Eric Monte- Not Norman Lear Is The Father of Black Television

If you’re familiar with early 70's television, you have seen Good Times, Sanford and Son, What’s Happening and The Jeffersons, all of which have been historically credited to legendary producer Norman Lear. For the past two years, Lear, now 99 years old, sat next to comedian Jimmy Kimmel as remakes of Lear’s early shows have been re-created in Live Before A Studio Audience.

Lear has been credited with bringing the first black family sitcoms to American television screen some 50 years ago. Already a successful producer thanks to All In The Family and Maude, Lear was already the toast of Hollywood. He would have a career that spanned a half century, lauded as a pioneering television creator.

Enter Eric Monte, a hopeful, 22 year old writer living in the infamous projects of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green with his Mother. Life in Cabrini-Green was rife with poverty and violence, a reality that saw residents abandoned by law enforcement who were afraid to come into the neighborhood due to gang wars. One of Monte’s close friends was murdered- a tragedy that would later inspire a key moment in what would become his groundbreaking 1975 film Cooley High, which examined the lives of close friends in Cabrini-Green and influenced the work of notable actors, music and filmmakers for years to come. Sharing his dream of become a writer…