'' is a popular and acclaimed American
Situation Comedy that was originally broadcast on the
CBS television network from
January 12 ,
1971 to
September 16 ,
1979 , when the final original episode aired.
The Daytime Series aired from
November 3 ,
1975 to
September 14 ,
1979 .
On
September 23 ,
1979 , the show was retooled and given a new name, ''
Archie Bunker's Place ''. With that title, the sitcom lasted another four years, finally ending its run in
1983 .
Produced by
Norman Lear and based on a British television series ''
Til Death Us Do Part '', the show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously deemed unsuitable for network television comedy, such as
Racism ,
Homosexuality ,
Women's Liberation ,
Rape ,
Breast Cancer and
Impotence .
The show was wildly popular, and ranked #1 in the yearly Nielsen ratings from
1971 to
1976 . Only one other program, ''
The Cosby Show '', has tied ''All In The Family'' in terms of years at the top of the ratings. In
2002 , it ranked #4 on ''
TV Guide '''s list of the 50 greatest TV shows of all time. ''TV Guide'' also named the show's protagonist,
Archie Bunker , TV's greatest character of all time.
Currently reruns of ''All in the Family'' are aired on
TV Land .
Set in the borough of
Queens in
New York City , the program starred:
- Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker , frequently called a "loveable bigot," a prejudiced blue-collar worker whose ignorance and stubbornness tended to cause his arguments to self-destruct.
- Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker , Archie's traditional yet occasionally outspoken wife. Edith was never the sharpest member of the family, but she was definitely the kindest and most understanding, and often comes off as one of the wisest characters in the series. Stapleton remained with the show all through the original series run and decided to leave before the first season of ''Archie Bunker's Place'' had wrapped. At that point, Edith was written out as having suffered a stroke and died off camera, leaving Archie to deal with the death of his beloved "Dingbat."
- Rob Reiner as Michael "Meathead" Stivic , Gloria's college-student husband, an archetypal, self-righteous, 1960s -style liberal who constantly sparred with Archie on political and social issues.
- Sally Struthers as Gloria Stivic , Archie and Edith's college-age daughter, married to Michael. Gloria frequently attempted to mediate Archie and Michael's arguments.
- Earlier seasons also featured Sherman Hemsley , Isabel Sanford and Mike Evans as George and Louise Jefferson and their son, Lionel , Archie's African American neighbors. Lionel and Louise joined the show in its first season. George joined the show in 1973. (Hemsley, who was Norman Lear's first choice to play George, was performing in the Broadway musical "Purlie" and didn't want to break his commitment to that show. However, Lear kept the role waiting for him until he was finished appearing in the musical.)
- Betty Garrett and Vincent Gardenia joined the show as semi-regulars in 1973 , playing next-door neighbors Irene and Frank Lorenzo. Gardenia only stayed for one season, but Garrett remained until her character was phased out in late 1975 .
- Other recurring characters included Stretch Cunningham, Archie's friend and coworker from the loading dock, played by James Cromwell from 1973 - 76; Theresa Betencourt ( Liz Torres ), a Latina nursing student, who rented Mike and Gloria's former room at the Bunker house during the 1975 - 1976 season; Barney Hefner ( Allan Melvin ), Archie's best friend and neighbor; Tom Kelsey ( Bob Hastings ), who owned the bar Archie frequented and later bought and Harry Snowden ( Jason Wingreen ), a bartender at Kelsey's, who continued to work there after Archie purchased the establishment and eventually became his partner.
- In 1978 , the Bunkers took in Archie & Edith's 9-year old niece, Stephanie Mills ( Danielle Brisebois ), after the child's father – Edith's deadbeat cousin, Floyd Mills – abandoned her on their doorstep. (He later reappeared, after Archie and Edith had become attached to the girl and extorted money from them to allow her to remain with the Bunkers.) She would remain with the show through its transition to '' Archie Bunker's Place ''.
''All in the Family'' was notorious for featuring language and epithets previously absent from television, such as "fag" for homosexual, "spade" and much less frequently, "
Nigger " for
Blacks and phrases such as "God damn it." (It was also famous for being the first major television show to feature a flushing
Toilet ; the sound of a flushing toilet became a
Running Gag on the show.) While moral watchdogs attacked the show on those grounds, others objected to the show's portrayal of Archie Bunker as a "lovable" bigot. Defenders of the series pointed out that Archie usually lost his arguments by reason of his own stupidity (it is perhaps worth noting that
Alf Garnett , Archie Bunker's counterpart in the original British series was far from lovable and used much stronger language that would not have been allowed on US network television).
Lear bought the rights to ''Till Death Us Do Part'' and incorporated his own family experiences with his father into the show. Lear's father would tell Lear's mother to "stifle yourself" and she would tell Lear's father "you are the laziest white man I ever saw" (two 'Archieisms' that found their way onto the show).
While in pre-production, the last name chosen for Archie's family was "Justice" and the show's title was ''Justice for All'' but was later changed to ''Those Were the Days''.
Former child actor
Mickey Rooney was the show's choice to play Archie but Rooney declined the offer due to its strong potential for controversy and, in Rooney's opinion, poor chances for success. Actor
Carroll O'Connor enthusiastically sought the part, even though he agreed with Rooney's assessment of the show's chances. (He was living in Rome at the time, and made his acceptance of the part contingent on Lear's covering for his airfare back to Rome when the show failed.) Lear offered the role of Edith, Archie's wife, to character actress
Jean Stapleton . Initially, the roles of Archie and Edith's daughter, Gloria and son-in-law (then named "Dickie") were given to Candice Azzara and Chip Oliver. After seeing the show's pilot, the production company,
ABC , requested a second pilot be shot, stating they disliked Azarra and Oliver. Lear recast the "Gloria" and "Dickie" roles to
Sally Struthers and
Rob Reiner , and reshot the pilot. ABC became uneasy at this point and canceled the project.
Rival network
CBS , however, was eager to update its image, and was looking to replace much of its then popular "rural" programming (e.g. ''
Mayberry R.F.D. ,
The Beverly Hillbillies '') with more "urban", contemporary fare (see
Rural Purge ), and was interested in Lear's project. They bought the rights from ABC and re-titled the show ''All in the Family''. In an effort to warn viewers about the controversial nature of the show, CBS ran a disclaimer before airing the first episode (which disappeared from the screen with the sound of a
Toilet flush):
"The program you are about to see is'' All In The Family''. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are."
The house shown in the opening credits, meant to be the Bunkers', is located at 89-70 Cooper Avenue in the
Glendale neighborhood of Queens, New York.
{Link without Title} The fictional address of the Bunker home is 704 Hauser Street. In several episodes, characters make reference to their residence in Astoria, Queens.
''All in the Family'' is also historic as being one of the first major American series to be
Videotape d in front of a live studio audience. Previously, sitcoms had been shot on film in front of an audience, and the 1960s had seen a growing number of sitcoms filmed on soundstages without audiences, with a
Laugh Track simulating audience response. After the success of ''All in the Family'', videotaping sitcoms in front of an audience became the standard format for the genre.
In addition to its candid political dialogue, ''All in the Family'''s storylines also included a sense of realism not previously associated with sitcoms. A
1973 episode, for example, found the Bunkers discovering a
Swastika painted on their front door. (It had been intended for their Jewish neighbors down the street.) An activist from the Hebrew Defense League showed up, proposing violent retaliation against whomever painted it, but upon leaving, he was blown up in his car, as the Bunkers watched in horror from their front door. To interweave illness, crime, or in this case, the onscreen violent death of a character into the plot of a comedy show was seen as an unprecedented move.
''All In the Family'' is one of two television shows, ''
The Cosby Show '' being the other, that have been number 1 in the
Nielsen Ratings for 5 consecutive TV seasons.
The ratings for each season, at the end of the season, were:
driver and he picks Davis up as a fare, but Davis accidentally leaves his briefcase in the cab.
In spite of his bigoted opinions of both Jews and African Americans, Archie can barely contain his excitement as he tells Edith about his encounter and the fact that Davis, himself, would be stopping by later to retrieve his briefcase. He then sternly warns Edith not to mention Davis's
Glass Eye , but later slips and asks coffee-sipping Davis "...Do you take cream and sugar in your eye?" while staring into Davis' glass eye.
In a later exchange between the two, Archie says, "I think that if God had meant for us to be together, he'd have put us together. But look what he done. He put you over in Africa, and put the rest of us in all the white countries," to which Davis responds, "Well, he must've told you where we were, because somebody came and got us."
Finally Munson (who was delivering the briefcase to the Bunkers' house) arrives and, also star-struck, asks if he can photograph Davis. Davis agrees on one condition: that Archie be in the photo with him. The two pose for the picture, but just as Munson snaps the photo, Davis places a huge kiss on Archie's cheek. A look of confusion mixed with horror replaces the grin on the bigot Archie's face and the studio audience erupts into unconstrained laughter.
"Sammy's Visit" would later win the episode's director, John Rich, an
Emmy Award for Best Directing. It first aired on
February 19 ,
1972 . Although it is in some ways atypical, in that it is the only regular ''All in the Family'' episode in which a well-known celebrity guest-starred, "Sammy's Visit" is often cited as both a popular and critical favorite from the series.
''All in the Family'' spawned several spin-offs, beginning with ''
Maude '' on
September 12 ,
1972 . Maude Findlay, played by
Beatrice Arthur , was Edith's cousin; she had first appeared on ''All in the Family'' in December 1971 in order to help take care of the Bunkers when they all were sick. Maude disliked Archie intensely, mainly because she thought Edith could have married better, but also because Archie was a conservative while Maude was very liberal in her politics. Maude was featured in another ''All in the Family'' episode in which Archie and Edith visited Maude's home in
Westchester County to attend the wedding of Maude's daughter Carol — it aired near the end of the second season in the spring of 1972. The episode was essentially designed to set up the premise for the spin-off series ''Maude''. In the episode,
Bill Macy played Maude's husband, Walter; it was a role he would reprise for the weekly series that fall. Marcia Rodd, the actress who played Carol in the episode was replaced by
Adrienne Barbeau in ''Maude''.
The second and longest-lasting spin-off of ''All in the Family'' was ''
The Jeffersons ''. Debuting on CBS on
January 18 ,
1975 ''The Jeffersons'' lasted 11 seasons compared to ''All in the Family'''s 9 seasons. The main characters of ''The Jeffersons'' were the Bunkers' former next-door neighbors
George Jefferson (played by
Sherman Hemsley , who had appeared from 1973 to 1975 on ''AiTF'') and his wife, Louise "Weezie" Jefferson (played by
Isabel Sanford , 1971-1975 on ''AiTF''). George Jefferson was the owner of a chain of seven successful
Dry-cleaning stores; as ''The Jeffersons'' began, he and Louise had just moved from the Bunkers' neighborhood in
Queens to a luxury high-rise apartment building on
Manhattan 's
Upper East Side . George was considered to be the "Black Archie Bunker", and was just as racist as Archie (only from an
African American perspective).
Other spin-offs of ''All in the Family'' include:
An
Animated Series by
Hanna-Barbera entitled ''
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home '' was very loosely based on ''All in the Family''.
The series' opening theme song, "Those Were the Days" written by
Lee Adams and
Charles Strouse , was presented in a unique way for a 1970s series, with O'Connor and Jean Stapleton singing the tune on camera at the start of every episode. Several different performances were recorded over the run of the series, including one version that includes an additional verse. The song is a simple melody in which Archie and Edith wax nostalgic for the simpler days of yesteryear.
:: ''Boy, the way
Glenn Miller played,''
:: ''Songs that made the
Hit Parade ,''
:: ''Guys like us, we had it made,''
:: ''Those were the days!''
:: ''And you knew where you were then,''
:: ''Girls were girls, and men were men,''
:: ''Mister, we could use a man like
Herbert Hoover again...''
:: ''Didn't need no
Welfare State ,''
:: ''Everybody pulled his weight,''
:: ''Gee, our old
LaSalle ran great,''
::''Those were the days!''
The closing theme was "Remembering You", played by
Roger Kellaway and co-written by Kellaway and O'Connor.
Except for some brief instances in the very first episodes, there was no background or transitional music.
In interviews, Norman Lear stated that the idea for the piano song introduction was originated as a cost-cutting measure. After completion of the pilot episode of the show, the budget would not allow an elaborate scene to serve as the sequence played during the show's opening credits. Lear decided to have a simple scene of Archie and Edith singing at the piano -- a sequence that became one of the most famous openings in TV history.
The theme song to the animated series '' and
Lois Griffin sit at an upright
Piano in tribute to Archie and Edith, as Lois laments the current
American inundation with "violence in movies and sex on TV."
- Archie and Edith's chairs are now in the Smithsonian . Originally purchased by the show's set designer for a few dollars at a local Goodwill, the originals were given to the Smithsonian (for an exhibit on American television history) in 1978. It cost producers thousands of dollars to create replicas to replace the originals on the show's set.
- Lear initially wanted to shoot ''All in the Family'' in black and white, feeling, perhaps, that it would emphasize the Bunkers' stark surroundings to greater effect. While CBS insisted it be recorded and broadcast in color, Lear had the set furnished in rather neutral tones, keeping everything relatively devoid of color.
- At the end of the 1973-74 season, O'Connor attempted to renegotiate his contract, but when he and producers reached a stalemate, he went on strike, refusing to report to work when taping for the 1974-75 season began. In an effort to work around his absence, the writers devised a three-part episode in which Archie disappears on his way to a convention. (O'Connor only appears for less than a minute, at the very end of the third part.) Had O'Connor not returned to work by the time taping began on the third part, the writers had reportedly planned to kill the character off. (Ironically, O'Connor, the one actor that fought the most with Lear, was the last one to leave the series.)
- Lear had originally planned to have professional musicians and singers record the opening theme song, but was already overbudget, and so he decided to have O'Connor and Stapleton perform the song at the last minute, in an attempt to save money. It went on to become one of the most famous television openings of all time.
- Reiner's then wife Penny Marshall was considered for the role of Gloria.
- A popular T-shirt showing O'Connor's image and ''promoting'' "Archie Bunker for President" appeared around the time of the 1972 presidential election. A number of voters were said to have voted for the fictional TV character as a Write-in Candidate .
The first five seasons of ''All in the Family'' are available on Region 1 DVD from Sony Pictures Television.
- ''All in the Family: A Critical Appraisal'', edited by Richard P. Adler, (Praeger; 1979) ISBN 0-03-053996-8
- ''Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria : the Tumultuous History of All in the Family'', Donna McCrohan, (Workman Publishing; 1988) ISBN 0-8948-0527-4
- ''Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments'', Joe Garner, (Andrews McMeel Publishing; 2002) ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
