Known for his warm persona, V-neck tennis sweaters and weekend sailor's cap worn as he communicated effortless with America on talk shows and specials, Lear was well established as a TV and feature film writer and producer before America ever bothered to note his name. That came in January 1971 with the debut of "All in the Family," a video-taped sitcom which snapped the medium out of its white-bread, politically complacent haze and put primetime TV smack in the middle of the socio-political debates that were tearing apart America. Lear was a decorated army veteran working in public relations and already married to his second wife when he teamed with his cousin, Ed Simmons, to establish a comedy writing team. A gutsy, blind telephone call to comedian Danny Thomas resulted in their first sale of material and by 1951, the duo were writing, and later producing, a host of comedy-variety series and specials, including programs for Martha Raye and Tennessee Ernie Ford. They also tried their hand at features, writing "Scared Stiff" (1953) for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. By the end of the 1950s, Lear and Simmons had split. [Simmons would later have a successful career writing such series as "The Carol Burnett Show"]. Lear was now partnered with director Bud Yorkin in Tandem Productions, and they moved back and forth between TV (e.g., "The Andy Williams Show") and feature films such as "Come Blow Your Horn" (1963), "Never Too Late" (1965), "Divorce American Style" (1967), for which Lear received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay, "The Night They Raided Minsky's" (1968), and "Cold Turkey" (1971), which Lear also directed.

Lear had other plans for Tandem. Always politically active in liberal causes, and moved by the voices he heard speaking in America during the 60s, Lear and Yorkin acquired the rights to a British TV series called "Those Were The Days", in which a conservative working stiff is put upon by the son-in-law living in his midst. Lear altered the concept to make the father and son-in-law conflict a conservative-liberal one, and sold the series to ABC. Two pilots were made, but ABC executives had reservations. Not so a rising programming executive at CBS. Fred Silverman saw the pilot, now called "All in the Family" and greenlighted it. The series premiered on CBS in January 1971 with Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, a bigoted loading-dock worker living in Astoria, Queens, with his "dingbat" but full-hearted wife (Jean Stapleton) , his daughter (Sally Struthers), and his liberal and freeloading son-in-law/college student (Rob Reiner). At first glance, the country did not know what to make of "All in the Family". Not only was it among the first sitcoms to be shot on videotape, thus creating a different psychological effect, but also its content broke barriers at every turn: Archie and his "Meathead" son-in-law argued about the war in Vietnam, civil rights, and gender issues. Archie also used heretofore taboo words such as "coloreds," "spics" and "hebes". Critics embraced the new series, and within a few weeks, the audience "got it". By September, when the Emmy Awards were bestowed, Lear was accepting his first.

The barriers of TV were broken; other producers began dealing with topical matters on situations comedies, and Lear and Yorkin began building a dynasty of shows with "Sanford & Son" (NBC, 1972-77) with Redd Foxx as a black junk dealer who kowtowed to no one and "Maude" (CBS, 1972-78), starring Beatrice Arthur as the liberal counterpart of her cousin-by-marriage, Archie Bunker. "Maude" broke another barrier by having the first legal abortion on primetime TV. More successful series followed, including "Good Times" (CBS, 1974-79), the first TV series created by black writers, "The Jeffersons" (CBS, 1975-85), "One Day at a Time" (CBS, 1975-84) and "All's Fair" (CBS, 1976-77). Lear and Yorkin split in 1974, and most projects launched after that date were produced through T.A.T. Communications, a company Lear formed with financier Jerry Perenchio. The company broke new ground again when it launched the ribald soap opera spoof, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" in late-night syndication in January 1976. Lear's factory in the 1970s was a tapestry of the new and the old. Alongside some of the finest comedy writers in the business--men whose credits included work for Bob Hope, Jack Benny and Lucille Ball--there was now a crop of African American and female writers, producers and executives. Lear may have been one of the first woman-friendly employers in TV.

By the end of the 70s, Lear announced he had tired of overseeing the scripts and programs and operations of T.A.T. Troubled by conservative voices like the Religious Right (which Lear perceived as not understanding the concept of freedom in America) and the recent election of Ronald Reagan as US president, Lear temporarily left show business to start People For the American Way, a people's lobby based on Washington, DC, dedicated to defending the constitutional rights of people and promoting education about those rights. Lear mixed politics and show business again when he produced "I Love Liberty" (ABC, 1982), an all-star variety special saluting America. Simultaneously, Perenchio was changing the scope of T.A.T. The company purchased Embassy Films in 1982 and was renamed Embassy Communications. Lear returned to TV in 1984 with "a.k.a. Pablo", a short-lived sitcom about an assimilating Latino family. He also executive produced the TV movie "Heartsounds" (ABC, 1984) starring Mary Tyler Moore and James Garner and based on his cousin-by-marriage's book about nursing her husband through his heart disease. In 1986, Embassy Communications was sold to Coca Cola, who merged the entity into Columbia TV. Lear opened Act III Communications, investing in TV stations, publishing ventures and films, including Rob Reiner's "The Princess Bride" (1987). He was also an executive producer of "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991).

Lear had also become a celebrity in his own right. Beginning in the early 70s, he was a frequent guest on talk shows and began hosting retrospectives and other specials. This celebrity status came to the forefront when his marriage to Frances Lear--who had been the inspiration for "Maude"--collapsed. The breakup was fodder for the gossip columns, particularly her divorce settlement, which topped $100 million. Frances Lear went on to start LEAR'S magazine. Lear remarried and dabbled in TV projects, but found difficulty in recapturing the magic of the 70s. Several attempts to launch sitcoms failed, including the autobiographical "Sunday Dinner" (CBS, 1991), the political comedy "The Powers That Be" (NBC, 1992) and "704 Houser Street" (CBS, 1994). The latter was about a Black man now living in the home formerly owned by Archie Bunker who was constantly arguing with his conservative son and Jewish wife. Even as his output slowed, Lear remained a spokesperson for the entertainment industry's progressive wing, and a frequent talk show guest discussing not only politics, but TV history, in which he had taken part for more than 45 years.