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Laura Z. Hobson, who prodded the public conscience with her 1947 novel about antiSemitism, Gentlemen's Agreement, complained that "you cannot be a bigot and be lovable." Lear replied that bigotry was most common and most insidious when it occurred in otherwise lovable people. Since then, Northwestern University Sociologist Charles Moskos has supported both the Bunkers and the deBunkers by arguing that Family's humor cuts two ways: "It is a cheap way for tolerant upper-middle-class liberals to escape their own prejudices while the bigots get their views reinforced." Lear concedes that the humorous treatment of bigotry means "we don't have to think about it now." But he maintains that "we're swallowing just the littlest bit of truth about ourselves, and it sits there for the unconscious to toss about later."
Meanwhile, Yorkin and Lear's breakthrough with Family has prompted a host of imitators—led by Yorkin and Lear. The best of the shows to explore the comic territory they opened up is their Sanford and Son (also adapted from a British original), which made its debut on NBC last January.
New Door. Sanford is built around the love-hate relationship of a black father and son who run a junk business in Los Angeles. But it is no Family in blackface. Its humor plays with prejudices rather than on them. "Were they colored?" the police asked the elder Sanford about a gang of thieves in an early episode. "Yeah," he replied. "White." The old man, played by Redd Foxx, has none of Archie's anger. He is simply an engaging con artist who will resort to any ruse to keep his son from quitting the business and leaving home.
The show's true novelty stems from its relatively realistic portrayal of poor blacks in a warm, natural relationship. "My friends in the black community told me they're gonna be at home watching, just like it's a Joe Louis fight," Foxx said when the show began. "Means a lot to them." It must have meant a lot to other people as well. In one of the fastest ascents in TV history, Sanford shot up into the top ten rated shows, close behind Family.
"Those two shows, All in the Family and Sanford and Son, have opened a new door for television," says NBC's vice president in charge of programming, Lawrence White. "They have made it clear that we can do broad-based entertainment shows that deal in reality as a source for comedy."
Among the first through that new door for the coming season were—once again—Yorkin and Lear. This time they have a spin-off from Family called Maude, and already it ranks as one of the fall's top prospects. Maude is Edith Bunker's cousin who lives somewhere in upstate New York. As played by the formidable (5 ft. 9 in.), husky-contral-toed Beatrice Arthur, she may do for liberal suburban matrons what Archie has done for urban hardhats.