Archie Bunker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archie Bunker
First appearance "Meet the Bunkers"
Last appearance "I'm Torn Here"
Cause/reason End of the series
Created by Norman Lear
Portrayed by Carroll O'Connor
Episode count 198 (All in the Family)
97 (Archie Bunker's Place)
Information
Gender Male
Age 50 (in 1974)
Date of birth 1924
Occupation Blue Collar {Loading Dock Foreman, Janitor, and Taxi Driver}
Bar Owner (1979-)
Family David Bunker (father)
Sarah Bunker, née Longstreet (mother)
Michael Stivic (son-in-law)
Joey Stivic (grandson)
Alfred Bunker (brother)
Linda Bunker (niece)
Barbara Lee "Billie" Bunker (niece)
Katherine Bunker (sister-in-law)
Oscar (cousin)
Spouse(s) Edith Baines Bunker (1948-1980, her death[1])
Children Gloria Bunker Stivic (daughter)

Archibald "Archie" Bunker was a fictional character in the long-running and top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place. He was a reactionary, bigoted, blue-collar worker and family man, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. The Bunker character was first seen by the American public when All in the Family premiered in January 1971. In 1979, the show was retooled and re-named Archie Bunker’s Place, finally going off the air in 1983. Bunker lived in the borough of Queens in New York City. TV Guide once named Archie the greatest television character of all time.

All in the Family got many of its laughs by playing on Archie's bigotry, although the dynamic tension between Archie and his left-wing son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic (Rob Reiner), provided an ongoing political and social sounding board for a variety of topics.

The inspiration for Archie Bunker was Alf Garnett, the character from the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, on which All in the Family was based. Archie, in turn, was an inspiration for Eric Cartman[2] of South Park.

In 2005, Archie Bunker was listed as number 1 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters[3], defeating runners-up such as Lucy Ricardo, Fonzie, and Homer Simpson.

Contents

[edit] Character traits

During the series' run, it would be revealed that, while he did disagree with his son-in-law's political views, much of his resentment stemmed from the fact that Mike was attending college and would be able to chart his own successful future, while Archie was forced to drop out of high school during the Depression to help support his family. Episode "Everybody Tells the Truth" showed very clearly that both Archie and Mike were not above twisting the truth to make minorities into stereotypes. Interestingly it is Edith who exposes both Archie and Mike's prejudices-yet neither Archie or Mike will admit the truth.

While locked in the store room of Archie's Place with Mike in the episode "Two's a Crowd", Archie confides (after getting drunk), that he was a poor kid who was teased in school for coming to class wearing one shoe and one boot, since his family could not afford to buy him new footwear. ("They called me Shoe-Bootie.") In the same episode, it becomes clear that Archie was also an abused child — yet he then goes on to vehemently defend his father who he says loved him and taught him "right from wrong."

In spite of his numerous flaws, Archie was simultaneously portrayed as being basically decent and, rather than motivated by genuine malice, a product of the time in which he was raised. In the episode "Archie and the KKK," for example, Archie is invited to join a secret "Christian" club which turns out to be a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. In spite of his inherent discomfort around people of color, Archie responds with genuine revulsion at the group's violent methods, and attempts to thwart a cross burning. It should also be noted that as the years went on, Archie grew more accepting of people different from himself, albeit partially out of necessity. For example, in 1978, the character became the guardian of Edith's nine-year old niece, Stephanie (Danielle Brisebois), and when it was revealed that Stephanie was Jewish (episode 197), Bunker accepted her faith.

[edit] Viewer reactions

Such was the name recognition and societal influence of the Bunker character that by 1972 commentators were discussing the "Archie Bunker vote" (i.e., the voting bloc comprised of urban, white, working-class men) in that year's presidential election; in the same year, there was a parody election campaign, complete with T-shirts, campaign buttons, and bumper stickers advocating "Archie Bunker for President." In the show, Archie strongly supported President Richard M. Nixon, of whom he often spoke very highly, incorrectly calling him "Richard E. Nixon." He was also an early supporter of Ronald Reagan, writing him in on the ballot for the 1976 election, and threatening Mike that "he'll have Reagan in '80," predicting his win in 1980. The character's imprint on American culture is such that Archie Bunker's name is still being used in the media to describe a certain group of voters who will vote in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.[4][5]

The term "Archie Bunker-ism," or just "Archie-ism," was also coined during the show's run to refer to the many malapropisms, such as "groin-acologist" for "gynecologist," that Bunker used on the series.

After the episode in which Archie's opposition to the KKK was made evident, several watchdog groups became upset; they believed that the show shouldn't have "humanized" what they viewed as a racist. They believed that Archie should be kept thoroughly unlikable.

Archie's racism had strongly subsided by the time Archie Bunker's Place began in 1979. During that program's second season, he hired a black nanny, Ellen Canby, for Stephanie and became fond of her. In one episode, Archie punched a man for making a remark about her and was thrown out for good from the lodge he had attended since the early days of All in the Family.

[edit] Production

[edit] Popular and academic use of the concept

  • In 1989, British musicians, The KLF, released a single called "Kylie Said to Jason." The song makes reference to "the Archie Bunker show" and other sitcoms.
  • Archie and Edith Bunker's living room chairs are featured in an exhibit at the National Museum of American History.
  • Philosopher Paul de Man used Archie to show that language is not in the first place "logical" or even "meaningful," but rhetorical. Rhetoric, in his view, always tends to suspend logic and subvert any clear meaning. He uses the example: "Asked by his wife whether he wants to have his bowling shoes laced over or laced under, Archie Bunker answers with a question: 'What's the difference?' His wife replies by patiently explaining the difference between lacing over and lacing under, but provokes only ire. 'What's the difference?' did not ask for the difference but means instead 'I don't give a damn what the difference is.'[6]
  • There is a groove metal band named Archie Bunker.
  • In Israel, where the series (with Hebrew subtitles) was extremely popular, television presenter and politician Yosef Lapid was on several occasions compared with Archie Bunker, both because of physical resemblance to O'Connor and because of making some remarks which commentators on the left regarded as bigoted and demagogic.
  • According to South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Bunker had an influence on the design of Eric Cartman.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Declared dead a month earlier of the premiere episode of the second season of Archie Bunker's Place, in 1980.
  2. ^ Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Larry Divney 'Speaking Freely' transcript (Recorded March 1, 2002, in Aspen, Colo.)
  3. ^ The 100 Greatest TV Characters according to BravoTV.
  4. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080306/pl_bloomberg/ar7wd5nircc
  5. ^ http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080313_The_Archie_Bunker_strategy_.html
  6. ^ Citation from the Archie and the Bowling Team episode of All in the Family.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
All in the Family
Main characters
Recurring characters
Episodes
Related Series
Languages