Norman Lear: ‘The Jeffersons’ was better than ‘The Cosby Show’
TV producer Norman Lear says “The Jeffersons,” his sitcom about a black family, was better than Bill Cosby’s “The Cosby Show.”
“I prefer the way we way handled things over the way he handled things,” Lear said in an interview with CNBC’s “Binge.” “We got the humor in life … far more than I think he pontificated.”
Lear said the Black Panthers influenced him to make the Jefferson family more affluent and successful compared with the characters on his “Good Times.”
“The Jeffersons” was a spinoff of “All in the Family,” a show that focused on the lives of white working class characters Archie and Edith Bunker.
“There couldn’t be another Archie Bunker, in my view, or Edith Bunker. Those two people are so indelible in those roles,” Lear said. “I think calling another actor, or looking for another talent to play that role, would be unfair to the actor.”
