Norman Lear was my babysitter.
Every day, the school bus would drop us off, and in the two hours or so until my mother got home, I was “taken care of” by Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time and Sanford and Son.
Later on, as I got more interested in comedy, I started watching Maude reruns and, of course, the one and only All in the Family.
To this day, watching a scene with Archie Bunker is like looking at an exquisite diamond through a jewelers loupe. Everything about it is perfect: the timing, the writing, the acting. And you cannot believe what comes out of Archie’s mouth (and I worked on Veep).
In 2017, Mr. Lear was the one to present our Veep gang with the Emmy for best comedy. I ran back to find him in the green room and tell him some of what I just wrote. He was so gracious, despite clearly having heard it all before. But I wanted to let my babysitter know I had made good, and part of it was thanks to him.
David Mandel is an Emmy-winning writer, executive producer and director whose credits include Veep, White House Plumbers, Saturday Night Live, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld.
