“He was to shed the gentle Irish intellectual Carroll O’Connor to become the poorly educated, full-of-himself blowhard Archie Bunker, spewing a kind of rancid, lights-out conservatism for a television audience that grew quickly to more than 50 million people.” The Hollywood Reporter has some excerpts from Normal Lear’s new memoir. When it comes to exploring issues of race on television, Norman Lear was ahead of his time. And ahead of our time.

+ Why Tom and Jerry cartoons carry a racism warning.