Norman Lear Says No to ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Maude’ Reboots

Legendary television producer Norman Lear clarified the terms of a new deal with Sony Pictures Television, assuring that no All in the Family or Maude reboots are in the works.

“I have no intention of doing All In The Family again,” Lear told Deadline at the Television Critics Association press tour Sunday. “I promise you that… No Maude or any of them. We did that.”

Instead, Lear is hoping to develop new shows by mining old ideas, including some more than 40 years old, that he was never successful with turning into shows.

“However, there are ideas that we were working on at that same time that were bubbling in the same creative pipeline and that’s part of what I’m looking at now,” he told Deadline. “I’m looking at ideas you’ve never heard of.”

“I have about 100 ideas that go back 30 or 40 years, some only 12 years or 10 years. These are the ideas that we’ve had and nurtured for the longest time that we will imagine or reimagine,” Lear continued.

Last week, Sony Pictures Television announced a new two-year first look deal with Lear’s Act III production company, which included the “option to re-imagine titles” from Lear’s catalog. Considering the success of the One Day at a Time reboot at Netflix, many thought this meant reboots of All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons and others were on the way.

“Even if you significantly reimagine them in terms of say race or gender, it’s tough to go up against a Carroll O’Conner, Bea Arthur or John Amos,” Act III’s Brent Miller said Sunday, referring to the legendary stars of Lear’s shows. “They are defining to those shows in a way that One Day At A Time didn’t have to deal with except for the notion of Schneider [Pat Harrington Jr.’s character].”

The original All in the Family ran from 1971 to 1979, and starred the late Caroll O’Conner as the bigoted Archie Bunker. Inspired by the British sitcom ‘Till Death Do Us Part, All in the Family also led to a 1979-1983 spin-off Archie Bunker’s Place. The critically acclaimed original series won eight Golden Globes and earned Lear four Emmys.

Lear also created Maude, which starred Bea Arthur as the outspoken title character. The series ran on CBS from 1972 to 1978.

As for One Day at a Time, the new Netflix incarnation is now in production for its third season. The show stars Justina Machado as a divorced former military mother who lives with her two children and her mother, played by Rita Moreno. In the second season, Moreno’s character went on a journey to become an American citizen.

“By existing, we are political in this landscape,” executive producer Gloria Calderon-Kellett said Sunday of the show’s previous focus on immigration, reports Variety. “We don’t tackle that specific thing this year, but in real life I’m trying to tackle it.”

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