Day: January 14, 2011

Forty years ago this week, All in the Family debuted on CBS. It ranked tops as the #1 TV show in America for five consecutive seasons, but as creator/producer Norman Lear pointed out at the 2002 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, he probably couldn't get the show on network television then (and probably not in 2011 either). CBS News talked to Lear and Rob Reiner about the show on its 40th anniversary, and noted how the political divide and climate now isn't all that different than it was in January 1971, and that perhaps Americans would be better served having a comedy that speaks to all of the American family, the Archie Bunkers and Meatheads alike. Roll the clip because you're too young to remember the show, or too old and your memory needs a wake-up call!...

1. James Lipton wanted Jim Carrey from the very beginning, 17 years ago, extending his first invitation to Carrey. But he only showed up this week for a sit-down on Bravo's Inside the Actor's Studio. So. What else did we learn about him now that we didn't learn then? 2. He knows how to make an entrance. Or, he knows to always open big. Also could have accepted he likes to jog across the stage, and if he sees stairs, he'll climb them to wave to the already-standing crowd, notice the big screen behind him and pet it gently. 3. He didn't know that the original more French Canadian version of his family name means "square." "Does it really?" "Yes, what a misnomer!" "Wow. I didn't know that. Fantastic." 4. In school, he was so much of a class clown, that one teacher figured out how to channel his energies by giving him an incentive: If he focused on schoolwork and didn't disrupt others, she'd give him 15 minutes at the end of the day to perform. "So I spent all my free time coming up with routines, and impressions of the principal, and I would make fun of people." 5. His father lost his job at 51, when Jim was 12. And the family lived in a car briefly and became janitors. 6. He left school on his...