revolutionized sitcom television -- norman lear. >> i think of donald trump as the middle finger of the american right hand. the american people, you know, we are in a democracy and the democracy depends on an informed citizenry -- which would be a well led and informed -- i don't think we have a media generally that informs. amy: at 94 years old, norman lear is still going strong and speaking out. the creator of many sitcoms including "all in the family" and "the jeffersons" joins us to talk about his groundbreaking tv shows, this year's presidential election, how he ended up on richard nixon's enemy list, and the new pbs documentary about his life that is airing tonight "just another version of you." , all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the planet has crossed a new threshold. the average carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere throughout 2015 were 400 parts per million. this according to the world meteorological organization. scientists have long warned carbon dioxide levels must remain below 400 parts per million, if not below 350 parts per million, to avoid catastrophic climate change. scientists predict the carbon dioxide levels will not have a low 400 parts per million average for decades to come, even if there are aggressive measures taken to cut global carbon emissions. be the also slated to hottest year on record. in canada, 99 people were detained by police monday at a demonstration on parliament hill in ottawa, demanding prime minister justin trudeau reject the expansion of the kinder morgan's trans mountain pipeline, as well as all new tar sands pipelines and infrastructure. among those arrested was clayton thomas-muller, a climate activist from the cree nation in northern manitoba. >> we know that they're just trying to test the war -- water to get the controversial tar sands oil that has been killing and making people in northern operative with cancer, poisoning their food system, poisoning their water system, creating climate chaos across the planet. justin trudeau is in collusion with big oil and we're here today to support these young people, these brave warriors of the sacredness of mother earth to let him know he needs to reject the kinder morgan pipeline. meanwhile, in iowa, residents fighting the dakota access pipeline say at least one person has been arrested as a group blockaded a waste dump site being used by dakota access as -- by the dakota access pipeline company as it bores underneath the mississippi river. the group mississippi stand says two residents locked themselves to a barrel to blockade the road leading to the dump site, halting drilling underneath the mississippi for hours. this comes as court documents shaileneywood actress woodley is slated to stand trial january 25 on charges related to a protest on october 10, indigenous peoples day. to see our full interview with shailene woodley on monday on her arrest, go to democracynow.org. policestan, dozens of cadets and guards have been killed after three gunmen armed with guns and explosives stormed a police training college outside the city of quetta monday. this is the provincial home minister. >> following orders of the chief minister him and emergency has been declared and all hospitals. enforcement are coming. police are arriving. our focus entirely on the operation for not amy: pakistani security forces retook control of the police training college after four hours. authorities say the gunmen belong to the militant group lashkar-e-jhangvi. quetta has seen a handful of deadly attacks by militant groups in recent years, including an attack on a hospital in when a suicide august bombing killed 70 people, mostly lawyers. in france, officials are continuing to demolish the calais refugee camp, known as the jungle, where thousands of refugees from afghanistan, iraq, syria, somalia, eritrea, sudan, and other war-torn countries have been living as they seek to reach england through the channel tunnel. more than 2000 refugees reportedly left the camp yesterday on busses headed to refugee centers across france. but thousands more remain in the camp and are vowing to refuse to leave. monday night, police attacked a group of refugees with tear gas, after they began throwing stones at the police. this comes as aid agencies say 3740 refugees have died attempting to cross the mediterranean so far this year -- meaning this year has, so far, been three times deadlier than last year for refugees attempting the perilous crossing. to see our read more from the calais refugee camp, go to democracynow.org. with the u.s. election only two weeks away, both donald trump and hillary clinton are campaigning in florida today. recent polls suggest clinton may carry florida in november 8. clinton campaigned alongside massachusetts senator elizabeth warren on monday in new hampshire where warren referenced trump's comments calling clinton a nasty woman. >> nasty women have really had it with guys like you. get this, donald, nasty women are tough. nasty women are smart. and nasty women vote. amy: donald trump, meanwhile, appeared on a new hampshire radio program where he lashed out at adult film star jessica drake, who on saturday accused trump of hugging and kissing her without her consent. she is the 11th woman to accuse trump of sexual assault. this is trump. mr. trump: one said, he grabbed me on the arm. ie is a porn star, the one cannot recently. he grabbed me and he grabbed me on the arm. i'm sure she is never been grabbed before. amy: a major trade deal between the european union and canada appears to be on the brink of collapse after belgium announced it would not sign the treaty, amid massive local opposition in three regions of belgium. the comprehensive economic and trade agreement, known as ceta, was expected to be signed this week. it requires the support of all 28 european union countries to be approved. but on monday, belgian prime minister charles michel said he could not sign the agreement, because of opposition led by belgium's socialist-run wallonia region where residents are demanding stronger labor, health and environmental protections. , in colombia, members of a peace walk have arrived in bogota after traveling for nearly 300 miles to demand a peace deal between the colombian government and farc rebels. the march was lead by the family members of 12 politicians kidnapped by farc rebels in 2002 in valle de cauca. 11 of the 12 politicians were ultimately killed, while one survived. this is jhon jairo hoyos, whose father was one of the politicians kidnapped in 2002. >> we have walked 450 kilometers to say to colombia, our nation, that peace is possible, that we can achieve it, that we have to voice.nd unite in one no more victims. we want peace. let's make this agreement now. amy: in new york city, dozens of people protested outside the united nations and participated in a public forum to demand the united states stop funding mexican police and security forces amid a series of cases of forced disappearances and the repression of social movements. the actions were organized by the caravan against repression in mexico, which included a teacher from oaxaca, where police killed 9 people at a teachers protest in june. two mothers of the 49 missing students from the ayotzinapa rural teachers' college in the -- and eduardo garcia maganda, a student who survived the 2014 police attack on the ayotiznapa students. >> we believe it is very significant to be here in new york because the majority of the militarization projects, the transfer of funding and arms, come from the united states. it is pitiful many north americans, including mexicans who are resident on the side of the border, do not know their taxes are paying for a war in mexico that has claimed more than 100,000 deaths and about 28,000 disappearances. and in boston, massachusetts, dining hall workers and others have been negotiating. the dining hall workers have been on strike for more than 20 days to demand affordable healthcare and an average salary of $35,000 a year. harvard's endowment is over $35 billion. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. legendary antiwar activist tom hayden died sunday in santa monica, california after a , lengthy illness. he was 76 years old. tom hayden spent decades shaping movements against war and for social justice. in the early 1960's, was the principal author of the port huron statement the founding , document of students for a democratic society, or sds. the statement advocated for participatory democracy and helped launch the student movement of the 1960's. tom hayden was also a freedom rider in the deep south, and helped create a national poor people's campaign for jobs and empowerment. you organize in newark, new jersey, among his books, "rebellion in newark: official violence and ghetto response." in 1968, tom hayden became one of the so-called chicago 8 and was convicted of crossing state lines to start a riot after he helped organize protests against the vietnam war outside the democratic national convention. in 1982, hayden entered electoral politics, first winning a seat in the california state assembly, later in the california senate. we turn now to a speech hayden gave last year at a conference in washington, d.c. titled , "vietnam: the power of protest." >> i want to start off by saying how many of you i love very much and have known for such a long time. i only hope there is enough minutes and occasions here for us to get to know each other again because we have really been through a lifetime. today, we will have plenty of time for discussion, for panels, for up serve rations. at 4:00, we will gather to march to the king memorial. i just want to say a word about that. i know ron is going to speak to this, but why was that chosen? it is because in keeping with trying to make sure our history is told accurately, we have to tell it ourselves. we have to recognize dr. king became a martyr because of his stand on vietnam, not only because of his stand on race, justice, economic poverty. and there has been a tendency over the many decades to make dr. king a monument to nonviolence alone. and we need to remember he was attacked by the new york times and by the wall street journal and by the washington post for being out of place. they wanted to put him back in his place. and say nothing about vietnam, take no stand on vietnam. there were threats that he would lose funding. there were threats of all sorts. to distort that, to forget that, to door that his monument -- ignore that his monument would be shaped in a certain way to serve certain interest, but not others, is a disservice to truth and we have to march there and there and commemorate him as a leader and martyr for all of us for peace, justice, and civil rights, not only in the united states, but around the world, and persist in making sure that his whole story, including the campaign to end poverty in the united states, is told each and every year and in all of our schools and curriculums. so that is the purpose. this is a way of eyeing the struggle -- way of saying the struggle for memory and history is a living thing. it is ongoing. it does not end. even today, people are debating and reassessing the history of abolition of slavery, the role of slave resistance, the role of the underground railroad, the role of the abolitionist direct action movement, the role of the roddick and republican politicians, the role of international politics in what came about, and the role of how it was derailed by the assassination of president lincoln. the ending of the possibilities of reconstruction -- which were not taken up again and tell 1960 -- and the coming of jim crow. generation has to wrestle with the history of what comes -- came before and asked, whose interest does this history serve? how does it advance a legacy of social movements? how does it deny that legacy? we don't know. but we do know we are here for such ay first time at broad gathering of the movement against the vietnam war. it has been 50 years since selma , 50 years since the first sds march. it was a time that changed our lives. and before the murders of dr. king and bobby kennedy, then came the budget cuts, the end of the war on poverty. then came the watergate repression. and we became a generation of "might have beens." our rock layer the bottom of the hill. we gather here to remember the power that we had at one point, the power of the peace movement, and to challen the pentagon now on the battlefield of memory. we have to resist their military occupation of our minds and the minds of future generations. [applause] memory is very much like rock climbing, the recovery of memory. ish niche towards the summit grasped inch by bleeding inch and has to be carefully carved with tools that are precise in order to take the next step. ,alling back is always possible but as dr. king himself said on his last night, there is something in humans that makes us aspire to climb mountains, to reach the majesty if only for a moment. we are mountain climbers. president obama has reminded us ,o remember, he said, " selma seneca falls, and stonewall." but not saigon. not chicago. not vietnam. we have to ask ourselves collectively why that omission exist and realize that only we in propere a place history of those times. reasonect there was a that it has to do with the programming of amnesia. that there are very powerful forces in our country who stand for denial. not just climate denial, but generational denial. vietnam denial. there are forces that stand for ethnic cleansing, but not just ends -- ethnic cleansing, but also for historic cleansing. and that is what has happened. it serves their purpose because they have no interest in the true history of a war in which they sent thousands to their deaths and almost before the blood had dried, or moving up the national security ladder and showing effort television interviews to advertise what they called the next cake walks. only the blood was caked. generation of career politicians who were afraid of association with the peace movement, who were afraid of being seen as soft, who saw the inside track was the track of war. basically, pathological. media,tems -- politics, culture -- are totally out of balance today because of our collective refusal to admit the vietnam war was wrong and that the peace movement was right. in the absence -- [applause] in the absence of an established voice for peace in all of the institutions, the neoconservatives will fill the foreign policy vacuum. in my right? will it not advise both parties? i think the american public opinion has shifted to a much more skeptical state of mind than earlier generations, but the spectrum of american politics and media has not. that, of never forget course, it was the vietnamese resistance and their sacrifice that led to our awakening along with the civil rights movement at home -- it began with handfuls of young people. black students who led freedom rides, sit ins from the student nonviolent cordoning committee, julian bond who is sitting here with -- was rejected after being elected to the georgia legislature, mohammed ali was stripped of his boxing titles. it also begin with the vietnam committee in berkeley growing sds, the drafts, resistance. there had never been a peace movement like the one in 1965 that arose out of the civil rights movement and came just weeks after selma. at thet 29 would die hands of police while demonstrating for peace. luisld like to introduce rodriguez and russell leo munoz and g=jorge from the chicano moratorium where four died, including gustav montes, lynn ward, jose diaz, and ruben salazar. ruben salazar was an early one fromles -- juan gonzalez "the los angeles" who served as a journalist in vietnam before he started critical reporting on the streets of los angeles. and he was shot by the sheriff's deputies. i don't know if he is here, but is alan here? please, stand. alan was wounded -- [applause] state, two at jackson state two weeks later. every year these two groups of people have observed memorials, have fought for their place in history, are coming up on their 50th anniversary commemorations, and are here today to learn from us as we have learned from them the importance of organizing, organizing, organizing around the politics of memory. so thank you for being here. we will remember. we will not forget. we will not forget the eight who sacrificed their lives by self immolation. we will not forget the students who helped end the war by shutting down so many campuses. we will not forget the veterans who took the risk of standing up to their commanding officers and resisted from within the military. [applause] we will not forget them because this was something that was like a dubois characterization of the general strike by slaves who, through noncooperation, walked off plantations across the south when they saw the futility of any other alternative and chose to simply walk away and join the union army. what happened at the end of the vietnam war is that people walked away. he campuses shut down. 4 million students walked away. the military was described by marine colonels in the military history as being on the verge of collapse. they walked away. the counterculture walked away. we all walked away. it might have been otherwise if king and robert kennedy had not been assassinated. we might have been united, at least for a moment -- at least for a moment. we might have elected a president, we might have ended a war, but instead, we were relegated to wondering what might have been. we lost any basis for our unity am a thus, we have not come together since that tim the question for us is whether today we can unify when we never could unify before. [applause] can we do that for the memory of our movement and for the meaning that upholds for future generations? i hope so. i pray so. thank you. amy: legendary civil rights and antiwar activist tom hayden speaking last year in washington, d.c. the 50th anniversary of the first major anti-vietnam war protest. there was a conference called "vietnam: the power of protest." tom hayden died sunday at the age of 76 in california. you can go to democracynow.org to watch all of our interviews with tom, including a discussion about jessica tory democracy from port huron to occupy wall street. you can also see our interview with him about his last book called "listen yankee: why cuba matters." when we go back -- will become back, we go to the man who revolutionized sitcom television -- norman lear. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "lyndon johnson told the nation" by tom paxton. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we turn now to the legendary tv producer and longtime political activist norman lear. at 94 years young, norman lear has led a remarkable life. he helped revolutionize sitcom television with a string of hit shows, including "all in the family," "sanford and son,"the jeffersons," "good times," and "maude." in 1984, he became one of the first seven television pioneers to be inducted into the television academy hall of fame. in 1999, president clinton awarded him the national medal of arts saying -- "norman lear has held up a mirror to american society and changed the way we look at it." yes, norman lear is also a long time activist earning him a place on richard nixon's enemy list and the scorn of the christian right. in 1981, he created the progressive advocacy group people for the american way in part to monitor the religious right. the late jerry falwell once described lear as the "no. 1 enemy of the american family." well norman lear is the subject , of the new american masters documentary on pbs called "norman lear: just another , version of you." it premieres tonight on pbs. this is the trailer. >> television cammy broken into two parts, before norman and after norman. >> this is in a time when we were at probably our greatest change socially. mainstream television was one of the last two jump in the first person to force it over that hill was norman. "all in the family" was the greatest. it reinforces bigotry? >> my first answer is, no. >> i never said a guy who wears glasses is a queer. >> wheezed to say too hip for the room. there weren't any african-americans on tv at that time. i did not want to discourage a black family. migh dynamite! >> there were lines for you to say because you are black. >> it is time to come out of the churches and change america. >> i was concerned about what i was seeing on television, mixing politics and religion. so i thought, i want to take the flight back for all of us. >> he called he said, guess what? i only declaration of independence. amy: the trailer for "norman lear: just another version of you." well, last week, norman lear himself joined us in our new york studio at democracy now! for a conversation about his work, politics, and activism. i began by asking him what the title "just another version of you" means to him. >> well, that has been my bumper sticker for a number of years. and rachel, who produced and directed the film, and i think it's a brilliant job, they happen to see my bumper sticker one day and they were studying my life and they said, that is going to be the title, if you don't mind, of the documentary. and that is the way i feel about it. we are versions of one another, common committed the, whatever our color, whatever our if the city, whatever the surface makes us the visuals in terms of our common humanity we are copies of one another. father, herman, had a huge influence on your life. >> his absence certainly did. he was sent to prison when i was nine years old. me andn a sense, haunted inspired me. amy: why was he in prison? fake was selling some lawns or something. i remember my mother saying, herman, i don't like those men. i don't like those men. "stifle" my father said, as rg said all of those years later, and went off to oklahoma. he was going to bring back a 10 gallon hat. he was arrested when he got off the plane. two or, my mother was selling all of the furniture. we were moving. we could not afford to live in chelsea. she was too ashamed -- amy: here in new york. >> in massachusetts. in chelsea, massachusetts. in time, mynt to go live with an uncle. i don't know what the i'm going to do next. so much her fellow puts his hands on my shoulder and says, you're the man of the house now. at which point i think i began to understand the foolishness of the human condition. amy: so talkbout how you got into television. was a kid in the depression. i had one uncle jack who used to flip me a quarter. that was something. it just knocked me out. was a press agent. i didn't know what that was. and that was my role model. i wanted to be a press agent. i went to california to do that. and myes -- my wife cousin became great friends. her husband wanted to be a comedy writer. they were going to the movie one night. they wrote something together. they came home about 10:15, we went to a night club and sold it was halfmy half of $40 of what i made in a week. so we started to write comedy. amy: i want to go back to the documentary "norman lear: just another version of you." >> americanmasters. amy: yes. this is rob reiner who played archie bunker's son-in-law on the iconic show "all in the family" talking about the reaction to this series. it is followed by a clip of "all in the family." >> the headline is, "all in the family" introduces the world to film out archie bunker. cbs rolled the dice last night with the new situation comedy "all in the family" which will either be the biggest hit of the season or the biggest bomb. so, there you go. that is what it says. we did eight seasons. >> you know you are right, archie? the british are a bunch of pansies. pansies, fairies, and disease. the mexicans are bandits. amy: and you politics -- prologues are meatheads. pollocks areu meatheads. amy: talk about "all in the family." >> those people who thought archie had it right and wrote letters and we received, you know, thousands of them, i can't recall a single letter that on, archie, that wasn't followed by you sons of [ bleep] or what if you come back read came from you jew commie. nobody iseing that -- rstood that archie was amy: talk about how you came up with "all in the family" and when it went on the air. >> i didn't come up -- well, i did come up with it. i was doing a show in new york. a fellow by the name of phil did -- i'm trying to remember the situation comedy at the time with joan davis. fours being divorced with kids. i was being divorced with one kid. i was having a terrible time in my divorce. i asked him how it was going with his. he said come all she wanted was my reruns. my joan davis reruns. at which point i said, i'm only doing live. to myself, i've got to do something that i own. so i decided to do a situation comedy, which i had never considered doing before. at that moment, my partner but york was in london and wrote me about this show called -- i forget. i heard about that. i decided i would do an american version of that, and that -- this was about a bigoted father and son-in-law and so forth. i grew up with that. my father used to, the laziest white kitty ever met. -- white kid he ever met. he said, you're the dumbest white kid i ever met. amy: this goes well with the next clip from the documentary. you are appearing under cbs talk show and your question about the use of stereotypes and racial epithets in "all in the family." >> pbs news presents "look up and live." today, laughter, hurt or heal. >> laughter hurts. the repetition of these stereotype turns that we thought had died instead be hurtful and harmful -- tends to be hurtful and harmful to the american good. >> i've heard all of these epithets. if they have died, where they gone to? do you really believe "all in the family" resurrected them from death? i chose to entertain with what i consider real people. amy: norman lear, what about that? >> i'm a serious man. i was a serious boy, but i think i had a sense of humor. i learned the foolishness of the human condition early in life. i chose to deal with it, but in a serious way. before "all in the family" came on, i guess the kind of problem they were dealing with on "petticoat junction" and "beverly hillbillies" and so forth, the roast was ruined and the boss is coming to dinner. oh, my goodness, says the family have a problem. we were dealing with these things in our extended families, the neighbors across the street, up the street, whether it was menopause or economic problems or camino, health problems -- or, you know, health problems, hypertension and black males, things that crowded our newspapers in our imaginations, we don't with it. think archie bunker would have voted for donald trump? >> i think of donald trump as the middle finger of the american right hand. the american people, you know, we are in a democracy. the democracy depends on an informed citizenry, which would be a well led and informed citizen -- i don't think we have a media generally that informs. it yells, is greens, it does bumper stickers. it doesn't do anything in context. we do not get the news in context. and the american people, aching for leadership, are tossed a donald trump and i think they say, ok, take this. and they're saying, with that little finger, take this to the rest of us. amy: let's go to another clip --"just another version of you." this is mike wallace talking about is sometimes tends relationship with the networks. >> what is your beef against the networks? >> i spent our pun our arguing with the sensors about the tiniest things. the network often takes a position that norman lear and the others in the creative community, i mean, how can they do this? how can they bite the hand that feeds them? i consider the creative community are the hands that feed. and they are biting our hands. amy: so there you are talking to the late mike wallace. what about your relationship with the networks? >> my relationship with the individuals, one-on-one, was pretty good. we understood each other. oneere -- i think it was man who said, nobody ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the american people. to some degree, the establishment lives with that. it makes its decisions on behalf with the american people that in mind. i disagree. we are provably not the best educated, but we are wise of heart and we understand a lot more than we are given credit for. i'm talking about the population generally. doing troubled the establishment only because it had not been done before. but we were living at. we did not invent any subject we were not living. amy: did you get flack from the networks at the beginning of go like, this isn't going to work? >> oh, yes. three the show originally years before 1968 and i made it twice. each time with carol o'connor and jean several to and in the leads, different young people. , i heardh like hell from everybody. i was in the room a couple of times. put it on.d not they were afraid of it. cbs and the person who is the new leader, bob wood, put it on with, what you call it, and advisory warning people that if they watched it, you know, they might not like it or they would be frightened by -- i can remember. amy: or they might change. >> or they might change. ,o the last argument we had they wanted to cut something. new york was on the air three hours before california. they were threatening to cut one line from michelle. i said, if you cut it, i'm out of here. i won't be back. i wasn't so great as i sound. i had an offer, three picture deal at united artist as the result of a till -- film i just finished. so i was in good shape. the network had -- at the last minute decided they would leave it in. amy: what was the line? churchie comes back from , having been upset, did not like the minister or the sermon, left church really. because they had the house alone. they were upstairs. the kids were them, come running up the stairs. it was clear what was happening. amy: they were married. >> and they were married. rg says, 11:00 on a sunday morning. they wanted that line out. but why? of course i said, they are married. it will cause the audience to picture what he is talking about 11:00 on a sunday morning. but they knew that when they went upstairs. i mean -- it had to come out. i thought if i gave into that, i would be giving in forever. and that is why i said no. i was all most on my way out of -- almost on my way out of the office. we were working on scripts for the fourth episode when i got a call saying, "they left it in." amy: that takes us right into reproductive rights and "maude" which was a spinoff of "all in the family." which tackledode the issue of abortion. wadew months before roe v became the law the land. >> look, it is only one sensible way out of this. you don't have to have the baby. it is legal now. >> is legal in new york state. >> we're not giving it a thought. i don't know. i just don't know. >> the for sins of dust these the program practice department simply did not want to deal with abortion. amy: simply did not want to deal with abortion. what happened with this episode of "maude"? >> there's a wonderful man who was the head of program practices. i don't know. a simple he just had to do the episode -- i simply just had to do the episode. as the result of his talking with me, we made it a two-parter and added a character, a woman, a friend who did not appear in many other shows, who was there for the purpose of being a mother of four children she could not, pregnant with a fit. she would no more think of having an abortion, so she represented in real life the other side of that discussion. on mod's side, she said at the closing of that episode, the second episode, walter, do you think i'm doing the right thing? privacy maude, and the of our own home and our own lives, you're doing the right thing. sidess the way the two were represented and that was the result of the conversations. amy: legendary television producer norman lear, tackling the issue of abortion on network television in 1972 before roe v. wade. when we come back, we discuss his activism, his fight against the moral majority, and how he ended up on richard nixon's enemy's list. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "those were the days," theme song of "all in the family." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we return to our conversation with television producer and longtime political activist norman lear. tonight pbs will premiere the american masters documentary, "norman lear: just another version of you," the first documentary about the 94-year-old legend who, because of his work, landed on richard nixon's enemy's list. i asked norman lear how he ended up there. >> i got lucky. i think i just got lucky. he is on tape -- we used a tape where he isentary talking about -- with aldermen in his office -- he is talking archiehat show that bunker character. weres talking about -- we wanting homosexuality and homosexuality brought down the greek -- amy: empire. >> empire. trump-ish.n and his >> so you have the arthur playing maude enteral o'connor and jean stapleton, this astounding 20. talk about your work with them. kerala connor very much, to say the least, the absolute opposite of archie bunker. and how could he tolerate doing this? >> he must've had a very difficult time in two ways. one as an intellect he was speaking like the antithesis of a smart man, let alone an intellect. he did not move -- he did not like most of the scripts. the best example was, and we have it in the documentary, a story that took place entirely in an elevator a half-hour in an elevator, stuck between floors with a hispanic woman who was about to give earth and -- give birth and in the fearful moment of a stuck elevator to give birth. i wanted to see that baby born on archie's face. i was just in love with that from the moment it donilon us to do something like that. amy: of course he is turning away the beginning. he does not want this to happen. he is just, wait, wait. t-rex because she is hispanic he is saying, stop -- when it finally happened, the expression on archie's face when he hears the baby cry -- of course, he is alarmed at first that the baby does not cry. amy: make that baby cry. and you see him out of the corner of his eye starting to look. as a boy.s to see it golden. golden. amy: "good times" and "the jeffersons." talk about the black panthers coming to visit and this show "good times." >> the panthers came simply to say, you're the only black man on television with a family that has stored two and sometimes -- theybs, can't you just damned us. is we haveut of that the jeffersons next door. , what's his found face to play george jefferson. i knew we were going to have something great. we decided as a result of that, we were moving on up. we don't have to do a black family -- he was in the cleaning business. now he has three or four stores. he is moving on up. amy: sherman helmsley played -- >> sherman helmsley. and the neighbor on the show who came up with the song "moving on all over now.ar amy: you did a lot of television. you changed television. but you also started the advocacy group people for the american way. i daresay if you are starting a new organization now, given this presidential election year, you might be doing the very same thing. i talk about what is people for the american way and why you moved away from tv for that for a while? 1979and-a-half, i became very aware of the amount of tv angela goals proliferating on the tube. you know, jerry falwell and the moral majority and pat robertson. for aan for president while. jimmy swagger and so forth, and mixing politics and religion. and i had learned in physics class the crime of the moment in education for me is they don't teach civics anymore. when i was a boy, i learned to love my declaration of independence. i underlined in my constitution, in my bill of rights because they were the protections americans needed in a free society where everybody is equal under the law. dedicated to that as the result of those civics classes -- and learning when my father was sent away, from the jews, that hated viciously anti-semetic and anti-fdr. amy: he was a real powerhouse on the radio. >> a real powerhouse. he raised anti-semitism to enormous height. but i had my civics class, which tommy i was protected by the documents that came from our founding fathers. i underlined the word "fathers" because mine was away. i think that is the time i fell in love with founding fathers, kneading, wishing for a father. amy: i just watched another documentary that you are in, that you are the reporter for and that is "america divided" series. i wanted to play for a moment where you are the correspondent heretigating displacement in new york city, then going undercover to expose racial discrimination in housing. in this clip, you speak with "the new york times" best to get of journalists -- investigative journalist. >> a lot of black people moving to a neighborhood, the property values go down. it is true because of the way the federal government raided integrated neighborhoods. we have come to believe it is true because black people don't keep up their properties. you see the way the reality can be fueled by a myth. >> reality can be fueled by a myth. >> absolutely. >> is our government doing anything about that? >> well, we have fair housing laws now. we don't have to housing yet. i don't think we realize how much effort went into creating segregation. we had cooperation from individual homeowners all the way up to the federal government to reorder our society in a way that harmed black americans and helped white americans. you have to break it up. you have to do what you did to create it. amy: that is "the new york times" investigative journalist nicole hannah jones. you do an astounding job in this -- >> thank you. amy: episode of "america divided" that is now on epix. you lived here in your life in new york. when were you here? >> i was here when my father got out of prison, we came to new york. we lived here for about 2.5 years. i went to high school. i went to tilden high school. amy: samuel tilden. exposing whatre the black lives matter movement talks about a lot. they are talking about, you know, african americans killed by police officers, but structural racism in our society and housing is a crucial part of that. how segregated we are. new york, what, the third most segregated city in this country? >> it is one thing to read about it, it is quite another thing to go into it, to sit in a lobby of a building with 14 or so tenants whomily representatives, were paying $600, now are paying $1900 for some crazy figure, escalated rentals. there are wanted out because of gentrification. because they had long leases, "fix"ndlord had chosen to the steps, that wall, all to cause us to raise debris and so forth. and people were getting sick -- literally, getting sick. and i'm sitting with these and, i mean, the wonder i raided my refrigerator last night and had a good night sleep. how do we human beings live with that? undercover, goly in to try to get an apartment after an african-american actor who is deeply affected by this, goes in and they say, you know, that apartment we advertise, it is not available. >> there was an apartment in a studio apartment, there were two. there were two for me, and there was nothing for him. amy: and you go in one day later. how did you feel about this. this is now. >> i do not understand about how i can feel the way i feel, do what i do, but it is nothing compared to what has to be done. i don't know why i'm not on the streets. i don't know why i have not been arrested. i don't know why enough is not enough. amy: what do you still want took countless, norman lear? >> another hour and a half talking to you. [laughter] amy: that would be a pleasure, but i think there's a person waiting to take you out right away. but as you take on all of these issues, what gives you hope? >> i don't know, congenitally, i don't want to wake up any morning without hope. that is where i see -- i see hope in our faith, hope in our faith, hope and the person who greeted me coming in. you know, i don't wake up in the morning without hope. amy: norman lear veteran , legendary television and film producer. political, social activist and philanthropist. the new pbs american masters documentary premiering tonight is called "norman lear: just another version of you," chronicling his life and the creation of the hit shows "all in the family," "good times," "maude," "sanford and son," and "the jeffersons." norman lear is founder of several nonprofits, including people for the american way. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] laying) ♪ hi. i'm hubert keller. as a chef when i entertain at home, i must say i love to surprise my guests with some amazing recipes, things they've never seen before, and on today's secrets of a chef, i hope i will surprise you with some recipes that you've never tried before. first we're making lollipops, but lollipops with lamb. they have flavors that will explode in your mouth, and to go with it, i will show you the recipe of how to make a great tzatziki sauce. then it's the secret for making puff pastry cups filled with escargot, the french word for "snails." we will simmer them in a delicious vegetable broth and finish them off with unforgettable garlic butter. our dessert is a very special margarita sorbet made with tequila and served with champagne. i hope you'll be surprised, and it's all happening now.