Norman Lear's Live in Front of a Studio Audience Emmy nomination fails to give credit to his All in the Family collaborator

Los Angeles Times

Lear developed All in the Family, based on the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, with his longtime producing partner Bud Yorkin, who died in 2015 at age 89. "Observers inside and outside Hollywood who have followed his career maintain that for decades, Lear has consistently failed to credit Yorkin, his closest, longest-lasting collaborator and partner in their Tandem Productions," says Greg Braxton. "They contend that Lear has rewritten history, squeezing Yorkin — his equal partner in developing and producing the iconic series — out of the success story and positioning himself as the primary architect of the hit sitcoms. Family members of the Yorkins, along with friends and others, point to the ABC special’s billing as Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons as the latest and perhaps most blatant attempt by Lear to erase Yorkin’s legacy. They say Lear also twisted the true story in his 2014 autobiography and in a 2016 American Masters documentary chronicling his career."