As regular readers to these musings well know, I have never been shy nor short-winded about my effusive love and respect for Norman Lear. When a third edition of his marvelously cast LIVE IN FRONT OF A STUDIO AUDIENCE debuted in December 2021, I waxed nostalgic about my involvement in the first two editions and being able to be a part of said live studio audience in what was–and still is–one of the highlights of both my professional and personal life. And when he sadly finally left us just about two years later, at the far too young age of 101 1/2, I got to underscore that sentiment as well as how blessed I was to actually interact with such a truly monumental talent who was menschy enough to hand out Cuban pastries to help hype a series for a streaming service.
I kinda wish he was still around to be more involved in the one that dropped Thursday on Prime Video, CLEAN SLATE. The fact it got produced and dropped at all was a testimony to the determination, tenacity and respect that Mr. Lear was able to generate on behalf of Sony. As THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Lacey Rose reported way back in September 2022:
On Norman Lear‘s 100th birthday, Amazon Freevee gifted him with a series greenlight. The streaming service ordered his latest producorial effort, Clean Slate, to series. The original comedy, which hails from Lear’s Act III Productions and Sony Pictures Television, centers on an outspoken, old-school car wash owner, played by George Wallace, who’s thrilled his estranged child is finally coming home to Alabama after 17 years. But, per the show’s official logline, he has “a lot of soul searching to do” when that child returns not as a son but rather as a determined, proud, trans woman, played by trans actress Laverne Cox… Lear is credited as a non-writing executive producer alongside his producing partner Brent Miller. Paul Hilepo is also a non-writing producer on the series, which was previously in development at Peacock. It was first announced as part of the NBCU slate in early 2020.
A lot has changed since then; for one, Freevee was shut down last year by Amazon and its remaining projects pivoted to Prime Video as almost an afterthought. Freevee never did take off on any level, and production was delayed due to the dual 2023 strikes, so its launch date kept getting pushed back. It’s eight half-hour episodes so it’s hardly a significant contributor to Prime’s KPIs. Even in its opening weekend it isn’t registering in the U.S. top 10–an acquisition of another show I’ve recently worked on, WILD CARDS, is. And I can’t help but wonder if the current political climate where in the same week CLEAN SLATE finally premiered our president signed an executive order outlawing the presence of transgenders in collegiate sports might have been enough of a deterrent for executives ultimately answerable to Jeff Bezos to kinda hold back on the level of marketing support that, say, Netflix put into Mr. Lear’s ONE DAY AT A TIME reboot.
And that’s truly unfortunate because at least among the early reviewers, what will turn out to be one of Mr. Lear’s last efforts struck as many chords for approaching such sensitive topics through humor and the ability to unite people as many of his earlier efforts did. As THE ESCAPIST’s Tara McCauley wrote:
The Prime Video sitcom is one of the last that Norman Lear worked on before his passing, and subsequently opens with the following quote reflecting the legendary comedy producer’s television legacy: “The laughter I’ve enjoyed most is the laughter that has brought numbers of us together. More than a mere tribute to Lear, this quote serves as a thesis for Clean Slate itself. The series deploys an array of comforting and familiar sitcom tropes to explore Black trans identity, community, and allyship in the Deep South. Clean Slate‘s broad comedic approach and heartfelt ensemble package its topical and poignant subject matter into a format with mainstream appeal. The series feels tailor-made for the current political climate, reminiscent of a Lear sitcom that packed a similar punch in One Day at A Time.
That show’s arc pretty much mirrored the term of Trump 1.0, and Mr. Lear didn’t hold back from offering his opinions on what he thought about him at various points when his own news cycle warranted. In 2017 the NEW YORK TIMES’ James Poniewozik noted in an article that accompanied the news he was going to receive a Kennedy Center honor with this nugget:
He plans to boycott the December reception at the White House, a rare snub. Mr. Lear’s opinion of the president isn’t surprising or new. He told The Daily Beast last year that “Archie Bunker was far wiser of heart” than Mr. Trump. “Sure, the thoughts he held were antediluvian,” Mr. Lear said. “But Donald Trump is a thorough fool.”
I truly have to wonder what Mr. Lear might have said if he learned on the same day that CLEAN SLATE premiered the staff of the Kennedy Center was being jettisoned and their responsibilities being personally taken over by Trump. No doubt it would have attracted a lot more attention than the handful of courteous reviews are creating.
In 2018, as reported by FOX NEWS’ Tyler McCarthy:
Famed sitcom creator Norman Lear – “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” – penned an explosive Op-Ed calling on Americans to reject President Trump’s federal court picks and to rethink what they’re hearing from right-leaning political pundits. Lear, 96, penned the article in The Hollywood Reporter in conjunction with People for the American Way senior fellow, Peter Montgomery, in an effort to implore liberals and conservatives alike to take what he perceives to be a threat to the First Amendment seriously.
“It’s bad enough that the Religious Right has spent decades claiming ownership over faith, family and freedom. But now we have to watch conservative preachers and political activists wrap themselves in the First Amendment and the Constitution that their beloved President Trump takes a dump on every day,” the Op-Ed begins. “To our fellow liberals and progressives, and to other fair-minded, reason-respecting Americans, we say we can’t let them get away with it.”
Again, one only wonders what Mr. Lear might have opined about some of the folks now being approved for cabinet positions in the last few weeks.
And in 2019, on the heels of the success of the second installment of LIFOASA, the LOS ANGELES TIMES offered this clickbait: NORMAN LEAR: TRUMP IS NOT A WELL MAN.
These days, the TIMES is limiting itself to just the review which its veteran critic Robert Lloyd was somehow able to sneak past his otherwise judgmental superiors”
Given the state of things, it feels good to have a trans person playing a trans character in a family comedy on our most consumed medium. Whatever else you can say about television, it does tend to keep moving, however fitfully, into the light.
As to the trans theme, “Clean Slate” takes its foot off that pedal fairly quickly, and settles into its groove as a generation-gap, culture-clash comedy about a father who likes his bad habits and a daughter who wants to improve him, set within a larger comedy of Southern manners. (Cox is from Mobile, Wallace is from Atlanta, and their co-creator Dan Ewen is from Athens, Ga.) After a very brief initial shock, there is nary a moment when Harry doesn’t accept Desiree for who she is, though it will take him a short while to remember to call her Desiree, and he will occasionally use an improper pronoun; money goes in a “pronoun jar” when he does.
And that’s actually resonant of a few other classic Lear comedies; indeed, as Lloyd noted:
According to Wallace, he had approached the late Norman Lear, an executive producer on “Clean Slate,” about the possibility of rebooting “Sanford and Son,” and in the fullness of time it brought forth this series, which is similar mainly in that it concerns a cantankerous oldster living in close quarters with his differently tempered offspring and is set (mostly) among Black people in a Black neighborhood.
Additionally, the delayed timing of CLEAN SLATE’s drop lined it up with the 50th anniversary of the debut of THE JEFFERSONS on CBS. In January 1975 the concept of intermarriage–two generations’ worth- was as controversial as anything which the presence of someone like Cox in a world last infiltrated by the likes of MY COUSIN VINNY was capable of generating now, either on the show or in real time. We laughed then as at least some of us are now–though it sure appears the number of us that are isn’t huge. ROTTEN TOMATOES has the current critics’ score at a decent 88 per cent, but a more telling sign is that there aren’t any PopcornMeter entries as of this writing. Coupled with its lack of presence on Prime’s Top 10, let alone all else we’ve already mused about–not to mention the seismic shift in Sony management and priorities since this was greenlit–it’s hard to vision a scenario that will bring this back for another go-round.
Which to me is truly unfortunate, since I’m certain that no matter what Mr. Lear might have been willing to offer as clickbait now his bottom line call to action would have been to just sit back and relax in the manner that McCauley reminded. I certainly needed it last night more than ever, and it’s not just because of the antics in D.C. I kinda suspect we’re all gonna need more of it in the coming months. And as my even modest ability to bingewatch reminded, eight half-hour episodes can go by far too quickly.
But at least, as Mr. Lear so often said, “Even this we get to experience”. You’d be wise to heed that advice yourself.
Until next time…