Looking Back on the Legacy of ‘All in the
Family’ 50 Years Later
Variety,
by
Tim Gray
Original Article
Posted By: OhioNick,
1/12/2021 10:09:22 PM
When “All in the Family” debuted Jan. 12, 1971, on CBS, it was exactly the TV show America needed — though America didn’t realize it at the time. Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin had taped two ABC pilots of the scrip t, both starring Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton, starting in 1968. But ABC was reluctant to commit; as Lear told Variety’s Army Archerd, it was “too controversial.” Lear and Yorkin took the show to CBS, which surprisingly bought it.
As Meathead stated years later, "Viewers didn't understand that Archie WAS the joke."
That aside, a hilarious scene when he locked himself in the basement, got drunk on a bottle of liquor he found, woke up thinking he was dead, heard what he thought was God speaking to him, and then the black deliveryman opened the door.
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
WV.Hillbilly 1/12/2021 10:34:50 PM (No. 658706)
The show that could never be made today.
Archie was right, no matter how foolish they tried to make him look.
24 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 1/12/2021 10:40:25 PM (No. 658712)
I loved All in the Family. Lear wrote it figuring Meathead would be the star character. Had to have miffed him greatly that America took Archie to their collective heart rather than Meathead. I never thought that conservatives were tarnished in any way really. But I did enjoy the way Archie stood up for himself and put Meathead in his place. Something conservatives have forgotten how to do IMO.
We understood very well who the joke was. It wasn't Archie, it was Meathead. The fact that the nation got it but you and Lear didn't pleases me to no end. But you just keep believing that nonsense about being a joke Meathead if it salves that hurt in your sitting down place.
22 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
DVC 1/12/2021 10:49:05 PM (No. 658717)
Rob Reiner is a dangerous lunatic. He was crazy as heck then, and unfortunately made a bunch of money off of the show.
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Gallo3 1/12/2021 11:04:17 PM (No. 658727)
Carroll O Connor totally stole Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden; that said the real people of this country took Archie to their hearts and loved him running Meathead and Marxism into the ground; much to the ever-undying chagrin of Messrs Lear, O Connor and Reiner and CBS.
9 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 1/12/2021 11:07:11 PM (No. 658728)
FTA: "But the legacy of “All in the Family” is clear. The series opened the door for 50 years of TV shows in which fictional characters reflect the real world."
Fictional characters that spouted Marxist dogma, disguised as wise cracks, and represented the sophisticated "diversity" of humans rejecting God. The events in today's headlines prove the success of Lear and Yorkin's seditious seeds planted into the culture 50 years ago. The author of this article thinks it has all been a wonderful American journey into totalitarianism. Half the country is in disagreement.
I was a junior in high school when the show started and our family watched it every week. I laughed along with everyone else. We were lambs to the slaughter. As a personal note: After Dad retired from the LAPD he did private security for the Hollywood crowd, along with many of his friends. He got the "substitute" body guard job for Carroll O'Connor when his friend, the regular guy, went on vacation. O'Connor liked Dad and hired him to take care of the landscaping for his two beach houses at Trancus. They were side-by-side...and very nice. I went out with a Dad few times and have "beauty shot" pictures of my visits. Dad like O'Connor and thought him a nice man, "despite his politics." But, back then politics didn't define the worth of a person. What is happening today would be inconceivable, even to Mr. O'Connor.
MAGA - Fight on!
15 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Laotzu 1/13/2021 9:03:27 AM (No. 659097)
Archie was right. That's why they made him the moron. It was the beginning of the Boomer generation's campaign of Marxist propaganda in Hollywood. Their first contribution to culture was to destroy any respect for their parents' generation.
2 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Faithfully 1/13/2021 1:01:08 PM (No. 659462)
I still have Edith Bunker's cookbook.
1 person likes this.
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Legacy? This is the program that tarnished conservatives and patriots as ignorant bigots.