Norman Lear To Make Cameo Appearance In ‘Good Times’ Netflix Animated Series As TV Icon Leaves Slate Of Upcoming Projects Behind

Rosy Cordero
·3 min read
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Hollywood may have lost a TV legend in Norman Lear, following his death on Tuesday at the age of 101, but fans will be able to spend a little more time with him as he is set to make a cameo appearance in the upcoming animated series Good Times, Deadline has learned exclusively.

The Netflix and Sony Picture Television comedy, which follows a new generation of the Evans family residing in one of the last remaining housing projects in Chicago, has yet to announce a release date but sources reveal they’re targeting a Summer 2024 premiere. Netflix and SPT declined comment.

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Good Times is only one of several projects left behind by Lear who, at age 101, remained busy developing and producing new series through his production deal at Sony TV. In May, Netflix greenlighted the Lear EP-ed dramedy series The Corps, starring Vera Farmiga, Miles Heizer and Liam Oh, about a gay high school student who joins the Marine Corps alongside his straight best friend. The project, based on Greg Cope White’s memoir The Pink Marine, was close to Lear’s heart as an Army veteran who fought valiantly during World War II.

Justina Machado’s character Penélope in the One Day at a Time reboot from Gloria Calderon Kellett and Mike Royce, which Lear executive produced, was an Army veteran dealing with PTSD in tribute to Lear.

A remake of another Lear TV classic, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, also has been in the works with Lear exex producing. Originally set up at TBS in 2021, the project went into turnaround following the changes at the Turner cable network. In April, Deadline spoke with Lear’s producing partner Brent Miller and Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire— who as been attached in the title role —about the project.

“It’s shopping,” Miller shared during the interview.

Added Hampshire, “If anyone’s shopping, Mary is shopping. What’s so great about the show is the pitch of exploring how the original series would be in today’s world. What’s great is that it keeps getting more and more relevant now. Mary’s obsession with her screen foreshadowed us with our screen, but now instead of Mary watching the commercials, we are the commercials.”

Lear, Miller and Jimmy Kimmel completed two successful installments of their Live in Front of A Studio Audience TV specials on ABC, bringing together many of Lear’s classic shows like All in the Family and its spinoff The Jeffersons and later, Good Times and The Facts of Life. The former won two Emmy awards, including for TV Special (Live), making Lear the oldest Emmy winner in history at age 97. There had been talk about a third iteration of the franchise however, no further information is available at this time.

Last June, a Who’s the Boss? sequel series was announced to be in development at Amazon Freevee with Tony Danza and Alyssa Milano returning to play their original roles. Deadline caught up with Milano at a picket line during the SAG-AFTRA strike who confirmed the project is still in the works.

Lear is executive producing the sequel as well as Freevee’s upcoming Laverne Cox and George Wallace-led comedy series Clean Slate.

Created by Mike Evans and Eric Monte, the original Good Times was television’s first African American two-parent family sitcom. It was a spinoff of Lear’s Maude, which itself was a spin-off of Lear’s signature series, All in the Family.

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