How does one preview a milestone birthday? By crooning a little “That’s Amore” and sharing a few pearls of wisdom, naturally.
In his final hours as a 99-year-old legend, Norman Lear recorded a video for Instagram in which he marvels at the wonders of modern science and how it got him to his 100th year of life.
“My God the miracle of being alive with everything that’s available to us,” he begins after covering a Dean Martin classic. “Me turning 100 tomorrow. Did you hear me? Tomorrow I turn 100. That’s as believable to me as today I’m 99.”
Lear then waxes on about moments and how everyone should treasure that period between the “after” and the “next.” The video was shot by his daughter in Vermont.
The five-time Emmy winner is up for his sixth (with Brent Miller) for producing Live In Front of a Studio Audience: The Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes. He remains an active producer, with talk of another Live In Front of a Studio Audience (Maude, perhaps?) and a reboot of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman for TBS.
The longtime producer and philanthropist was born July 27, 1922 in Connecticut. He flew combat missions in World War II before he began his storied career in television, first with variety shows like The Martha Raye Show and The Andy Williams Show before creating such hits as Sanford and Son, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Maude, All in the Family, Good Times, One Day At A Time, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, among others.
