All in the Family

"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.

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.

Behold one of the most politically incorrect and yet uproarious sitcoms ever made. Here's the basic premise: bigoted AWG with a dutiful if slow-on-the-uptake wife lets his daughter and her far-far-far-*far*-left-wing husband live with them so he can finish school, and then the adventure begins! So, yes, Archie Bunker is a jerk. He's notorious for getting himself in way too deep in situations involving race, religion, orientation, and activism. His wife Edith serves as a naive voice of reason... usually to the annoyance of her husband. Daughter Gloria is proud of her husband Mike, to whom Archie always refers as "meathead" (dead from the neck up). And Archie can't move past the fact that Mike is Polish and liberal.

Adding other dimensions to the series are their neighbors, the Jeffersons (whose race frequently causes Archie to put himself in trouble with his ethnically-based comments), and, of course, among others, Cousin Maude-- Edith's no-nonsense cousin who shows up every so often just to push Archie's buttons. The writing is always fresh, the humor works nearly every time, and it's an absolute joy to see the cast at work-- the chemistry is perfect.

I really wish they could make a sitcom like this that actually works again.

The series was a powder keg immediately from the start as Civil Rights unrest and equal rights not only for minorities, but also women dominated headlines. And then there was Vietnam and Watergate. There was total chaos still in places in the south and in larger metropolitan areas in the north. Could television bring these public affairs to light in a comical and thought-provoking way? The answer was a resounding yes as "All in the Family" tore down perpetual American television programming walls with brash views, crazed situations, envelope-pushing elements and dominant film-making techniques (even though this was a sitcom) which all merged to paint a canvass of programming superiority that lasted for 212 mind-blowing episodes over nine years from 1971 through 1979. "The Andy Griffith Show" in the 1960s displayed how Americans wanted life to be, while "All in the Family" in the 1970s showed how American life really was. The result was a ratings monster pretty much from the word go as people watched to be entertained, to be disgusted, to praise and to criticize. The show itself was about a blue-collared New York dock worker (Carroll O'Connor) who has bigoted expressions because life continues to slap him in the face. O'Connor was definitely anti-woman, anti-minority, anti-youth and anti-liberal. He also had crazed views that would show him as being pro-Nixon and pro-Vietnam (real hot button topics back then). The show struck cords the nation over, but comedy was always mixed in and the series thrived due to both its supporters and its detractors. "All in the Family" fought problems in the U.S. by poking fun at very serious issues instead of sweeping them under the carpet like other programs of the period did. Jean Stapleton was priceless as O'Connor's kind, naive and somewhat dumb housewife. Sally Struthers was their only child, a liberal who showed the viewpoints of the Baby Boom generation. She was also married to a young man (Rob Reiner) who was O'Connor's emotional and verbal sparring partner. Reiner was of a Polish descent and that only fueled more fire between the volatile pair. O'Connor's Archie Bunker is arguably the deepest and most unique television character of all time as his crazed and sometimes silly views overshadow the fact that he is a highly sensitive middle-class man who is doing the best for himself and those around him. He is someone who does not always think before he speaks and therein lied his greatest weakness. Eventually most who saw the program embraced him as a flawed and tortured hero (not because of who he was, but because of who he really wanted to be). The lasting effect of "All in the Family" is something to think about, even today. The program continues to be vitally important to 1970s art, society and history. The success of the program even led to spin-offs galore. "Maude", "The Jeffersons", "Archie Bunker's Place" and "Gloria" were all the birth-children of this innovative, smart and completely original taste of Americana that still lives on strong today through many cable channels. 5 stars out of 5.

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.