Neal Justin: Network sitcoms ignore Norman Lear's legacy

The night after Norman Lear died, the five major networks paid tribute by airing a memoriam card at the same time.

Nice — and ironic. The executives who signed off on that idea have no intention of airing anything that resembles "All in the Family."

Lear wasn't perfect. Too many of his shows leaned on catchphrases designed for lunch boxes. John Amos was booted from "Good Times" after complaining too many times about how the writers kept working "Dyn-o-mite!" into the scripts.

But at least Lear tried. These days, networks would rather churn out six more dating shows than sign off on a sitcom that took even a semi-serious look at class, race and gender, subjects at the core of Lear's finest works.

Take "Extended Family," which gets a special sneak preview at 7 p.m. Saturday before moving into its regular 7:30 p.m. Tuesday time slot on Jan. 2.

Jon Cryer and Abigail Spencer play a recently separated couple navigating parenthood and their newfound freedom. It's a premise a good chunk of viewers could relate to — if the former lovebirds resembled anyone who has ever lived on planet Earth.

The pair are so comfortable with their split that even Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin would roll their eyes. In the first episode, the biggest drama revolves around the death of the family goldfish.

"Night Court," which returns to NBC at 7:30 p.m. Saturday before the official start of its second season at 7 p.m. Jan. 2, also tiptoes around any topics that might keep the sitcom from being the next "Friends."

The original 1984-92 series wasn't terrific, but at least you got the sense that you were getting some insight into the lives of underdogs, one missed rent check away from being homeless. The closest thing you get to those kinds of folks in this weekend's episode is a bunch of drunk Santas and Minnesota native Maria Bamford believing she's the Ghost of Christmas Present.

In the reboot, we're supposed the believe that Dan Fielding (John Larroquette), the only original cast member, is still despicable, but his most spiteful act in the first of two new episodes is giving his co-workers lottery tickets for Christmas. What a Grinch!

But why should networks take any chances when playing it safe works out so well?

Their most watched sitcom for the past few seasons has been "Young Sheldon," which has consistently been in Netflix's top 10 most viewed programs since it became available on the streaming service last month. The title character is much sweeter, more grounded and less alienating than the grown-up Sheldon in "The Big Bang Theory."

It would have been interesting to see how Lear would have presented "Young Sheldon." Yes, the title character probably would have to say "Bazinga!" at least twice a week. But he probably also would have had lots of pointed arguments with his churchgoing mom about religion, butted heads more with his blue-collar dad and grappled with hot-button issues of the late '80s and early '90s.

Instead, you see him take apart a refrigerator to get to the bottom of an annoying hum.

You can still see Lear's legacy on cable and streaming services (start with Netflix's "The Upshaws," which returns in the spring). But the last time networks took a chance on anything that resembled a Lear sitcom was more than six years ago. NBC's "The Carmichael Show" features a Black family who argued just as much as the Bunkers ever did — and about a lot more than dead pets.

It was canceled after 32 episodes.