In 1980, he founded the advocacy organization People for the American Way to counter the influence of the Christian right in politics, and in the early 2000s, he mounted a tour with a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

[11] His first night in Los Angeles, Lear stumbled upon a production of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara at the 90-seat theater-in-the-round Circle Theater off Sunset Boulevard.

[11] Lear had a first cousin in Los Angeles, Elaine, who was married to an aspiring comedy writer named Ed Simmons.

During this time he became the producer of NBC's short-lived (26 episodes) sitcom The Martha Raye Show, after Nat Hiken left as the series director.

In 1959, Lear created his first television series, a half-hour western for Revue Studios called The Deputy, starring Henry Fonda.

The show was based loosely on the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, about an irascible working-class Tory and his socialist son-in-law.

Lear changed the setting to the Watts section of Los Angeles and the characters to African Americans, and the NBC show Sanford and Son was an instant hit.

[33] Most of these Lear sitcoms share three features: they were shot on videotape in place of film, used a live studio audience, and dealt with current social and political issues.

[34] Maude is generally considered to be based on Lear's wife Frances, which she confirmed, with Charlie Hauck serving as main producer and writer.

He started a production company with writers and producers Saul Turteltaub and Bernie Orenstein; however, only two of their shows lasted longer than a year: What's Happening!!

He planned in 1977 to offer three hours of prime-time Saturday programming directly having stations place his production company in the position of an occasional network.

[21][41] In 1977, African-American screenwriter Eric Monte filed a lawsuit accusing ABC and CBS producers Norman Lear, Bud Yorkin, and others of stealing his ideas for Good Times, The Jeffersons, and What's Happening!!

[43] In the fall of 1981, Lear began a 14-month run as the host of a revival of the classic game show Quiz Kids for the CBS Cable Network.

[45] In March 1982, Lear produced an ABC television special titled I Love Liberty, as a counterbalance to groups like the Moral Majority.

[49] Coca-Cola sold the film division to Dino De Laurentiis and the home video arm to Nelson Holdings (led by Barry Spikings).

[55][56] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Act III Communications purchased several business journals, including Channels magazine that had been founded by Les Brown, former New York Times TV correspondent.

Channels closed in 1990, by which time Act III and Brown published and edited Television Business International (TBI).

[66] In 2017, he served as executive producer for One Day at a Time, the reboot of his 1975–1984 show of the same name that premiered on Netflix starring Justina Machado and Rita Moreno as a Cuban-American family.

[73][74] Beginning in 1971, All in the Family openly discussed current social and political topics and became the country's most popular show for five straight years.

[80] However, it has been acknowledged that James L. Brooks TV series Room 222, which was not made by Lear and which debuted before Lear's shows debuted, was also among the first shows to not only feature an African American lead character in a less stereotypical role, a high school teacher, but also invoke serious contemporary issues, with the Television Academy Foundation stating that "A season and a half before Norman Lear made "relevant" programming a dominant genre with the introduction of programs like All in the Family and Maude, Room 222 was using the form of the half-hour comedy to discuss serious contemporary issues.

They helped to fund the legal defense of Daniel Ellsberg who had released the Pentagon Papers,[93] and they backed the struggling progressive magazine The Nation to keep it afloat.

[93] In 1981, Lear founded People for the American Way (PFAW), a progressive advocacy organization formed in reaction to the politics of the Christian right.

[97][98] Prominent right-wing Christians including Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Jimmy Swaggart have accused Lear of being an atheist and holding an anti-Christian bias.

[97] In a 2014 interview with The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles journalist Rob Eshman, Lear described himself as a "total Jew" but said he was never a practicing one.

[103] Lear said in a press release and on the Today show that his intent was to tour the document around the United States so that the country could experience its "birth certificate" firsthand.

[104] Through the end of 2004, the document traveled throughout the United States on the Declaration of Independence Road Trip, which Lear organized, visiting several presidential libraries, dozens of museums, as well as the 2002 Olympics, Super Bowl XXXVI, and the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia.

The film is introduced by Morgan Freeman and Kathy Bates, Benicio del Toro, Michael Douglas, Mel Gibson, Whoopi Goldberg, Graham Greene, Ming-Na Wen, Edward Norton, Winona Ryder, Kevin Spacey, and Renée Zellweger appear as readers.

[106] In 2004, Lear established Declare Yourself which is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign created to empower and encourage eligible 18- to 29-year-olds in America to register and vote.

[107][needs update] Lear was one of 98 "prominent members of Los Angeles' Jewish community" who signed an open letter supporting the proposed nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers led by the United States.

[113][114] Numerous celebrities paid tribute to Lear, including Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Clinton, Tyler Perry, George Clooney, John Leguizamo, Jon Stewart, Valerie Bertinelli, Bob Iger, Rob Reiner, John Amos, Billy Crystal, Quinta Brunson, Rita Moreno, Mark Hamill, Ben Stiller, Albert Brooks and more.