SitComs Can Deal With Reality, Lear Tells Big Forum Audience

"Mature people gravitate to mature subject matters. Situation comedies in the '50s and '60s made a statement by omission louder than any I could have made," television writer and producer Norman Lear said yesterday.

Addressing an audience of about 250 at the Harvard Law School Forum, Lear said, "They were saying that there's no Vietnam War, that we don't have any problems in the economy--that there was no problem more important than the roast burning or the boss coming to dinner."

Lear said that his programs in the past have dealt with everything from menopause to mass murderers and multiple orgasms.

When his lawyers have warned him that he might be sued for the content of his shows, Lear said he never gave in: "They can't take away my kids. And I'll always be able to find a pencil and piece of paper somewhere."

Life is Tough

"My parents lived at the top of their lungs and the end of their nerves. I used to keep score of their fights--it was a young boy's way of combatting difficult circumstances," he said.

Lear opened by promising to sing, dance or disrobe.

"I've never talked to an audience who paid two dollars before. It scares the shit out of me," Lear said.

Lear mixed humorors anecdotes with his pointed opinions.

Lear said T.V. does its greatest harm by spreading the notion that "you are nothing if you're not number one."

The Networks

public interest, they're looking for a smash or a hit. Of course they're only interested in money--it's a business threatened by a climate of incredible competition," he said.