(born 1922) Liberal television writer and producer and political activist. Lear’s shows, sometimes adapted from British models, raised questions of race, class and gender in ways that transformed not only the sitcom, but American conversations that responded to these hit shows. His first hit, All in the Family (CBS, 1971–9), put Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker, a working-class bigot from Queens, squarely at the center yet surrounded by direct challenges from his leftist daughter and son-in-law (played by Rob Reiner), naive questions from his wife Edith and increasingly diverse neighbors. Spin-offs followed, such as Maude (CBS, 1972–8), which introduced controversial discussions of feminism and abortion, although at times undercutting the strident liberalism of its title character, and spun off its own depiction of a black family in the projects, Good Times (CBS, 1972– 9). The Jeffersons (CBS, 1975–85) followed Bunker’s bigoted black neighbor (and critical wife) to a Manhattan penthouse, forcing other issues of class, race and interracial relationships. In Sanford and Son (NBC, 1972–6), Lear adapted the British Steptoe and Son to showcase legendary black comedian Redd Foxx as a crotchety, conniving junk dealer, transmuting some of the stereotypes and tricks that had condemned Amos’n Andy decades earlier. While Lear’s successes seem to capture the American dialogues emerging from the 1960s, by the 1980s he devoted more time to political opposition with his People for the American Way. He has had less success with return bids for television, although his characters and plots live on through constant reruns and mass-mediated “folklore.” GARY McDONOGH CINDY WONG.