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.

Archie Bunker ("Carroll O'Connor) moved up in the world by 1979 with this fair follow-up to "All in the Family". He decides to buy the bar down the street that always served as his second home and hilarious situations followed for another 96 episodes over a four-year run from 1979 through 1983. O'Connor though made the transition alone as Jean Stapleton passed away on the show and O'Connor found solace with a young orphan (Danielle Brisebois) who he started to rear as the previous series ended. The comedic timing of O'Connor and Brisebois (an adolescent at the time) was impressive for the most part, but honestly O'Connor thrived on old colleagues like Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers much better. Good performers like Anne Meara and old movie character actor Martin Balsam were high-lighted as the series ran its course. Just always lacked the edginess and creativity of its predecessor. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Carroll O'Connor's character Archie Bunker was so popular that the network could not let him go so easily. Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, and Sally Struthers were eager to move away from their television personalities. But let's face it, they were on one of the most popular sitcoms ever and for them, it is both a blessing and curse as well. Archie Bunker's Place had a girl, Danielle Brisebois as the Jewish girl from Edith's side of the family. I remember watching Anne Meara, Liz Torres, and others who try to recreate the magic that was All in the Family but the show is still superior to anything on television today so I'm being a little more liberal because the character of ARchie Bunker became an American icon and part of the fabric of American culture that we would miss him too much. THis show allowed us to slowly move on. We love Archie Bunker and the actor who played him, Carroll O'Connor. For most of us, we'll always think of him as Archie.

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.