All in the family

When All In The Family premiered in 1971 it took some chances. Remember that the CBS lineup at the time included The Beverly Hillbillies, Gunsmoke, and Green Acres - hardly the stuff of controversy. Controversial "Laugh-In" had been racking up big ratings for a couple of years, but second-rate NBC had nothing to lose by taking chances.

Besides broaching all of the controversial topics of the day - abortion, the Vietnam War, homosexuality, and race relations, the show dared to say something that was seldom said on stage or screen before - that bigotry and racism thrived north of the Mason Dixon line, and found particularly safe harbors in some of the urban areas of what is normally thought of as the heart of liberalism. In this case, the Bunker household is in Queens, New York.

The year is 1971, and before outsourcing is even a word, Archie Bunker is able to maintain a middle class lifestyle in New York City with a blue collar job and a stay-at-home wife, Edith. He will never be anything more than he is right then. Archie holds very conservative though not well thought out - or at least not well articulated - viewpoints. And then his 18 year old daughter Gloria marries a liberal. Mike is an atheist with a Polish Catholic background, and stands for everything Archie is against. The icing on the cake - he's a penniless student and he will be a guest in Archie's home for the next several years while he finishes the university degree that will enable him to look down on Archie forever afterwords. It's funny this last point is brought up only once, by the observant if subservient Edith, Archie's wife.

For a few seasons all was well, and then this show and MASH suffered a series of crushing blows - the Vietnam War ended, Nixon was disgraced, and the controversial views held by Archie's son-in-law Mike began to enter the mainstream. Thus the show had to come up with new angles to stay fresh, and it did that, even managing to negotiate the loss of three of the four main characters and a neighboring family that played an important supporting role, the African-American Jeffersons.

Today it looks somewhat tie-dyed, but it's still worth studying just to see mainstream viewpoints change before your eyes.

Even though it took three years and three pilots to get All in the Family on network TV, it has become one of the most classic 70s sitcoms as well as the show that broke the genteel world of comedies like Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver by featuring subjects that weren't explored on those shows. Subjects like bigotry, racism and menopause were controversial topics that were finally brought out of the closet and used as the basis for a number of episodes.

The four main actors, Carroll O'Connor as Archie, Jean Stapleton as Edith, Rob Reiner as Mike and Sally Struthers as Gloria had great chemistry but it was O'Connor's portrayal of Archie is what made the show a major hit after a slow start. His bigoted rants and numerous malaprops stood out and were very funny. Also, the many scenes with Archie and Mike clashing on a lot of subjects were also extremely funny, especially in the flashback episode where Archie met mike for the first time.

All in the Family's success paved the way for more shows with more controversial topics such as Maude and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Besides Maude, the show also had two other spinoffs, the hit sitcom The Jeffersons and the not so successful Gloria.

As the years went by, I felt the show jumped the shark when Archie became a lot mellower after buying Kelsey's Bar and when Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers left the show. The episode about Mike and Gloria leaving for California was one of the saddest sitcom episodes I ever saw but it remains a classic. Mike and Gloria leaving also lost most of the show's edge since the Archie-Mike conflict was one of the show's centerpieces. Another shark jump was the addition of Edith's niece Stephanie, another example of a sitcom adding another kid.

All in the Family, despite all the racial slurs was one of my all-time sitcom favorites. There well never be another show like it.

"All in the Family" may have been one brilliant show,but it was also one of those that broke every TV standardize code ratings system and it was the backbone of such shows(or sitcoms)to follow years later down the line like "Sanford and Son", "The Jeffersons"(which were both under the supervision of producer-creator Norman Lear) "Married:With Children",and etc.

Carroll O'Connor's portrayal of Archie Bunker was electrifying to watch because the show had such a good content of the day's relevant issues(which were strictly taboo from TV before this show ever hit the airwaves) mixed with some slapstick and of course Archie's mouth and logic. It had subjects that were tackled head on including homosexuality,gender roles,racism,war, economy,women's rights,and the choice of abortion(which one episode dealt with that subject),suicide,and birth control, education,child custody and old age.

Even when the commentary of certain items were brought up in the Bunker home,it was always Archie and Micheal(played by Rob Reiner)who quarrel over certain issues in which Archie calls Micheal either a "meathead",or "polark" because of his European heritage,which in turn made Archie one of the most bigotists people ever made for television.

Its very informative that the commentary on life in America is sometimes light-hearted in a sense,but brings out the bigot in all of us,and makes us think very hard on what we're doing to ourselves and each other.

The show itself had some very powerful episodes here,including one where Edith loses a loved one over his gender(which Jean Stapleton won the emmy for that compelling episode),and the part where Archie falls apart over the death of his wife(very emotional and powerful episode in which Carroll O'Connor won two emmys for his work as Best Actor on the show,and one for Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner as well).

During its initial run on CBS(as "All In The Family" from 1971-1979,and as "Archie Bunker's Place" from 1979-1982),the show as a whole has a very strong significance and content that applies still to this day,and one of the most influential shows ever to come out of the golden decade of great TV: the 1970's. Kudos to Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton,wherever you are!

Catch the classics episodes on TV Land and Nick at Nite.

Simply no other show dealt racism, sexism, liberal elitism, class, homophobia, the generation gap and reality as it is on the ground in America better than "All In The Family" did. It blew the door off the hinges of any remaining concept of a sanitized "family hour" on television. The gritty, dirty, messy, tragic and yet hilarious lives of the working class in 1970s America was laid out and dissected with surgical precision. A lot of painful, infected boils were lanced, which had bee. laid bare by the Vietnam war and the race riots of the 1970s. Viewing AITF was and still is a form of socio-political catharsis. In the 70s, older adults and their children and grandchildren saw each other more honestly by sharing the laughter of this unique, groundbreaking sitcom. Nothing before or since has been equal.

In my book, All in the Family wins the award for the best television show of the seventies. This show is very historic. It talks about politics and racism and the way things were in the seventies and somewhat teaches you what it was like back then and on top of that it was funny as Hell! Archie Bunker alone will be a character that will really go down in history. As the show went on you really saw how he also learned and not to be such a racist and you just saw him change. Edith wins as thee craziest TV housewife with her high voice and that shes always so happy and full of energy and a pleasure to be around, pretty much the opposite of Archie. You got to have the crazy kids too that are getting on there nerves, but in this case it was the other way around. I love this show and thank goodness TV Land shows the re-runs.