Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The TV great, Norman Lear, has died.

I mean, you don't need me to rattle off his TV credits, but I'll do it anyway. All in the family,

Maude, Good Times, the Jeffersons. The man is responsible for shaping TV as we know it today.

But back when he was just getting started,

he was kind of a troublemaker. In 2014, he wrote a memoir titled Even This I Get to Experience.

And he told Empires Arun Roth this story about getting all in the family on the air, how the

original studio didn't like it, asked him

for a second show, and he just gave them the same script again.

It's a wild ride, but it's a testament to how dedicated he was to his work, despite the fears

from the execs about what the American people were willing to take.

Here's the interview after the break.

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Boy, the way Glenn Miller played. Every sitcom on TV today lives in the shadow of Norman Lear. Not only did he pretty much

create the modern TV sitcom, he showed its potential to do a lot more than just make people laugh.

Name a sensitive social issue. Odds are, one of the Norman Lear comedies took it on. He also

created more roles and opportunities for African Americans on TV,

with shows like Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Sanford and Son.

Lear credits that to growing up Jewish in America and feeling like an outsider himself.

What I experienced as a kid had a deep, profound, and constant influence on me.

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