This man showed every comedy writer and producer alive today exactly how it's done. He inspired all of us to elevate the genre to something beyond just the laughs. He leaves behind a staggering entertainment legacy, with the crown jewel standing as perhaps the greatest sitcom ever, "All in the Family", a modern-day viewing of which is enough to humble any of us writing for TV. Even more impressively, he flew 52 combat missions with the Air Force in WWIl, and was decorated for his service. How many of us in the industry can say we fought the Nazis, AND made some of the best TV of all time? I once asked him to tell me about his experiences in the war, and what it was like to fly consecutive missions with such frequency. He said the worst days were when he didn't really know the rest of the guys in the crew. Only a born comedy writer could risk his life to help smash Hitler's regime and then say the toughest part was the social anxiety. And even though he lived to 101, he never became an old man. He could have stuck around a hundred years more, and never become creatively bored or apathetic, even for an instant. I will miss my friend Norman Lear, but if there was ever a life to be more celebrated than mourned, it's this guy. He did it right.