When I heard the news about Norman Lear’s death, I was sitting with my writing team at Abortion Access Front. We had just finished writing this social post when the notification came in on Slack: “Norman Lear died.”
It hit me harder than I thought it would. All my gratitude for how he paved the way for me came rushing to the surface.
All in The Family blew apart the Overton Window in terms of what comedy on TV looked like. I could not have imagined a media world that would have greenlit The Daily Show without Norman Lear putting his ass on the line and breaking so many barriers. He held up a mirror, showed us who we were, and in turn how we needed to do better.
As a stand-up, a comedy writer, abortion rights activist, and human who’s had multiple abortions, this is what’s known in the business as pretty fucking huge.
So today, while others will primarily focus on All in The Family, I want to uplift and thank Mr. Lear for
Maude, specifically the two-part episode that follows Bea Arthur’s title character as she navigates her options as a 47-year-old woman who finds out she’s pregnant.
In “Maude’s Dilemma,” Lear centered abortion, knowing it could destroy his career. It was 1972, and in two episodes he took a brilliant script by Susan Harris and produced 44 minutes of primetime TV that brought real talk about abortion into the living rooms of millions of viewers.
For the first time, a secretive lived experience of countless women was presented with complexity, humanity, compassion and humor, on a sitcom watched by one in four American households.
Fast forward to today: when my team and I looked up from our computers after reading the news, I turned to my head writer Alyssa and said, “Let’s find a clip from that episode and post it on social to honor him.”
So we watched this episode from 51 years ago, and amazingly, this authentic abortion journey felt like it could have been written today.
The discussion between a pregnant Maude and her daughter Carol, played by Adrienne Barbeau, was full of fear, introspection, hilarity, and ease – in short, a realness that was stunning even to professional comedy writers who slay anti-abortion monsters for a living.
We found our clip. Carol was trying to get Maude to stop beating herself up about having an unintended pregnancy. “It’s not your fault,” Carol says to Maude. “When you were young, abortion was a dirty word. It’s not anymore.”
“It’s not?!” we all screamed. Because in the year 2023, we knew that when we clipped that scene for TikTok and Instagram, we would have to trick the algorithm by spelling the word “aborSHUN” or “ab0rti0n,” or risk getting banned.
The reasons Maude’s daughter gives her mother for why it’s OK to have an abortion in 1972 are the same ones Abortion Access Front emphasizes right now: it’s safe, it’s legal, and the stigma around it is as old-fashioned as using crocodile dung as a contraceptive.
There are so few Norman Lears who will risk their own careers to say what needs to be said. He held up that mirror for society, and he made it easier for all of us who use comedy to speak truth to power. He gambled on showing the network suits that there was an audience for it, and that audience buys beer and cars. And has abortions.
Now, obviously, America is at another major inflection point on this issue, and we need that Norman Lear-style bravery more than ever.
My organization Abortion Access Front tries to follow that lead every day, exposing anti-abortion hypocrisy with humor and outrage. We’ve seen hilarious and insightful abortion storylines on shows like Broad City and Shrill. And of course, there’s The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight. But we need more voices and more fearlessness.
So, I’ll pay tribute and honor Mr. Lear’s legacy by continuing to shine a light on the bullshit, and let’s all remember that line from the episode: “Abortion was a dirty word. It’s not anymore.”
Hopefully he’ll forgive me if I have one minor script note: abortion was never a dirty word.
When I heard the news about Norman Lear’s death, I was sitting with my writing team at Abortion Access Front. We had just finished writing this social post when the notification came in on Slack: “Norman Lear died.”
It hit me harder than I thought it would. All my gratitude for how he paved the way for me came rushing to the surface.
All in The Family blew apart the Overton Window in terms of what comedy on TV looked like. I could not have imagined a media world that would have greenlit The Daily Show without Norman Lear putting his ass on the line and breaking so many barriers. He held up a mirror, showed us who we were, and in turn how we needed to do better.
As a stand-up, a comedy writer, abortion rights activist, and human who’s had multiple abortions, this is what’s known in the business as pretty fucking huge.
So today, while others will primarily focus on All in The Family, I want to uplift and thank Mr. Lear for
Maude, specifically the two-part episode that follows Bea Arthur’s title character as she navigates her options as a 47-year-old woman who finds out she’s pregnant.
In “Maude’s Dilemma,” Lear centered abortion, knowing it could destroy his career. It was 1972, and in two episodes he took a brilliant script by Susan Harris and produced 44 minutes of primetime TV that brought real talk about abortion into the living rooms of millions of viewers.
For the first time, a secretive lived experience of countless women was presented with complexity, humanity, compassion and humor, on a sitcom watched by one in four American households.
Fast forward to today: when my team and I looked up from our computers after reading the news, I turned to my head writer Alyssa and said, “Let’s find a clip from that episode and post it on social to honor him.”
So we watched this episode from 51 years ago, and amazingly, this authentic abortion journey felt like it could have been written today.
The discussion between a pregnant Maude and her daughter Carol, played by Adrienne Barbeau, was full of fear, introspection, hilarity, and ease – in short, a realness that was stunning even to professional comedy writers who slay anti-abortion monsters for a living.
We found our clip. Carol was trying to get Maude to stop beating herself up about having an unintended pregnancy. “It’s not your fault,” Carol says to Maude. “When you were young, abortion was a dirty word. It’s not anymore.”
“It’s not?!” we all screamed. Because in the year 2023, we knew that when we clipped that scene for TikTok and Instagram, we would have to trick the algorithm by spelling the word “aborSHUN” or “ab0rti0n,” or risk getting banned.
The reasons Maude’s daughter gives her mother for why it’s OK to have an abortion in 1972 are the same ones Abortion Access Front emphasizes right now: it’s safe, it’s legal, and the stigma around it is as old-fashioned as using crocodile dung as a contraceptive.
There are so few Norman Lears who will risk their own careers to say what needs to be said. He held up that mirror for society, and he made it easier for all of us who use comedy to speak truth to power. He gambled on showing the network suits that there was an audience for it, and that audience buys beer and cars. And has abortions.
Now, obviously, America is at another major inflection point on this issue, and we need that Norman Lear-style bravery more than ever.
My organization Abortion Access Front tries to follow that lead every day, exposing anti-abortion hypocrisy with humor and outrage. We’ve seen hilarious and insightful abortion storylines on shows like Broad City and Shrill. And of course, there’s The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight. But we need more voices and more fearlessness.
So, I’ll pay tribute and honor Mr. Lear’s legacy by continuing to shine a light on the bullshit, and let’s all remember that line from the episode: “Abortion was a dirty word. It’s not anymore.”
Hopefully he’ll forgive me if I have one minor script note: abortion was never a dirty word.