I was the laziest white kid my father ever met. In total, lear wrote produced produced. We dont know what the episode is all about. Oh, its about abortion. Lear has left his mark on american politics. Founding people for the american way and hes fought against religious fundamentalism. What can i say about Jerry Fallwell. I was the number one enmy in the generation. In his 90plus years he has lived a multitude of lives. One of those lives as a bomber in world war ii. Americans love america. But there was a time after world war ii when we were in love with america. I had a chance to speak with norman lear, of all of this, and his thoughts of being a father of six, he tells about his recent book, all this i get to experience. You have tackled issues of racism, home owes phobia, did you set out being a trail playser . I didnt think of it as being a trail blazer. It was american life. We were the family of people, my family, other people that joined when we went into television were all members of families. They read newspapers, what impacted them directly in their families was the grist for our mill. What impacted them in the outer world became grift grist for our mill also. The issues you talked about in these tv shows, no one talked about them publicly on television before. They became aing a fabric of our culture. When did you realize they were impacting us . They were impacting families before they impacted the culture. What were we going to work with . Were we going to make up a story about the roast is ruined and the boss is coming for dinner, or the kid came home crying and realized it was our fault or whatever. Lets start with all in the family. So groundbreaking. You said that archie bunkers character was based on your father. Did your father seem like a racist . It didnt represent my father, he was not what he was doing he would shout at me and i was the dumbest white kid hed ever met. To that degree when i read about to death us do part the british show, not exactly the way archie, you know, the Takeoff Point was, my fathers i dont even like to use the word bigotry, he just progress, he was he was concerned. Opinionated . And afraid about progress. He was everywhere where the grass was green and knew everything. What was it like to grow up in that kind of household with someone that was so opinionated . It wasnt easy but i think its generally hard to be a human being. I dont care what the you know how one was born, it is hard to be a human being. Harder, for many, quite obviously, across the globe but hard in any event, no matter the circumstance of birth. Just to be a human being. You wrote in your book im going to paraphrase it a little bit here, but if your father had a screw that you could turn it a little bit and maybe help him figure out the difference between right and wrong, your father was you know, arrested for selling phony bonds as well. Did that he was serving three years in prison. That absence i can imagine that had a profound impact on you. When youre nine years old and your father goes off and your mother sells the furniture and youre living with an uncle and uncle and grandparents and your mother and sister, she was younger, someplace, i dont know where, i would say yeah, that would have an effect on a kid. Do you wish you could have turned that screw and prevented him from doing what he did . I would have liked to have done that. But on the other hand, im sitting here on with you on a comfortable moment. I might as well be happy everything that occurred to get here. Your mother. My mother. What was she like . My mother. I can best illustrate my mother by telling you that when i called her at 60something, my age, to tell her that i had just that the academy was just starting a hall of fame and they had announced to me secretly the first inductees were going to be William Paley who started cbs, david sarnoff, the greatest of the foreign correspondents pagddy chaefsky conditioned milton berle and me she said to me, listen, if thats what they want to do, who am i to say . Thats my mother. That should tell you everything. All in the family for a moment. Im a little younger. Are you . I didnt see the originals, but i loved the show. I remember the ing episode where archie bunker repeatedly used the word fag. Why use that word so many times in one episode . Came from the fact that that was the word that one would hear in the schoolyard, around the subway, you didnt have to know the people who were talking if they passed you in the street and you might hear the word. So it wasnt like we were reaching for something. It was the culture and the vocabulary. And we used them. Did that show open a conversation and a dialogue in this country that hadnt happened before . You know what ive learned . Every episode for people opened the conversation. Because i go through life hearing people tell me all the time, and afterwards we talked we talked, we talked, my father was like that, or wasnt like that, my uncle was, but people talked. And if a play is going to do anything after it has made people laugh, the best thing is having them talk. So we hoped we would we were delivering real characters the way we knew them in life. Maud got her own television show, modern woman like all in the family the issues were controversial, things that hadnt been talked about before. The same issue where maude considering having an abortion putting you in the cross hairs of the religious right. How did you handle that . Very well. Like any other show, lets turn on maude, we dont know what the episode is about, oh its about abortion. Thats the way the American Families and American People handled it. Nothing happened, im sure there were some letters but there was no big stir because we had done a show on the subject. Time. But after, when the show went into reruns come april, may, by then the religious right said oh that shows coming back theyre going to be rerunning that. Then they were ready. Then they made all the noise. The theme song itself was controversial, it talked about god being a woman, right . Was that controversial . Who knows, god to be a woman. You know, no i mean its very interesting that nobodys come back to tell us. We just dont know. What do we know about god . Ha ha ha. I think what people know about god is, comes from the way theyve been raised. And i think they should honor it the way they do. But it should live within the family. Within the church. Within the pew, within the individuals compact and they are all different with their creator, god, the designer whatever anybody cares to call the entity responsible for all of this. And i dont know that there is or isnt. So im perfectly willing to go along with anybody who thinks there is. But i think im not ive not better than here before, by the way. Youve taken me to a place in this interview that i havent been before. I told you it would be the best interview you have ever been on. It is. The subject interests me. I think its the best subject going. Coming up norman lear talks about politics, criticism of president obama and religion. What he has to say about fundamentalists. Im adam may, youre watching talk to al jazeera. Our guest this week is norman lear. Do we have an issue right now when it comes to religion and the infill strayings we have into our politics . I think we have a huge problem about religion, that comes from that narrow band, or bands, i should say, because its not one band, its those narrow bands of fundamentalists, i dont use that, using that in the literal sense, not a religious sense, fundamentalists who say they know the way and if you dont know the way, god out. There are several there are many fundamentalist bands who think that way, theyre entitled that. I fought a war for that. Let them think what they wish to think. But thats the kind of thinking that wants to be for the people who believe it and not insist in a country that says there shall be no mixture of politics and religion. We specifically, you know, from the constitution forward, prohibit the mixture of politics and religion. And so religion wants to be in ones heart and soul. That compact with the almighty. Any 200 people sitting in the same pew reading from the same sacred text, each have its compact is different anyway. In articulabley different. Why did Jerry Fallwell . Away iwhat can i say about Jerry Fallwell . I didnt accept god his way, and because the shows i was doing dealt with subjects he felt should not be dealt with. Like life. Youre a history are buff you owned a copy of the declaration of independence. What do you think the Founding Fathers would say about the television you produced . I think Founding Fathers would have found it very interesting. The Television Shows i produced. As a matter of fact, fathers starting with my own, is a major theme of my life. Looking for the father that, in a sense, deserted, or at nine years of age. But father has been a very big word in my life, and i think Founding Fathers and the declaration , thats a big glorious bouquet in my life. Lets talk about your organization. You founded people for the american way 35 years ago. The Mission Statement says among other things that our america respects diversity, nurtures create ivity and hates bigotry. Does our america do that today . Bigotry is alive and well in the human species. We can only recently see what can be done in the lgbt cause. Civilization can take a giant leap forward as it just did. We need a few more giant leaps forward. What other areas . The area of race, i dont think we settled the racial problems in this country, they still exist. Youre very hopeful that president barack obama would make a big impact on that issue. Ive read that youre disappointed in him. Well, i dont know whether you in what context you read that. But in the context were talking about, the fact of his presidency for eight years historically will have been is now a giant step forward. Talk about having made a step forward on an issue. When he was first elected, that couldnt have been it was an amazing extent forward. Now comes the it shows that mind. What are your criticisms of the president . I wanted the country to have a father. I wanted the country i wanted a president who would help us look in the mirror and see ourselves honestly. I wanted a president who would have the inner didnt need the flag pin. He just had to help us understand who we were as americans. Which is to say, my Bumper Sticker reads just another version of you. We are just another version of everybody else. And i think he had all of the intellect and knowledge and Everything Else to have helped us with that. Youre a very liberal person. Was is he not liberal enough, not progressive enough . I i dont know. The country needs a father. In every sense of the word. And a father helps you understand your own humanity. And my idea of a father. Who you are as a human being, we need to know who we are as americans. And we dont have the help anywhere in the establishment. The president is an individual. But we have individuals in your media. And, you know, you could ask the question, how good a job is the media doing helping a country that depends on an informed citizenry, understand what it well. Do you believe the news media is failing this country . I yes, i do. I believe the news media goes at this level and far faster than im going. And doesnt give us the context we need. You served our country in world war ii. Youre a member of the greatest generation. How did that impact the work you did in entertainment . Well, you know, i see a difference between being in love with something and loving something. I think america loves america. I mean, americans love america. But there was a time, after world war ii, when we were in love with america. We were in love with the promises that were you know that are worded in that declaration of independence, and the bill of rights and so forth. We were in love with all those promises. We won world war ii, which was a giant coming from nowhere and nothing, to manage to win that war. And then we invented the marshal plan to help europe, we did that job. You personally were in a b17 bomber. Yes. Front lines of combat really. That had to shape your world view. Well, thats another long story. It did shape my world view, i guess. I flew 52 missions over germany. And i dont think they could have gotten me in the plane if i hadnt lived so many lives before that. I dont know if you have the time for this but tell me. What do you mean . But, you know, by the time i, at 20 or 21, by the time i enlisted i had lived a life with my as a kid with my mother and father. I had lived a life with my sister. I had lived a life in nursery school, in public school, i lived a life in my civics class, in my chemistry crub, in club in my stamp club, an early life in the military. By the time they threw a flak jacket at me, and said, get in that plane theyre going to shoot at you in the air and from the ground. By the time that had happened i had lived so many lives that i couldnt imagine there wouldnt be more. Did you fear death . Yes, i fear death. You prayed up there. I prayed up there. In a unique way. Tell me about that. I had a picture in my back pocket of my wife. My wallet. And i used to touch it and touch my lips. That was and i dont remember what was going on in my head. I dont remember that nobody has ever asked me that question but that was kind of what i was doing. Everybody had some other little thing they were doing. And on my very first i was due to fly several times before we actually took off, because of weather. But we went through all the motions. And my greatest friend,ye , Jimmy Edwards was a gunner like i was. After that First Mission we were supposed to fly we touched down after breakfast, went to the latrine, and it happened the second time. And as soon as it happened the second time it was a superstition. Like guys wore the same clothing or the same underwear or touched the picture, or everybody had some little thing they repeated every mission. So jimmy and i ran to sit down whether we had to go or not, four times, five times. The sixth time or so, we took off. And it was a mission. And his plane didnt compact. Ome come back. Up next, norman lear reflects on his own family, after hunted to the im adam may, youre watching talk to al jazeera. Norman lear. What will be for norman lear . Thats interesting and there will be a next. You have any ideas you want to share with us . Id like to do a Nondenominational Church service for all people who will get together to honor our common humanity. And set our religions aside. Because we have killed each that. In the name of religion. Id like to be a part of seeing that happen. You have a wide range of children right now. 60 to in their teens. What are your reflections upon being a father . Id like to have been a better one. There was a time i had five families on the air. And one, as i put it on mooncrest drive. The one on mooncrest drive, i saw to it that the kids were fed. And they get up in the morning they got dressed, they went to school. Sometimes i drove them. But they pretty much, the family on mooncrest drive pretty much took care of itself. The ones on television, i spent 12, 15 hours a day talking about. They needed what i was thition justthinking just to breathe. To go through their years on television. So i was a better father at work in that sense than i was at home home. Certainly, let me change the word better to attentive. Because i certainly wished to be and tried to be and hoped to be at home. Is regret too strong a ward you wish you could do that over . I would do it better but i over. This is the moment that im enjoying. Then everything it took to get here was what it took to get here. So i dont like living in regret. I see clearly, i could have done better. If i had it to do over again would i do better . Regretting. Thank you for the television you have put on the air, thank you so much. Your youre welcome. Were here to fully get into the nuances of everything thats going on not just in this country but around the world. As if there were no cameras here, would be the best solution. This goes to the heart of the argument to tell you the stories that others wont cover. How big do you see