Archie Bunker's Place

This show never measured up to All in the Family. I was too young to really remember this show, but I have been watching it in TVland. It' not bad, but you can really see the Archie's jokes coming a mile away. I think this show lacked the emotion that All in the Family had. Archie's Place became your basic sitcom and it didn't have anything that really set it off from anything else. It had it's moments, though. But I think Murray Klein (Martin Balsam) was the best character on the show.

Like you, I also enjoy watching the re-runs of All In The Family and Archie Bunker's Place. You are right about it not being a spin-off of the original show. If you will listen, it says at the end of Archie Bunker's Place it says it was played before a studio audience for Live Responses. They changed it from being taped before a studio audience to this at the request of Carroll O'Connor. As I recall, the reason was that it because the studio audiences' laughter made O'Connor very nervous. By the way, a spin off is when one or more characters has another show written around them. The two big spin-offs from All In The Family were The Jeffersons and Maude. Maude spun-off another show, Good Times.

With Archie Bunker's place, Carroll O'Connor had much more creative control than he did on All in the Family... too bad he didn't have Jean, Sally and Rob to back him up, with the exception of a 2 part episode. Rob Reiner was supposedly reluctant to return, but being newly divorced, he needed the money.

The post-Edith episodes are much more maudlin than the first season, and it's depressing to see a sadder Archie. We saw much less of 704 Hauser St., and when it was shown, it looked a lot darker and emptier.

About a year before it was cancelled, Sally Struthers, who really had nothing better lined up, was talked into doing a spin off featuring her Gloria character, now separated from Mike Stivic.

Before the show was cancelled, there was talk of possibly having Rob Reiner return occasionally as Mike, but Rob had become an established director and had no desire to reprise Meathead.

Gloria was now a veterinary assistant, and the trainer from Rocky was the veterinarian that let her sleep in an extra room in his house where his practice was.

Unfortunately, not enough people were interested in seeing a single Gloria, who had matured since the original series. I saw the first show, and thought the show was awkward. It was an attempt to show a single woman struggling to make it on her own (and that's been done before, what, at least a couple times...Mary Tyler Moore, That Girl)

Unfortunately I only saw a few episodes when in it orginially aired and have been watching repeats on TV land. I seriously wonder if Archie Bunker's place was staged before a live audience. The laughter in the series seemed almost forced. In my opinion the only memorable episode is when Archie Bunker visits Reggie Jackson and shows off his hidden racist views. Archie Bunker seems to have mellowed from his previous "All in Family" series and is a mere chuckle than a rip roaring laugh.

THANK YOU TVLAND!

After the huge success of "All In The Family",the spinoff to this series was titled "Archie Bunker's Place",which ran on CBS-TV for four seasons(from 1979-1982). In this installment,the series picks up where one of the most influential series in the history of television left off which to some was not the last we will see of the controversial character Archie Bunker(played by Carroll O'Connor). First off,Archie becomes a widow after his beloved wife Edith passes away and also brings back the last time that fellow actors Jean Stapleton,Sally Struthers,and Rob Reiner would be together in which it was to be the show's final episode,but it wasn't(and this was from the first season of Archie Bunker's Place and the last go round of All In The Family is where this series begins). However,Archie and Edith by the way,adopts a little girl named Stephanie(played by Danielle Brisbois) and after the tragedy of Edith Bunker,Archie leaves his job at the plant,and opens up his own bar in the Queens section of New York(where the setting of the show is shown). Here we get to see a side of Archie Bunker that was never shown before,only this time around that here is a bigot who will see the error of his ways and then all of a sudden repent and Carroll O'Connor pulls this one off brilliantly. Still you may have the same controversial issues that reflect the day,but in all it was a wonderful series that needs to be seen again after two decades sitting on a studio shelf never to be heard from again.

However,TV Land has brought back these classic episodes and what they should have done was after the passing of actor Carroll O'Connor,they should have did a marathon of both "All In The Family",and this series. Let's hope they do.