All in the Family

All in the Family
The title screen as seen in the opening credits
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Norman Lear (based on Till Death Us Do Part, created by Johnny Speight)
Starring	Carroll O'Connor Jean Stapleton Rob Reiner (1971–1978) Sally Struthers (1971–1978) Danielle Brisebois (1978–1979)
Theme music composer	Lee Adams Charles Strouse
Opening theme	"Those Were the Days" Performed by Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton
Ending theme	"Remembering You" by Roger Kellaway and Carroll O'Connor (instrumental version)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	9
No. of episodes	208[1] (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	CBS Television City, 7800 Beverly Boulevard (at Fairfax), Metromedia Square, Los Angeles, California
Running time	22–24 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	January 12, 1971 (1971-01-12) – April 8, 1979 (1979-04-08)
Status	Ended
Chronology
Followed by	Archie Bunker's Place
Related shows	Maude The Jeffersons Gloria 704 Hauser

All in the Family is an Emmy-award winning American situation comedy that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971 to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, the show was revamped, and given a new title, Archie Bunker's Place. This version of the sitcom lasted another four years, ending its run in 1983.

Produced by Norman Lear, it was based on the British television comedy series Till Death Us Do Part.^[2] The show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, miscarriage, breast cancer, menopause and impotence.

The show ranked #1 in the yearly Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976. As of 2010 it has, along with The Cosby Show and American Idol, been one of only three shows to top the ratings for at least five consecutive seasons. American Idol ranks first, having ranked #1 for six consecutive seasons. TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time ranked All in the Family as #4. Bravo also named the show's protagonist, Archie Bunker, TV's greatest character of all time.^[3]

Contents 1 Premise 2 Cast 2.1 Main characters 2.2 Supporting characters 2.3 Recurring characters 2.4 Actors in multiple roles 2.5 "Kelcy" or "Kelsey" 3 Controversial nature 4 Production 5 Awards 6 Episodes 7 Ratings 8 Spin-offs and TV special 9 Theme song 10 Setting and location 11 Mistakes, contradictions and inconsistencies 12 Cultural impact 13 Syndication 14 DVD releases 15 See also 16 References 17 Further reading 18 External links

Premise

The comedy revolves around Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), a working-class World War II veteran. He is a very outspoken bigot, seemingly prejudiced against everyone who is not a U.S.-born, politically conservative, heterosexual White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and dismissive of anyone not in agreement with his view of the world. His ignorance and stubbornness tend to cause his malapropism-filled arguments to self-destruct. He often responds to uncomfortable truths by blowing a raspberry. He longs for simpler times when people sharing his viewpoint were in charge, as evidenced by the nostalgic theme song "Those Were the Days", the show's original title.

By contrast, his wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) is a sweet and understanding—if somewhat naive—woman. She usually defers to her husband. On the rare occasions when Edith takes a stand she proves to be one of the wisest characters, as evidenced in the episodes "The Battle of the Month" and "The Games Bunkers Play". Archie often tells her to "stifle" herself and calls her a "dingbat".^[4] Despite their different personalities they love each other deeply.

They have one child, Gloria (Sally Struthers), who is married to college student Michael Stivic (Rob Reiner). "Michael" is referred to as "Meathead" by Archie and "Mike" by nearly everyone else. Mike is a bit of a hippie, and his morality is informed by the counterculture of the 1960s. He and Archie represent the real-life clash between two generations: those who were born around World War I and those who were born around World War II. They constantly clash over religious, political, social, and personal issues. For much of the series the Stivics live in the Bunker's home to save money, providing even more opportunity for the two men to irritate each other. When Mike finally graduates college and the Stivics move out, it turns out to be to the house next door. The house was offered to them by George Jefferson, the Bunker's former neighbor, who knows it will irritate Archie. In addition to calling him "Meathead", Archie also frequently cites Mike's Polish ancestry, referring to him as a "dumb Polack" (pronounced Polock).

The show is set in the Astoria section of Queens, one of New York City's five boroughs, with the vast majority of scenes taking place in the Bunker's home (and later, frequently, the Stivics' home). Occasional scenes take place in other locations, most often (especially during later seasons) Kelcy's Bar, a neighborhood tavern where Archie spends a good deal of time and which he eventually buys.

Cast

Main characters

• Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker. Frequently called a "lovable bigot", Archie was an assertively prejudiced blue-collar worker. Former child actor Mickey Rooney was Lear's first choice to play Archie but Rooney declined the offer due to the strong potential for controversy and, in Rooney's opinion, a poor chance for success.

• Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker, née Baines. Stapleton remained with the show all through the original series run but decided to leave before the first season of Archie Bunker's Place had wrapped up. 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". Stapleton appeared in all but four episodes of All in the Family and had a recurring role during the first season of Archie Bunker's Place.

• Sally Struthers as Gloria Bunker Stivic. The Bunker's college-age daughter was married to Michael Stivic. Gloria frequently attempted to mediate Archie and Michael's arguments. The roles of the Bunker's daughter and son-in-law (then named "Dickie") initially went to Candice Azzara and Chip Oliver. However, after seeing the show's pilot, ABC, the original production company, requested a second pilot expressing dissatisfaction with both actors. Lear later recast the roles of "Gloria" and "Dickie" with Struthers and Reiner. Penny Marshall, (Reiner's wife, whom he married shortly after the program began in April 1971), was also considered for the role of Gloria. During the earlier seasons of the show, Struthers was known to be discontented with how static her part was, frequently coming off as irritating and having only a few token lines. As the series continued Gloria's character became more developed, satisfying Struthers. Struthers appeared in 157 of the 202 episodes during the first eight seasons—from January 12, 1971 to March 19, 1978.

• Rob Reiner as Michael Stivic. Gloria's Polish-American hippie husband was part of the counterculture of the 1960s. He constantly sparred with Archie (in the original pilot, the character 'Michael' was Irish-American). Michael's character was, in many ways, as stubborn as Archie, even though his moral views were generally presented as being more ethical and his logic somewhat more sound. For his bullheadedness, Stivic was sometimes criticized for being an elitist. While Archie demonstrated the lion's share of the hypocrisy, Michael had, on occasion, shown his own. As discussed in All in the Family retrospectives, Richard Dreyfuss sought the part but Norman Lear was convinced to cast Reiner. Reiner appeared in 174 of the 202 episodes of the series during the first eight seasons—from January 12, 1971 to March 19, 1978. Reiner is also credited with writing three of the series' episodes .^[5]

Supporting characters

• Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford and Mike Evans as George Jefferson, his wife Louise and their son Lionel, Archie's African American neighbors. George is Archie's combative black counterpart, while Louise is a smarter, more assertive version of Edith. Lionel first appeared in the series' premiere episode "Meet the Bunkers", with Louise appearing later in the first season. Although previously mentioned many times, George was not seen until 1973. Hemsley, who was Norman Lear's first choice to play George, was performing in the Broadway musical Purlie and did not want to break his commitment to that show. However, Lear kept the role waiting for him until he had finished with the musical. Plots frequently find Archie and George at odds with one-another, while Edith and Louise attempt to join forces to bring about a resolution.

• Mel Stewart, as George's brother Henry Jefferson. Stewart filled in for Hemsley. The two appeared together only once, in the 1973 episode in which the Bunkers host Henry's going-away party, marking Stewart's final episode and Hemsley's first. Even when the Jeffersons were spun off into their own show in 1975, Stewart's character was rarely referred to again and was never seen. In the closing credits of the "The First and Last Supper" episode, Mel Stewart is incorrectly credited as playing George Jefferson. Stewart was actually playing George's brother, Henry Jefferson, who was pretending to be George for most of the episode.

• Betty Garrett and Vincent Gardenia as the liberal and Roman Catholic next-door neighbors Irene and Frank Lorenzo. Irene was a strongwilled coworker of Archie's, and Frank was a jovial "house-husband" who loved cooking. Gardenia, who also appeared as Jim Bowman in Episode 8 of Season 1 (as the man who sold his house to the Jeffersons) and as Curtis Remply in Episode 7 of Season 3 (as a swinger opposite Rue McClanahan), became a semi-regular along with Garrett in 1973. Gardenia only stayed for one season as Frank Lorenzo, but Garrett remained until her character was phased out in late 1975.

• Danielle Brisebois as Edith's 9-year old niece, Stephanie Mills. The Bunkers take her in after the child's father, Floyd Mills, abandons her on their doorstep in 1978 after Mike and Gloria moved to California at the end of the previous season. (He later extorts money from them to let them keep her.) She would remain with the show through its transition to Archie Bunker's Place.

• Allan Melvin as Archie's neighbor and best friend Barney Hefner. The character first appeared in 1972 as a fairly minor character. Barney's role expanded toward the end of the series, after the departures of Reiner and Struthers.

Recurring characters

• James Cromwell as Jerome^[6] "Stretch" Cunningham (1973–1976), Archie's friend and coworker from the loading dock. What Archie did not know was that Stretch was Jewish, evident only after Stretch died and Archie went to the funeral. Archie's eulogy for his friend is often referred to a rare occasion where he was capable of showing the humanity he tried so earnestly to hide.

• Liz Torres as Theresa Betencourt (1976–1977), a Latina nursing student, who initially meets Archie when he is admitted to the hospital for surgery; she later rents Mike and Gloria's former room at the Bunker house.

• Bob Hastings as Kelcy or Tommy Kelsey, who owns the bar Archie frequents and later buys. Kelcy was also played by Frank Maxwell in episode "Archie Gets The Business"

• Jason Wingreen as Harry Snowden, a bartender at Kelcy's Bar who continues to work there after Archie purchases it and eventually becomes his business partner.

• Gloria LeRoy as Mildred "Boom-Boom" Turner, a buxom, middle-aged secretary at the plant where Archie works, who is not initially fond of Archie due to his and Stretch's leering and sexist behavior, but later becomes friendly with him, occasionally working as a barmaid at Archie's Place.

• Barnard Hughes as Father Majeskie, a local Catholic priest who was suspected by Archie one time of trying to convert Edith. He appeared in multiple episodes.

• Lori Shannon as Beverly La Salle who played in three episodes. "Archie the Hero" "Beverly Rides Again" "Edith's Crisis of Faith"

• Estelle Parsons as Blanche Hefner, (1977–1979) Barney's wife. Blanche and Archie are not fond of one-another, though Edith likes her very much. The character is mentioned throughout much of the series (though in early seasons, she is named "Mabel"), though she only appeared in a handful of episodes during the last couple of seasons.

Actors in multiple roles

A number of actors played multiple roles during the show's run:

• Jean Stapleton played both Edith Bunker and Judith Klammerstadt in the episode "A Girl Like Edith". The end credits list actress "Giovanna Pucci" for the latter character. In fact, this is a play on words with Stapleton's married name: Jean Putch.

• Vincent Gardenia portrayed neighbor Jim Bowman, who sells the Jeffersons their house in "Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood"; Curtis Rempley, half of a wife-swapping couple Edith befriends in "The Bunkers and the Swingers" (from the show's first and third seasons respectively); and later had a recurring role as neighbor Frank Lorenzo during the 1973–74 season.

• Gloria LeRoy played the wife of one of Archie's old Army buddies (Duke Loomis) in third season episode "The Threat" and later portrayed Mildred "Boom-Boom" Turner in a few episodes between 1974 and 1978.

• Allan Melvin played New York Police Department Sergeant Paul Pulaski in the second-season episode "Archie in the Lock-up" and later played the recurring role of Archie's best friend Barney Hefner from 1972 on.

• Marcia Rodd appeared in two episodes during the 1971–1972 season, playing two different characters, first as a single mother who accuses Mike of being the father of her eight-year old son in "Mike's Mysterious Son", and Maude's daughter Carol in the episode "Maude". (Adrienne Barbeau would take over the role of Carol on spin-off series Maude.)

• Bill Macy first appeared as a uniformed Police Officer in the "Archie Sees a Mugging" episode before returning as Maude's husband in "Maude" (1972).

• Roscoe Lee Browne appears as Hugh Victor Thompson III in "The Elevator Story" (1972) and then returns as Jean Duval in "Archie in the Hospital" (1973).

• Burt Mustin played the role of night watchman Harry Feeney in the episode titled Archie is Worried About His Job. He came back later in a few episodes, as Justin Quigley, starting with Edith Finds an Old Man.

• Sorrell Booke (who played Boss Hogg in the Dukes of Hazzard) played Mr. Bennett, the owner of a television station in "Archie and the Editorial (1972)" and then returned four more times as Mr. Sanders, Archie's boss down at the loading dock.

"Kelcy" or "Kelsey"

The name of the establishment is Kelcy's Bar (as seen in the bar window in various episodes). However, due to a continuity error, the end credits^[7] of episodes involving the bar owner spell the name "Kelcy" for the first two seasons and "Kelsey" thereafter, although the end credits show "Kelcy" in the "Archie Gets the Business" episode.

Controversial nature

In a warning to viewers, CBS ran a disclaimer before airing the first episode (which disappeared from the screen with an exaggerated sound of a toilet flushing):

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.

All in the Family was notorious for featuring language and epithets previously absent from television, such as "fag" for homosexual, "hebe" for Jews, "spic" for Hispanics, "mick" for Irish, "dago" and "wop" for Italians, "polack" for Polish, "chink" for Chinese, "Jap" for Japanese, "gook" for southeast Asian, "spade" for blacks, and phrases such as "God damn it." It was also famous for being the first major television show to feature the sound of a flushing toilet; it became a running gag on the show. Archie & Edith would pronounce "toilet" as "terlet".

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.)

In addition to its candid political dialogues, All in the Family's story lines also included a sense of realism, and occasional forays into deathly serious subject matter, 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 fictional "Hebrew Defense Association" 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 off-screen violent death of a character into the plot of a comedy show was an unprecedented move.

While Archie's bigotry and short-sightedness were the focus of much of the humor, Mike Stivic's naive, liberal nature was on the receiving end of occasional jabs. In the episode Edith Writes a Song, where the family is held by African-American burglars, Mike attempts to intervene on Archie's behalf, explaining to the burglars how Archie does not know about the pain of ghetto poverty. One of the burglars, played by Demond Wilson and Cleavon Little, responds: "And you do?"

On several occasions, Archie was depicted as mimicking suicide when Edith would get long-winded, including once where he pretended to hang himself, another time when he pretended to open a pill bottle and overdose, and another time in an elaborate display when he used his hand as a gun and pretended to play Russian Roulette. Meanwhile, Edith is oblivious to this reaction by Archie and continues to talk throughout his suicide routine.

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 herself" 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).

There were three different pilots shot for the series. The first, shot in New York in 1968, was named Justice For All in reference to Archie's family name (later changed to Bunker). The second, shot in Hollywood in 1969, was titled Those Were The Days. Different actors played the roles of Mike, Gloria, and Lionel in the first two.

ABC became uneasy and canceled the project at about the time Richard Dreyfuss sought the role of Michael. Rival network CBS was eager to update its image, and was looking to replace much of its then popular "rural" programming (Mayberry R.F.D., The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres) with more "urban", contemporary fare, and was interested in Lear's project. They bought the rights from ABC and re-titled the show All in the Family.

Lear initially wanted to shoot in black and white. While CBS insisted on color, Lear had the set furnished in rather neutral tones, keeping everything relatively devoid of color.

All in the Family was the first major American series to be videotaped in front of a live studio audience. At the time, sitcoms were shot with multiple cameras on film in front of an audience (like Mary Tyler Moore and The Dick Van Dyke Show), 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 common format for the genre during the '70s. However, the use of videotape also gave All in the Family the look and feel of the classic sitcoms of early television, which had been performed live before a studio audience (including the original live broadcasts of The Honeymooners, to which All in the Family is sometimes compared).

For the show's final season, the practice of being taped before a live audience changed to playing the already taped and edited show to an audience and recording their laughter to add to the original sound track. Thus, the voice-over during the end credits was changed from Rob Reiner's "All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live audience" to Carroll O'Connor's "All in the Family was played to a studio audience for live responses." (Typically, the audience would be gathered for a taping of One Day At A Time, and get to see All In the Family as a bonus.) Throughout its run, Norman Lear took pride in the fact that canned laughter was never used (mentioning this on many occasions); the laughter heard in the episodes was genuine.

Awards

All in the Family is the first of three sitcoms in which all the lead actors (O'Connor, Stapleton, Struthers, and Reiner) won Emmy Awards. The other two are The Golden Girls and Will & Grace.

It won numerous Emmys:

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Carroll O'Connor, 1972, 1977–1979
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series – Jean Stapleton, 1971, 1972, 1978
• Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role in a Comedy Series – Sally Struthers, 1972 (tied with Valerie Harper for The Mary Tyler Moore Show), 1979
• Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy Series – Rob Reiner, 1974, 1978
• Outstanding New Series – Norman Lear, 1971
• Outstanding Comedy Series – Norman Lear, 1971, 1972, 1973 (with John Rich); Mort Lachman and Milt Josefsberg, 1978
• Outstanding Direction in a Comedy Series – John Rich, 1972; Paul Bogart, 1978
• Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series – Burt Styler, 1972; Michael Ross, Bernard West and Lee Kalcheim, 1973; Bob Weiskopf, Bob Schiller, Barry Harman and Harvey Bronsten, 1978
• Outstanding Live or Tape Sound Mixing – Norman Dewes, 1972

It was nominated an additional 34 times.

Its Golden Globe Awards are:

• Best TV Actor, Musical/Comedy – Carroll O'Connor, 1972
• Best TV Actress, Musical/Comedy – Jean Stapleton, 1973, 1974
• Best Supporting Actress, Television – Betty Garrett, 1975
• Best TV Show, Musical/Comedy – 1972–74, 1978

There were also 21 nominations.

Episodes

A particularly marking episode, that produced the longest sustained audience laughter in the history of the show, is the famous episode-ending scene in which the guest star Sammy Davis, Jr. played himself. Archie is moonlighting as a cabdriver. Davis leaves a briefcase behind in his taxi and goes to the Bunker home to pick it up. After hearing Archie's racist remarks, Davis asks for a photograph with him. At the moment the picture is taken, Davis suddenly kisses a stunned Archie on the cheek. The ensuing laughter went on for so long that it had to be severely edited for network broadcast, as Carroll O'Connor still had one line ("Well, what the hell — he said it was in his contract!") to deliver after the kiss. (The line is usually cut in syndication.)

Ratings

All In the Family is one of three television shows, The Cosby Show and American Idol being the others, that have been number 1 in the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive TV seasons.

The ratings at the end of each season were:

Season	Ratings Rank
1970–1971	#34 11,358,900 households
1971–1972	#1 21,114,000[8]
1972–1973	#1 21,578,400[9]
1973–1974	#1 20,654,400[10]
1974–1975	#1 20,687,000[11]
1975–1976	#1 20,949,600[12]
1976–1977	#12 16,304,800[13]
1977–1978	#4 17,787,600, tied with 60 Minutes and Charlie's Angels[14]
1978–1979	#9 18,550,500, tied with Taxi[15]

The series finale was seen by 40.2 million viewers.

Spin-offs and TV special

All in the Family was the launching pad of several television series, beginning with Maude on September 12, 1972. Maude Findlay, played by the late Beatrice Arthur, was Edith's cousin; she had first appeared on All in the Family in the episode "Cousin Maude's Visit," which aired on December 11, 1971 in order to help take care of the Bunkers when they all were sick with a nasty flu virus. 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, especially when Archie denounced Maude's support of FDR. 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 as the finale of the second season on March 12, 1972, fittingly titled "Maude." The episode was essentially designed to set up the premise for the spin-off series that would air later in the year. 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, would be replaced by Adrienne Barbeau in Maude. The show lasted for six seasons and 141 episodes, airing its final episode on April 22, 1978.

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 and 253 episodes compared to All in the Family's 9 seasons and 208 episodes. The main characters of The Jeffersons were the Bunkers' former next-door neighbors George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) and his wife, Louise "Weezie" Jefferson (Isabel Sanford). George Jefferson was the owner of a chain of seven successful dry-cleaning stores; as The Jeffersons begins, they have just moved from the Bunkers' neighborhood to a luxury high-rise apartment building in Manhattan's Upper East Side. George was considered to be the "Black Archie Bunker," and just as racist as Archie.

Other spin-offs of All in the Family include:

• Archie Bunker's Place was technically a spin-off, but was more of a continuation of the series.
• 704 Hauser features the Bunkers' house with a new family.

There were also three spin-offs from spin-offs of All in the Family:

• Good Times, which featured Maude's former maid Florida Evans and her family in a Chicago housing project.
• Gloria, a spin-off of Archie Bunker's Place where Gloria divorces Mike, moves back to New York, and starts a new life.
• Checking In, a spin-off of The Jeffersons in which the Jeffersons' maid Florence gets a job as head of housekeeping at a hotel.

A 90-minute retrospective, All in the Family 20th Anniversary Special, was produced to commemorate the show's 20th anniversary which aired on CBS February 16, 1991. It was hosted by the creator, Norman Lear, and featured a compilation of clips from the show's best moments including interviews with cast members Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers. Reiner and Lear promoted the special the previous week on The Arsenio Hall Show.

Theme song

The series' opening theme song "Those Were the Days",^[16] written by Lee Adams (lyrics) and Charles Strouse (music), was presented in a unique way for a 1970s series: Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton seated at a console or spinet piano (played by Stapleton) and singing the tune on-camera at the start of every episode, concluding with live-audience applause. Several different performances were recorded over the run of the series, including one version that includes additional lyrics. The song is a simple, pentatonic melody (that can be played exclusively with black keys on a piano) in which Archie and Edith wax nostalgic for the simpler days of yesteryear. The additional lyrics in the longer version lend to the song a greater sense of sadness, and make poignant reference to social changes taking place in the sixties. A few perceptible drifts can be observed when listening to each version chronologically: In the original version Jean Stapleton was wearing glasses and after the first time the lyric "Those Were The Days" was sung over the tonic (root chord of the song's key) the piano strikes a Dominant 7th chord in transition to the next part which is absent from subsequent versions. Jean Stapleton's screeching high note on the line "And you knew who you WEEERRE then" became louder, longer, and more comical, although it was only in the original version that audience reaction is heard to her rendition of the note; Carroll O'Connor's pronunciation of "welfare state" gained more of Archie's trademark enunciation and the closing lyrics (especially "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.") were sung with increasingly deliberate articulation, as viewers had initially complained that they could not understand the words. Also in the original version the camera angle was shot slightly from the right side of the talent as opposed to the straight on angle of the next version.

In addition to O'Connor and Stapleton singing, footage is also shown beginning with aerial shots of Manhattan, and continuing to Queens, progressively zooming in more closely, culminating with a still shot of a lower middle class semi-detached home, presumably representing the Bunker's house in Astoria. The house shown in the opening credits, however, is actually located at 89–70 Cooper Avenue in the Glendale^[17] neighborhood of Queens, New York. There are a number of notable differences, however, between the Cooper Avenue house and the All in the Family set: Particularly obvious, one may notice there is no porch on the Cooper Avenue house, while the Bunkers' home featured a front porch; the Cooper Avenue house was a semi-detached house, while the Bunkers' house was presumably a single-family home (as evidenced by a number of times Archie referenced the Jeffersons as living "across the alley", indicating that the Bunkers' and Jeffersons' homes did not share a common wall). The footage for the opening had been shot back in 1968 for the series first pilot, thus the establishing shot of the Manhattan skyline were completely devoid of the World Trade Center towers which had not yet been built. When the series aired two years later, the Trade Center towers, although under construction, had still not yet risen high enough to become a prominent feature on the Manhattan skyline (this would not happen until the end of 1971). Despite this change in the Manhattan skyline the original 1968 footage would continued to be used for the series opening until the series transitioned into Archie Bunkers Place in 1979. At that point a new opening with current shots of the Manhattan skyline were used with the Trade Center towers being seen in the closing credits. This opening format would became the standard for most of Norman Lear's sitcoms including Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons.

At the end of the opening the camera then returns to a few final seconds of O'Connor and Stapleton, as they finish the song. In one version of the opening, at the conclusion Archie hugs Edith at the end, while another version sees Edith smiling blissfully at Archie, while Archie puts a cigar in his mouth and returns a rather cynical look to Edith. Additionally in the first three versions of the opening Archie is seen wearing his classic trademark white shirt. In the last version of the opening done for the series ninth season Archie is seen wearing a grey sweater jacket over his white shirt.

In interviews, Norman Lear stated that the idea for the piano song introduction was a cost-cutting measure. After completion of the pilot episode, 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.

The closing theme (an instrumental) was "Remembering You" played by Roger Kellaway with lyrics co-written by Carroll O'Connor. It was played over footage of houses in Queens intended to represent the Bunkers' neighborhood, and eventually moving back to aerial shots of Manhattan, suggesting the visit to the Bunkers' home has concluded.

Except for some brief instances in the first season, there was no background or transitional music.

Setting and location

Lear and his writers set the series in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. The exact location of the Bunkers house at 704 Houser Street is completely fictitious (no Houser Street exists in Queens), however, and factually incorrect with the way addresses are given in Queens (all address numbers are hyphenated, containing the location of the nearest number street to keep in line with Queens street numbering system). Nevertheless, many episodes reveal that the Bunkers live near the major thoroughfare Northern Blvd, which was the location of Kelcy’s Bar and later Archie Bunkers Place. In addition the opening credits for Archie Bunker’s Place suggest that the Bunker’s home and Archie’s bar are also close to the intersection of Northern Blvd and Steinway Street.

Many real life Queens institutions are mentioned throughout the series. Carroll O’Connor, a real life Queens native from Forest Hills, said in an interview with the Archive of American Television that he suggested to the writers many the locations to give the series authenticity. For example it is revealed that Archie attended Flushing High School, a real high school located in Flushing Queens, while Edith mentions several times throughout the series that she shops at Gertz Department store, a then existing department store located in Jamaica, Queens. Additionally the 1976 episode, The Baby Contest, deals with Archie entering baby Joey in a cutest baby contest sponsored by the Long Island Daily Press, a then operating local newspaper in Queens and Long Island.

Additionally the writers of All In The Family continued throughout the series to have the Bunker’s, as well as other characters, use telephone exchange names when giving a telephone number (most other series at the time, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, were using the standard 555 telephone number) at a time when AT&T was earnestly trying to discontinue them. At different times throughout the series the telephone exchanges Ravenswood and Bayside were used for the Bunkers telephone number. Both exchanges were and still are applicable names for phone numbers in the neighborhoods of Astoria and Bayside. This may have had to do with the fact that at the time many major cities in the United States, such as New York, were resisting the dropping of telephone exchange names in favor of all number dialing, and were still printing their telephone books with exchange names. This fact is referred to in the 1979 episode, The Appendectomy, when Edith, while dialing a telephone number, uses the Ravenswood exchange name only to correct herself by saying that she keeps forgetting that its all number dialing now. However, she jokingly comes to the conclusion that the number is exactly the same either way.

Mistakes, contradictions and inconsistencies

In "Meet the Bunkers" from the first season, Mike and Archie discuss with Lionel how Archie's parents had visited them a few months prior; however, later episodes suggest that Archie's parents had been deceased for several years prior to Mike and Gloria's marriage.

In "The Jeffersons Move In", Lionel announces that he is moving next-door to the Bunkers, along with mother, father and aunt; however, later episodes depict not an aunt, but his Uncle Henry as living with the family.

In early episodes, Barney Hefner mentions his wife's name as "Mabel", but the character's name is later changed to Blanche.

In "Archie Finds a Friend", Mr. Bernstein asks Archie how he celebrates Brotherhood Week, and Archie glibly responds that, as he is an only child, he does not celebrate it; however, later episodes feature Archie's younger brother Fred Bunker. Likewise on a least one occasion in the series Edith had mentioned that Archie had a sister named Alma.

In numerous early episodes, Mike describes his first meeting with Gloria, reminiscing about how she was wearing jeans with pink patch pockets; however, in a 1977 episode depicting how Mike and Gloria met, she is not wearing jeans, but a miniskirt.

Cultural impact

• Then-US President Richard Nixon can be heard discussing the show (specifically the 1971 episodes "Writing the President" and "Judging Books by Covers") on one of the infamous Watergate tapes.^[18]

• Popular T-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers 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.

• Archie and Edith's chairs are now in the Smithsonian Institution.^[19] Originally purchased by the show's set designer for a few dollars at a local Goodwill thrift store, 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.

• In 1998 All in the Family was honored on a 33-cent stamp by the USPS.^[20]

• The novelty pop project Kingsauce recorded the song "Working Class Zero" which pays homage to Archie Bunker

• On the TV series Family Guy, the opening sequence shows Peter and Lois Griffin playing the piano and singing a lament on the loss of traditional values, which is an homage to the opening sequence for All in the Family. Also, the Family Guy episode "PTV" depicts a fictional All in the Family scene where Archie and Edith get the Jeffersons to move by burning a cross on their lawn while dressed like members of the Ku Klux Klan. The closing credits are also parodied in the episode "Stewie Loves Lois".

• On retro sitcom That '70s Show, "Kelso's Serenade", Donna wonders if Eric is taking her for granted and imagines her life as like this series. Eric is Archie, Donna is Edith, Kelso is Michael (which is incidentally the character's first name) and Jackie is Gloria. Afterwards, when Eric asks Donna to do something for him, she exclaims, "Don't get all Archie Bunker on me or I will kick your ass to the moon!"

• An episode of The Simpsons, "Lisa's Sax", features a parody of the opening sequence of All in the Family, with Marge playing piano and Marge and Homer singing an updated version of "Those Were the Days." The episode then proceeds to state that it was filmed in front of a live studio audience. Homer Simpson also has some notable comparisons to Archie as well, including his first line following the intro to Bart: "Hey there 'meathead' what are you watching?"^[21]

• The show inspired the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Wait Till Your Father Gets Home and the DePatie-Freleng cartoon series The Barkleys.

• Bob Rivers' Christmas novelty song "The Twelve Pains of Christmas", a spoof of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", features an impersonation of Archie Bunker speaking some of his lines from All in the Family, spoken or shouted as lyrics in the song. Some of these include classic Archie lines like "Shut up, you!" and "Edith, get me a beer!"

• There is an Amazing Race episode called "I've Become the Archie Bunker of the Home".

• The television series History Bites was also known to parody the show, as witnessed in the Talkin' Turkey^[22] episode.

• All in the Family is the first of three sitcoms in which all the main characters won Emmy Awards (O'Connor, Stapleton, Struthers, and Reiner). The other two are The Golden Girls and Will & Grace.

• Part of the Bunker kitchen set was used more than 25 years after the show's debut for another CBS sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond.

• An episode of MADtv featured the show taking place in 2001 and Archie (played by Will Sasso) isn't allowed to say anything offensive.

• In Living Color did a parody of the show called "All Up in the Family" which featured all the characters as African Americans.

• The character Archie Bunker was the inspiration for the character Eric Cartman on South Park, as acknowledged by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park.^[23]

• Archie Bunker's chair was featured in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

• In The Brady Bunch episode "Kelly Kids", a female next door neighbor was compared to Archie Bunker.

• Their story was featured on The E! True Hollywood Story.

Syndication

Reruns of the sitcoms first entered off-network syndication in the fall of 1979, on such stations as WNYW (then WNEW) New York, KTTV Los Angeles, WFLD Chicago, KDFW Dallas-Fort Worth, WDIV Detroit, and various others. Since the late 80's, All in the Family has been rerun on various networks; it currently airs on TV Land and previously aired on TBS and Nick at Nite.

DVD releases

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment) released the first six seasons of All in the Family on DVD in Region 1 between 2002-2007. Due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.

On June 23, 2010, Shout! Factory announced that they had acquired the rights to the series and plan on releasing the last 3 seasons on DVD.^[24] They subsequently announced that season 7 will be released on October 5, 2010.^[25]

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
The Complete First Season	13	March 26, 2002
The Complete Second Season	24	February 4, 2003
The Complete Third Season	24	July 20, 2004
The Complete Fourth Season	24	April 12, 2005
The Complete Fifth Season	25	January 3, 2006
The Complete Sixth Season	24	February 13, 2007
The Complete Seventh Season	25	October 5, 2010
The Complete Eighth Season	24	TBA
The Complete Ninth Season	24	TBA

See also

• Till Death Us Do Part
• Archie Bunker's Place
• All in a Family

References

Further reading

• All in the Family: A Critical Appraisal, edited by Richard P. Adler, (Praeger; 1979) ISBN 0-275-90326-5
• Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria : the Tumultuous History of All in the Family, Donna McCrohan, (Workman Publishing; 1988) ISBN 0-89480-527-4
• 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 at the Internet Movie Database
• All in the Family on TVLand.com
• All in the Family on TV.Com
• All in the Family sit.com website.

All in the Family Main characters Archie Bunker • Edith Baines Bunker • Gloria Bunker Stivic • Michael Stivic Recurring characters Joey Stivic • George Jefferson • Louise Jefferson • Lionel Jefferson • Henry Jefferson • Stephanie Mills Episodes List of All in the Family episodes • Edith's 50th Birthday Related Series Till Death Us Do Part • Maude • The Jeffersons • Archie Bunker's Place • Gloria • 704 Hauser • Good Times • Checking In

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series The Red Skelton Show (1952) · I Love Lucy (1953) · I Love Lucy (1954) · Make Room for Daddy (1955) · The Phil Silvers Show (1956) · The Phil Silvers Show (1957) · The Phil Silvers Show (1958) · The Jack Benny Program (1959) · Art Carney Special (1960) · The Jack Benny Program (1961) · The Bob Newhart Show (1962) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1963) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1964) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1965) · The Dick Van Dyke Show (1966) · The Monkees (1967) · Get Smart (1968) · Get Smart (1969) · My World and Welcome to It (1970) · All in the Family (1971) · All in the Family (1972) · All in the Family (1973) · M*A*S*H (1974) · The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1975) (1952–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1976) · The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1977) · All in the Family (1978) · Taxi (1979) · Taxi (1980) · Taxi (1981) · Barney Miller (1982) · Cheers (1983) · Cheers (1984) · The Cosby Show (1985) · The Golden Girls (1986) · The Golden Girls (1987) · The Wonder Years (1988) · Cheers (1989) · Murphy Brown (1990) · Cheers (1991) · Murphy Brown (1992) · Seinfeld (1993) · Frasier (1994) · Frasier (1995) · Frasier (1996) · Frasier (1997) · Frasier (1998) · Ally McBeal (1999) · Will & Grace (2000) (1952–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–present)

Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy The Governor & J.J. (1969) · The Carol Burnett Show (1970) · All in the Family (1971) · All in the Family (1972) · All in the Family (1973) · Rhoda (1974) · Barney Miller (1975) · Barney Miller (1976) · All in the Family (1977) · Taxi (1978) · Alice/Taxi (1979) · Taxi (1980) · M*A*S*H (1981) · Fame (1982) · Fame (1983) · The Cosby Show (1984) · The Golden Girls (1985) · The Golden Girls (1986) · The Golden Girls (1987) · The Wonder Years (1988) · Murphy Brown (1989)  · (1969-1989) · (1990–present)

Shows produced or created by Norman Lear 704 Hauser · a.k.a. Pablo · A Year at the Top · All in the Family · All That Glitters · All's Fair · America 2-Night · Archie Bunker's Place · The Baxters  · Channel Umptee-3  · Fernwood 2 Night · Good Times · Hot l Baltimore · The Jeffersons · Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman · Maude · One Day at a Time · The Powers That Be · Sanford and Son · Sunday Dinner