric-a-brac set decoraKon were old, primarily sourced from the Good Will, and irreplaceable. When these fragile pieces were put up and taken down week aPer month aPer year, they were chipped, cracked, dropped, then glued together over and over again. Today, some of the surviving pieces are as much patching material as their original ceramic or porcelain composiKon. And since each week different union employees could be called in to dress the set, there was a number wriJen on the boJom of most pieces, and the same number on a piece of grip tape adhered to the wall or bookcase where they were to be placed. Then and now, I love to geek out over such details, and we consider original repairs & producKon markings to be part of their history.” - James Comisar
DETAIL VERSO
100
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