'Gloria' as a somewhat cheesy but family-friendly 80's sitcom could have worked, if not for that tragedy in the background. Knowing that main character Gloria Bunker-Stivic is in fact THAT Gloria from All in the Family, whose ex-husband Mike is now apparently working with fifty naked hippies growing vegetables at some nutbar commune, it simply doesn't work - and it's too bad, because 'Gloria' had some genuinely decent plot ideas, some excellent acting and a solid premise, if only it hadn't been connected to AITF. If it had simply been another woman totally unconnected to AITF, a struggling single parent at a ramshackle vet clinic, I could see it having two strong legs to stand on as far as sitcoms go. It's cute, it's harmless, but it has a bit of depth when it needs it. The constant reinforcement, however, that Gloria is a mom whose socialist husband dumped her only dredges up sad memories that these deep, profound characters on AITF have been reduced to fodder based purely on their worst attributes.
All of this being said, every episode of 'Gloria' was up on CTV's Rewind service on its main website, so I watched them all in succession, and it's not bad. Burgess Meredith gives it his all and steals the show as Dr. Willard Adams, Jo de Winter as the frigid, no-nonsense Maggie is a lot of fun, and Lou Richards as the dorky but lovable Clarke really grew on me as the series progressed. It's unfortunate that this had to be written as an AITF spin-off and not as its own standalone sitcom. The idea that the legacy of AITF became this series where the first episode has Gloria slipping in animal droppings and getting it all up the seat of her pants is just sad, when considering that this was the girl who brought America to tears when she had a miscarriage, who caught the world's attention when she had Joey, who brought up all kinds of important issues like sexual assault, unequal pay, being an uneducated woman in today's competitive world, and more. 'Gloria' was doomed from the beginning.
