All in the Family

All in the Family is a popular and acclaimed American situation comedy that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971 until April 8, 1979, when the final original episode aired. In September 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 in the United States on TV Land.

Cast

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 Bunker 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.) Mel Stewart was also featured as George's brother, Henry Jefferson.
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 1973-1976); 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; 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).

Production

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. ^* The fictional address of the Bunker home is 704 Hauser Street.

All in the Family is also historic as being the first major American series to be videotaped 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 whoever 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 an unprecedented move.

Ratings

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 five consecutive TV seasons.

The ratings for each season, at the end of the season, were:

Season	Ratings Rank
1970-1971	#34
1971-1972 through 1975-1976	#1
1976-1977	#12
1977-1978	#9
1978-1979	#4

Sample episode: "Sammy's Visit"

Jewish and African American performer Sammy Davis, Jr. loved the show and often pestered Lear to allow him to make a guest appearance. But Lear resisted, feeling that Davis's appearance playing a character part would upset the continuity of the series. So the writers developed a plot that would allow Davis to play himself in an episode: Archie, low on cash, takes up moonlighting as a taxi 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.

Spin-off 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:

Archie Bunker's Place
Gloria
704 Hauser
Good Times (spin-off of Maude)
Checking In (spin-off of The Jeffersons)

An animated series by Hanna-Barbera entitled Wait Till Your Father Gets Home was very loosely based on All in the Family.

Theme song

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.

Archie: Boy, the way Glenn Miller played,

Edith: Songs that made the Hit Parade,

Archie: Guys like us, we had it made,

Both: Those were the days!

Edith: And you knew where you were then,

Archie: Girls were girls, and men were men,

Both: Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again...

Archie: Didn't need no welfare state,

Edith: Everybody pulled his weight,

Both: 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.

Trivia

The then US President Nixon can be heard discussing the show, when being secretly taped; he was not a fan.
In addition to the primetime episodes of the series, CBS aired repeat episodes of All in the Family on its daytime schedule from December 1, 1975 until September 14, 1979. The show aired at 3:00pm (EST) from December 1975 until November 1977, when it was moved to 3:30pm. Early in 1978, it was moved to 10:00am where it stayed until September 1979.
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.)
Archie Bunker is the only character to remain in the series throughout its run including the Archie Bunker's Place-era. Others either were written off before the end of its run or debuted in later seasons.
Reiner's then wife Penny Marshall was considered for the role of Gloria.
A popular T-shirt showing O'Connor's image and farcically 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.
All in the Family is one of the three sitcoms in which all the main characters won Emmys (Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, Rob Reiner). The other two are The Golden Girls and Will & Grace.
At the beginning of each Family Guy episode, Lois Griffin is shown playing the piano in a style broadly similar to that of Edith Bunker at the beginning of each All in the Family episode.^*

DVD releases

Season Releases

DVD Name (and Broadcast Season)	Region 1 Release Date	# of Eps
The Complete First Season (1971)	March 26 2002	13
The Complete Second Season (1971-72)	February 4 2003	24
The Complete Third Season (1972-73)	July 20 2004	24
The Complete Fourth Season (1973-74)	April 12 2005	24
The Complete Fifth Season (1974-75)	January 3 2006	25
The Complete Sixth Season (1975-76)	TBA 2006	24
The Complete Seventh Season (1976-77)	TBA 2007	25
The Complete Eighth Season (1977-78)	TBA 2007	24
The Complete Ninth Season (1978-79)	TBA 2008	24

References

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

External links

Encyclopedia of Television entry on All in the Family
All In The Family: 35 Years Of Defining Moments (WCBS-TV story with video, January 12, 2006)
Web resource dedicated to All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place

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