The complete libraries of Norman Lear’s “All in the Family” and “Maude” are coming to Amazon’s IMDb TV, marking the first time both landmark series’ entire runs have been available to stream in one place.
The news is part of a new licensing deal between Amazon and Sony Pictures TV, which holds the distribution rights to Lear’s TV catalog (including the shows produced by his shingle, Tandem, and later distributed by his Embassy label). The pact starts with Lear’s signature series “All in the Family,” “Good Times,” “Maude” and “One Day at a Time” all launching this Thursday, July 15, on IMDb TV, which is Amazon’s advertiser-supported free streamer.
According to Amazon and Sony, this marks the first time that episodes of “Maude” and all nine seasons of “All in the Family” are legally accessible for viewers to stream. (Until recently, a handful of episodes of “All in the Family” were available on Crackle, the free AVOD service once operated by Sony.)
Meanwhile, as part of the pact, “Diff’rent Strokes” and “227” will launch this Thursday, July 15 on Amazon Prime Video. “The Jeffersons,” “Sanford & Son” and spinoff “Sanford” will be added to Prime Video later in the year.
Amazon touts the news as “the largest volume of Norman Lear complete series content ever available to stream.”
Said Lear in a statement: “Life is a collaboration. Writing, directing and producing films and television is perhaps the most collaborative work of all. In 2018, our Act III Productions sat with the team at Sony Pictures Television and formed a partnership to not only produce new content, but to bring a new awareness to my former Embassy library. That Sony found a home for that library with Prime Video/IMDb TV where new generations could find it, is the best present a man entering his 100th year can have.”
The addition to IMDb comes as Amazon embarks on an aggressive expansion campaign for the streamer, starting with a suite of original series including “Leverage: Redemption,” “Alex Rider,” “Moment of Truth” and “Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers.” And even for subscription streamers like Prime Video, library content remains a key and much-viewed portion of program offerings.
“Norman Lear is a national treasure and his impact on television and popular culture is immeasurable,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “We are so honored to bring his classic television series to Prime Video and IMDb TV so new audiences and a new generation can laugh, enjoy and be inspired, like so many of us have been throughout the years.”
Lear, who turns 99 on July 27, recently received back-to-back Emmys for executive producing and co-hosting two “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” specials with Jimmy Kimmel. His string of hits in the 1970s included “All in the Family,” “Maude,” “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons,” “One Day at a Time” and “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” “One Day at a Time” was adapted into a critically acclaimed reboot, while a new take on “Mary Hartman” is currently in the works. Lear is a six-time Primetime Emmy winner, a 2017 Kennedy Center honoree, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, a winner of the Peabody Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 and was among the inaugural inductees into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984.
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