Norman Lear's "All In The Family" is the best, TV's greatest sitcom, and the greatest show in the sixty year history of television. This show beats out "I Love Lucy", "The Honeymooners", "Father Knows Best", "Burns and Allen", "The Cosby Show", and yes, "Seinfeld". And those are only the sitcoms that take a back seat to "All In The Family".
"All In The Family" was a groundbreaking sitcom, an original, that brought to the forefront many of the problems in society in the 1970's, most of which still exist today. Ageism, racism, sexism, nuclear disarmament, Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, and even homophobia were deeply examined in this groundbreaking sitcom, as television was no longer relegated to the good old days of perfect nuclear family television. i.e. "Father Knows Best", "Make Room For Daddy","The Donna Reed Show" and yes, "The Brady Bunch".
Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) is a hard working, lower middle class average Joe, with a loud mouth and silly bigoted views. Many people label Archie as a racist, but he didn't really meet the profile of a true racist. He would never join the KKK, although in a later episode his foolishness nearly got him unwillingly initiated into the group.
Archie is not a true racist because he doesn't have a mean streak. Yes he'll make fun of blacks, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, Hungarians, and gays, but they're always guests in his little home on 704 Hauser Street in Flushing, Queens.
Archie doesn't hate, he fears. He has just enough financial resources to support "the dingbat", his slow witted but honest and kind wife Edith, his "little goil", spunky and feminist daughter Gloria, and "the meathead", his educated, rabble rousing and ultra liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic.
Mike "The meathead" Stivic (Rob Reiner) is highly educated but doesn't often use good common sense, or social smarts. Archie supports him with food, shelter, and entertainment, pays his way through college, lets him have sex with his daughter Gloria up in their bedroom, and even bails "the meathead" out of trouble a few times. And all Meathead does is chastise Archie for his vices (ultra-right wing and racist views), never commends him for his virtues (the fact that "Meathead couldn't survive if Archie didn't work to support him.) He starts so many silly arguments with Archie like the "Star Spangled Banner" and even uses Archie's telephone to call the Fair Housing Commision to get Archie into trouble for circulating a petition to keep blacks and Puerto Ricans out of the neighborhood.
Archie's wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) with her "straight from the dingbat" comment of "I don't think you should go where angels fear to tread", meaning to mind your own business. Meathead should mind his own business. Yes, Archie shouldn't be circulating a petition to keep undesirables out of the neighborhood, nor should he bad mouth blacks, Puerto Ricans, Asians, Jews, etc. But that doesn't make it educated college boy's business to interfere with Archie's. If Mike would assert himself more intelligently with Archie instead of all of these silly arguments, there would be less tension in the Bunker household. But unfortunately, "All In The Family" then wouldn't have been the great situation comedy that it was.
If you have to pick the smartest person in the Bunker household, your first pick would probably be Mike "Meathead" Stivic or his wife and Archie's daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers), because they are the most worldly and racially tolerant. However the true brain of the Bunker household is really Edith. She likes people and she knows how to get along with everyone. No one but occasionally Archie gets angry with Edith, because she is tolerant, kind, honest, and considerate. However, sometimes she's too honest and this drives Archie batty.
There is a self-defense technique called jujitsu in which you throw people in the way they are already headed. Edith unconsciously uses this technique against Archie. He'll make some wild racial slur to get the CBS studio audience balling with laughter, and then Edith will top him with some dingbatty punchline. Normally she's slow witted but often she gets the better word on Archie.
For example: Archie: "In my day there was nothing, I mean nothing until the wedding night." Edith: "Even Then." Archie: "You have the nerve, Michael Stivic Meathead, to write a letter to the president about your rash!" Edith: "Maybe he knows a good skin man." Then there was the episode when Archie's niece Linda was dating Lionel, his black neighbor and friend. Edith is frantically trying to hide the portrait of Linda and Lionel together. Edith out dingbats herself. Archie sees the picture and goes ballistic.
One of the funniest episodes was "Edith's Problem" when she's going through menopause, is flipping out and turns on Archie. She orders him to "Stifle", like he's told her to do hundreds of times.
I have one more thing to add about "All In The Family". I have worked in many warehouse/ loading dock jobs like Archie does. And from this great sitcom, I never heard the terms, "pallet", "pallet jack", "skinny", "skid", or "conveyor belt". What I mean is that even even on this great show, work is like non-existent. That is the problem with television. I would have liked to learn more about Archie's work, not just his blatantly outspoken, bigoted personality.
However, "All in the Family" had very few flaws, was somewhat educational, and had wall-to-wall laughter. I encourage everyone, especially a new generation who wasn't born until after the 1970's, to buy these great DVD sets of "All In The Family" seasons one through four. Carroll O' Connor as Archie Bunker was a one-of-a kind talent. "All In The Family" now shown on TV Land was the best program ever put on television.
