April 2, 2025 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in its heyday, "All in the Family" was watched by nearly one-third of all Americans. Throughout its nine seasons and 212 episodes, the show delivered six of the top 50 highest-rated television programs of all time. Here’s our own Greg Hengler with the story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Can we continue with our American stories? In the nineteen seventies,
All in the Family was watched by nearly one third
of all Americans and dominated the TV ratings throughout the
decade before its last of nine seasons. In two hundred
and twelve episodes, the show delivered six of the top
(00:31):
fifty highest rated TV programs.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Of all time. Here's Greg Hengler with the story.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
From Television City in Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Boy No Way, Glenn Miller played.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Songs that name parade us.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
Why Gosh, we hadn't made.
Speaker 7 (00:56):
It was doomed from the start. The social satire television
show called All in the Family was seen as too
abrasive and failed to pull any punches. Carol O'Connor played
the blue collar bigot Archie Bunker. The show's creator, Norman Lear,
inclined O'Connor for the combination of bomb bast and sweetness
(01:19):
the actor exuded on the big screen. O'Connor believed in
the character, but not in the show's chances to succeed
on television.
Speaker 8 (01:29):
Here's Rob Reiner.
Speaker 9 (01:31):
We knew we had a good show, but we figured
it wouldn't last very long because it was so special,
it was so different. I remember Carol saying, you know,
we'll probably do four episodes and then we'll probably get
thrown off the air because nobody's gonna sit still for this.
Speaker 7 (01:47):
When Norman Lear invited Gene Stapleton to read for the
Edith role, Archie's wife, she couldn't get over the script
This on TV. I was terribly amused by it, by
its reality and honesty and humor. CBS signed on for
the pilot episode. O'Connor and Stapleton were joined by Sally Struthers,
(02:10):
who played Archie's daughter Gloria, and Rob Reiner, who played
Mike Stivick, Gloria's husband. Rob had grown up surrounded by
his comic genius father and his friends, men like mel Brooks,
Sid Caesar, Dick Van Dyke. Says Rob, that was my
kindergarten and they were my teachers. Norman Lear, a friend
(02:33):
of Rob's father Carl, had known Rob for over a decade.
There had even been one day when Lear stopped by
Reiner's house that Rob made him laugh with a routine
about cheating at Jack's, noted Lear to Carl Reiner, you've
got a funny kid there. Rob's father responded, get out
(02:53):
of here. He's not a funny kid. Years later, Carl
Reiner expanded on this exchange. Oh, I knew that kid
was funny. What I didn't know until a long time
later was that he had talent. On the evening of
January twelfth, nineteen seventy one, as soon as Heehaw went
(03:14):
off the air, All in the Family made its television premiere.
This is what America heard at the start of the program.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Warning, the program you were 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 lefter. We hope to show in a mature fashion,
just how absurd they are.
Speaker 8 (03:37):
Here's Sally Struthers.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
I heard that they manned all the CBS stations across
the country with extra operators to take all the angry
phone calls that were going to come in from people
seeing the show. And it didn't happen. They got a
lot of phone calls, but people were calling in and saying, well,
is that is.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That coming back?
Speaker 7 (03:57):
In the weeks following All in the Family's day, CBS
initiated and financed an opinion poll. The majority of the
people questioned, including minority group members, indicated that they hadn't
been offended, people who saw it disgusted, and people who
hadn't discussed anyhow. Bunker gives conservatives a bad name, Stivic
(04:20):
gives liberals a bad name were the typical responses.
Speaker 8 (04:24):
Here's show creator Norman Lear.
Speaker 10 (04:27):
The stern warning that began our show tonight was used
on the first six episodes of All in the Family.
Nervous CBS censors required us to warren viewers lest they
be offended by the Bunkers. They didn't have bothered hardly
anyone watched. It was in the summer reruns that you
found the show.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And it caught on.
Speaker 10 (04:47):
By the second season, All in the Family had become
a certified hit.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
In May of nineteen seventy two, All in the Family
swept the Emmy Awards. Johnny Carson dubbed the ceremonies an
Evening with Norman Lear. Here's a clip of Archie Bunker
and his son in law Mike Stivick sparring, Oh.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
No, oh no, I'm gonna sue that guy first thing
in the morning.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Percent good jew lawyer, Chi Do you.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
Always have to label people?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Why did you just get a loyal Why is that
to be a George lawyer. We're not gonna sue a
name may I'm I'm gonna get a guy that's full
of Hey might day nobody went around call himself Chicanos,
Mexican Americans, Afro Americans. We was all Americans after that.
If a guy was a jigerous picker was his own vision.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Archie's a World War Two veteran turned loading doc union
worker from Queens, New York. In his eyes, he's no bigot.
A bigot spouts mindless prejudice, whereas Archie believes that he's
thought things through, that he's simply aware of the rules
are dained by nature to make some people sluggish and
other people cheats. Besides, to Archie, a racist would only
(06:00):
use negative labels, while he's the first to declare that
the sharpest lawyers are Jews. At his core, Archie's not prejudice.
He hates everyone. In the Complete Book of Nerds, author
Bob Stein lists Archie's wife's name as Dingbat, her nickname
(06:20):
as Edith Bunker, and her hobby as taking abuse.
Speaker 8 (06:25):
Here's Archie and Edith chet. I'm sorry, I thought I
was doing a good thing. Oh, sure, good thing.
Speaker 11 (06:33):
That's you all over.
Speaker 8 (06:34):
We're always doing good. You eat the good.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You never get mad at nobody, and never holler at nobody,
and never swear I know nothing.
Speaker 12 (06:42):
You're like the same.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You think it's fun living.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
With the saying ya ain't they ain't at all.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Look at this you.
Speaker 8 (06:48):
You don't even cheat the wind.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
You cheat the loon.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I needed you win't, Yeoman.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's a terrible thing to say. It's as human as
you are.
Speaker 11 (07:02):
Room.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You're justice humanish, mate, do something rotten.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Norman Lear gave Jeene Stapleton the key to Edith's character
that Edith no longer hears what Archie is saying, having
tuned out years ago. So it's no wonder Edith's shuffles
the way she does. Her gears are permanently out of
whack from a lifetime of turning the other cheek.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
Oh thank you, missus Bunker.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
That's all right, I can say, mister Davidstadt.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
Here's Gene Stapleton and Carol O'Connor on the show's secret
for success.
Speaker 11 (07:39):
I feel there was a man Staple made almost every week,
but you see number one. It was entertainment and it
was comedy. You can reach people through comedy.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
We were kidding.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
American attitudes and the autistic term for that at that time.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Archie's son in law, Mike, is an atheist who renounces
his own Catholic baptism long ago. Archie believes in Catholic
infant baptism so much that he kidnaps Mike's son, Joey
and baptizes his grandson himself.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, she was.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
It is my little grandson, joe.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Now his parents they don't care if he's baptized because
his own man as a dopey atheist.
Speaker 12 (08:29):
So they're going to do it here while we get
the chance. You know, I don't want my little grandson
growing up without religion in this rotten world of yours.
Speaker 9 (08:40):
An intense a.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Friend of their lord, Joseph Michael Stibbeck, I baptized the
name of her father, a son and a holy ghost.
Now I hope that took lay, because they're gonna kill
(09:02):
me when I.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Get And you've been listening to the story of the
creation of all in the family and how it started.
The prospects for its success, at least according to the
actors and the people close to it, No one thought
it would last or catch.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
The story of All.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
In the Family continues here on our American stories, and
we continue with our American stories and the story of
the making of All in the Family.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
When we last left off.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
We learned that the show had not initially done well,
but during summer reruns it found an audience, particularly the
young people of America, but soon the whole country. Let's
pick up now where we last left off.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
Although claiming to be a Christian, Archie's God and his
theology are made in Archie's image.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
All over the world they celebrate the break of that baby,
and everybody this time wart from White. Now if that
ain't proved that he's the son of God, then nothing is.
He made us all one true religionated Christians. She named
(10:31):
after his son, Christian.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Christ.
Speaker 12 (10:36):
For sure.
Speaker 11 (10:41):
I never.
Speaker 8 (10:45):
Here's Archie and Sammy Davis Junior heart ooh, I think that.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I mean, if God had had meant us to be together,
he'd have put us together. Well, look what he's done.
He put you over in Africa, he put the rest
of us in all the white countries. Well you must
have told them where we were, because somebody came and
got it.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
Archie's patriotism and American history are also made in his image.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That ain't the American way, Bardy, No, sirree, listen here, professor.
You're the one that needs an American history lesson. You
don't know nothing about Lady Liberty, standing there in a
harp with a torch on high, screaming out the wall
of nations in a wild Send me your poor, your deadbeats.
You're filthy, and all the nations set them in here.
(11:38):
I'm smalling in like hands, your Spanish.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Prs in in California.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
There, your jacks, your chinamen, your crouching, your heaves, and
you're living us. Come in here, and they're all free
to live in their own separate sections.
Speaker 8 (11:58):
There ain't feel safe.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
And that bush you ahead if you go in there,
that's not nice, right, buddy.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
Chicago born Mike Stivick married Archie's daughter, Gloria, who works
full time while her husband is enrolled in college full time.
Mike is a jobless peace marching sociology major of heavily
left wing persuasion, and they both live with Archie and
Edith in Queen's. Mike's friends frequently seem to appreciate Gloria
(12:28):
more than he does.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
Indeed, in many.
Speaker 7 (12:30):
Ways he treats Gloria just as Archie treats Edith, with
the difference that maybe he'll kiss her in the living room.
Mike is of Polish descent, sports long hair and a
parted prince valiant cut and a mustache which Rob Ryder
grew at twenty four to look old enough to get
the part of Mike.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And also think, mister Bunker, At first I thought I
misjudged you, and I was right.
Speaker 11 (12:55):
I did misjudge you. You're a lot more ignorant than
I thought.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Shay, did you hear what.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
He called me? Well, let me tell you something. Sticks
and stones may break, Bargol, but you are one dumb pola.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
The jobless Mike doesn't consider that Archie has lived firsthand
a life he only reads about in sociology books.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
You get all these.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Ideas, oh, from the College of hard knocks, honey boy.
I've been everywhere the grass grows green.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I see in everything there is to see.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I know people. The reason you don't know nothing about
people is you always got your big mouth open. You're
never willing to listen to nobody. How do you do, sir,
may I have a moment of your time.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
No.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
The relationship between Archie and Mike was written by Norman
Lear to reflect his relationship with his own father. In fact,
Lear's father also referred to Norman as dead from the
neck up, an expletive which Lear has Archie hurling at
my Mike as early as the first episode.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
Let me tell you something, mister Punker.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
No, let me tell you something, mister Stivick. You are
at meeting and meetek dead from the neck up me.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
What Archie would love to see most of all is
Mike working, so adding insult to injury. When Mike inherits money,
he decides to donate it to George McGovern's presidential campaign
instead of toward repaying Archie, who has been subsidizing his lifestyle,
and then pontificates that Archie doesn't do enough for his
(14:37):
fellow man, and since Archie doesn't choose to give more
of his money away, Mike advocates a socialist system that
will call him nasty names and give it away on
his behalf. But through all of the wincing and laughter,
we also learn something. We learn how to be less
hateful and bigoted towards those who are hateful and bigoted.
(15:01):
The episode Two's a Crowd chronicles the events of Archie
and Mike getting locked in a storeroom overnight. When escape
seems futile, the two turned to sharing a bottle and
a large blanket as the episode slowly turns into an
incredibly honest, personal look at who these two men are.
This episode was Carol O'Connor's favorite. Here's a clip.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Did you ever think that that possibly your father just
might be wrong?
Speaker 12 (15:34):
Oh, my old man, I'll be still my old man.
Let me tell you about it. I mean, he was
never wrong about.
Speaker 9 (15:39):
Nothing, Yes he was, Archie, my old man used to
call people the same things as your old man.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
But I always knew he was wrong.
Speaker 12 (15:48):
So is your ole.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
No he was, Yes he was.
Speaker 12 (15:51):
Your father was wrong.
Speaker 8 (15:53):
Your father was wrong.
Speaker 12 (15:54):
I don't tell me my father was wrong.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 12 (16:01):
Your father, Oh may, oh, your father. The red wood
in the house. There, the man who goes out, I'm
bush's butt. They keep a goop over your head, close
on your back. You call your father wrong? Hey, hey,
your father. You're supposed to love your father. Of course,
(16:29):
your father loves you. How can any man I love
you show you anything that's wrong?
Speaker 7 (16:41):
As Rob Ryder's father Carl remarked, a few would deny.
All in the Family reshaped the face of television. For years,
every new sitcom on the air was either liberated by
or reacting to it.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
It's the Jefferson Sachi.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
I don't want to jet. Oh wait a minute, Holy
you don't mean they have new people that moved.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
In down a from the line.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
They're really very nice people.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Oh yeah, very nice. They're wonderful people, are lovely people. Leader,
but they are also colored people.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Better hold it there, daddy.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I listen, little girl, been around a lot of places.
I've done a lot of things. But there's one thing
Archie bunker right and that we're going to do, and
that's break bread with no jungle Bunnies.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
Within a few years of its debut in nineteen seventy one,
All in the Family, together with its spinoffs and god children,
The Jefferson's Maud, Good Times, and Sanford and Son, reached
one hundred and twenty million Americans, more than half the
nation's population. All in the Family frequently earned the accolade
(17:50):
of National Theater, and its best scripts fall not in
iota short of national literature. While Archie has joined the
pantheon of American folk heroes for his portrayal of Archie Bunker.
Carol O'Connor earned more awards than any other actor ever
received for a single TV characterization. When the Guinness Book
(18:13):
of World Wreckers recognized All in the Family as commanding
TV's highest advertising rates, the series became known as the
super Bowl of sitcoms and Archie as the most expensive
racist on television. Any topical program runs the danger of
quickly becoming dated. All in the Family escaped that fate.
(18:35):
So strong is the story, so real are the people
that the episode's work, even when occasional references elude the audience.
It is why Archie's chair, Edith's chair, and Archie's beer
can occupy a place of honor on display at the
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
(18:58):
They are as much a part of our national heritage
as Abe Lincoln stovepipe hat and George Washington's wooden teeth.
Speaker 8 (19:06):
All in the Family was recorded on the tape before a.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Live audience and a terrific job on the production editing
and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler, And what a
story he told. Norman Lear, the genius behind this show
and the many shows that spawned from it. But the
primary and driving force was that relationship between Michael, his
son in law, and Archie himself. But those scenes of
(19:32):
intimacy were always there. Both were equally ridiculed in the
writing and equally human in the writing of Lear's It's
what made it so good. It infuriated everybody, and everybody
loved the characters and recognized the characters in themselves, their
own families, and their own lives.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
No doubt, this show reshaped the face of TV.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Every show thereafter was liberated by it or shaped by it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It was the super Bowl of TV sitcoms.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
The story of our American story, the story of all
in the family.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Here on our American stories.
Can we continue with our American stories? In the nineteen seventies,
All in the Family was watched by nearly one third
of all Americans and dominated the TV ratings throughout the
decade before its last of nine seasons. In two hundred
and twelve episodes, the show delivered six of the top
(00:31):
fifty highest rated TV programs.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Of all time. Here's Greg Hengler with the story.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
From Television City in Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Boy No Way, Glenn Miller played.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Songs that name parade us.
Speaker 6 (00:49):
Why Gosh, we hadn't made.
Speaker 7 (00:56):
It was doomed from the start. The social satire television
show called All in the Family was seen as too
abrasive and failed to pull any punches. Carol O'Connor played
the blue collar bigot Archie Bunker. The show's creator, Norman Lear,
inclined O'Connor for the combination of bomb bast and sweetness
(01:19):
the actor exuded on the big screen. O'Connor believed in
the character, but not in the show's chances to succeed
on television.
Speaker 8 (01:29):
Here's Rob Reiner.
Speaker 9 (01:31):
We knew we had a good show, but we figured
it wouldn't last very long because it was so special,
it was so different. I remember Carol saying, you know,
we'll probably do four episodes and then we'll probably get
thrown off the air because nobody's gonna sit still for this.
Speaker 7 (01:47):
When Norman Lear invited Gene Stapleton to read for the
Edith role, Archie's wife, she couldn't get over the script
This on TV. I was terribly amused by it, by
its reality and honesty and humor. CBS signed on for
the pilot episode. O'Connor and Stapleton were joined by Sally Struthers,
(02:10):
who played Archie's daughter Gloria, and Rob Reiner, who played
Mike Stivick, Gloria's husband. Rob had grown up surrounded by
his comic genius father and his friends, men like mel Brooks,
Sid Caesar, Dick Van Dyke. Says Rob, that was my
kindergarten and they were my teachers. Norman Lear, a friend
(02:33):
of Rob's father Carl, had known Rob for over a decade.
There had even been one day when Lear stopped by
Reiner's house that Rob made him laugh with a routine
about cheating at Jack's, noted Lear to Carl Reiner, you've
got a funny kid there. Rob's father responded, get out
(02:53):
of here. He's not a funny kid. Years later, Carl
Reiner expanded on this exchange. Oh, I knew that kid
was funny. What I didn't know until a long time
later was that he had talent. On the evening of
January twelfth, nineteen seventy one, as soon as Heehaw went
(03:14):
off the air, All in the Family made its television premiere.
This is what America heard at the start of the program.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Warning, the program you were 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 lefter. We hope to show in a mature fashion,
just how absurd they are.
Speaker 8 (03:37):
Here's Sally Struthers.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
I heard that they manned all the CBS stations across
the country with extra operators to take all the angry
phone calls that were going to come in from people
seeing the show. And it didn't happen. They got a
lot of phone calls, but people were calling in and saying, well,
is that is.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That coming back?
Speaker 7 (03:57):
In the weeks following All in the Family's day, CBS
initiated and financed an opinion poll. The majority of the
people questioned, including minority group members, indicated that they hadn't
been offended, people who saw it disgusted, and people who
hadn't discussed anyhow. Bunker gives conservatives a bad name, Stivic
(04:20):
gives liberals a bad name were the typical responses.
Speaker 8 (04:24):
Here's show creator Norman Lear.
Speaker 10 (04:27):
The stern warning that began our show tonight was used
on the first six episodes of All in the Family.
Nervous CBS censors required us to warren viewers lest they
be offended by the Bunkers. They didn't have bothered hardly
anyone watched. It was in the summer reruns that you
found the show.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
And it caught on.
Speaker 10 (04:47):
By the second season, All in the Family had become
a certified hit.
Speaker 7 (04:50):
In May of nineteen seventy two, All in the Family
swept the Emmy Awards. Johnny Carson dubbed the ceremonies an
Evening with Norman Lear. Here's a clip of Archie Bunker
and his son in law Mike Stivick sparring, Oh.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
No, oh no, I'm gonna sue that guy first thing
in the morning.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Percent good jew lawyer, Chi Do you.
Speaker 8 (05:15):
Always have to label people?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Why did you just get a loyal Why is that
to be a George lawyer. We're not gonna sue a
name may I'm I'm gonna get a guy that's full
of Hey might day nobody went around call himself Chicanos,
Mexican Americans, Afro Americans. We was all Americans after that.
If a guy was a jigerous picker was his own vision.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Archie's a World War Two veteran turned loading doc union
worker from Queens, New York. In his eyes, he's no bigot.
A bigot spouts mindless prejudice, whereas Archie believes that he's
thought things through, that he's simply aware of the rules
are dained by nature to make some people sluggish and
other people cheats. Besides, to Archie, a racist would only
(06:00):
use negative labels, while he's the first to declare that
the sharpest lawyers are Jews. At his core, Archie's not prejudice.
He hates everyone. In the Complete Book of Nerds, author
Bob Stein lists Archie's wife's name as Dingbat, her nickname
(06:20):
as Edith Bunker, and her hobby as taking abuse.
Speaker 8 (06:25):
Here's Archie and Edith chet. I'm sorry, I thought I
was doing a good thing. Oh, sure, good thing.
Speaker 11 (06:33):
That's you all over.
Speaker 8 (06:34):
We're always doing good. You eat the good.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You never get mad at nobody, and never holler at nobody,
and never swear I know nothing.
Speaker 12 (06:42):
You're like the same.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You think it's fun living.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
With the saying ya ain't they ain't at all.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Look at this you.
Speaker 8 (06:48):
You don't even cheat the wind.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
You cheat the loon.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I needed you win't, Yeoman.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
That's a terrible thing to say. It's as human as
you are.
Speaker 11 (07:02):
Room.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
You're justice humanish, mate, do something rotten.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Norman Lear gave Jeene Stapleton the key to Edith's character
that Edith no longer hears what Archie is saying, having
tuned out years ago. So it's no wonder Edith's shuffles
the way she does. Her gears are permanently out of
whack from a lifetime of turning the other cheek.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
Oh thank you, missus Bunker.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
That's all right, I can say, mister Davidstadt.
Speaker 7 (07:34):
Here's Gene Stapleton and Carol O'Connor on the show's secret
for success.
Speaker 11 (07:39):
I feel there was a man Staple made almost every week,
but you see number one. It was entertainment and it
was comedy. You can reach people through comedy.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
We were kidding.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
American attitudes and the autistic term for that at that time.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Archie's son in law, Mike, is an atheist who renounces
his own Catholic baptism long ago. Archie believes in Catholic
infant baptism so much that he kidnaps Mike's son, Joey
and baptizes his grandson himself.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, she was.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
It is my little grandson, joe.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Now his parents they don't care if he's baptized because
his own man as a dopey atheist.
Speaker 12 (08:29):
So they're going to do it here while we get
the chance. You know, I don't want my little grandson
growing up without religion in this rotten world of yours.
Speaker 9 (08:40):
An intense a.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Friend of their lord, Joseph Michael Stibbeck, I baptized the
name of her father, a son and a holy ghost.
Now I hope that took lay, because they're gonna kill
(09:02):
me when I.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Get And you've been listening to the story of the
creation of all in the family and how it started.
The prospects for its success, at least according to the
actors and the people close to it, No one thought
it would last or catch.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
The story of All.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
In the Family continues here on our American stories, and
we continue with our American stories and the story of
the making of All in the Family.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
When we last left off.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
We learned that the show had not initially done well,
but during summer reruns it found an audience, particularly the
young people of America, but soon the whole country. Let's
pick up now where we last left off.
Speaker 7 (10:02):
Although claiming to be a Christian, Archie's God and his
theology are made in Archie's image.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
All over the world they celebrate the break of that baby,
and everybody this time wart from White. Now if that
ain't proved that he's the son of God, then nothing is.
He made us all one true religionated Christians. She named
(10:31):
after his son, Christian.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Christ.
Speaker 12 (10:36):
For sure.
Speaker 11 (10:41):
I never.
Speaker 8 (10:45):
Here's Archie and Sammy Davis Junior heart ooh, I think that.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I mean, if God had had meant us to be together,
he'd have put us together. Well, look what he's done.
He put you over in Africa, he put the rest
of us in all the white countries. Well you must
have told them where we were, because somebody came and
got it.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
Archie's patriotism and American history are also made in his image.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That ain't the American way, Bardy, No, sirree, listen here, professor.
You're the one that needs an American history lesson. You
don't know nothing about Lady Liberty, standing there in a
harp with a torch on high, screaming out the wall
of nations in a wild Send me your poor, your deadbeats.
You're filthy, and all the nations set them in here.
(11:38):
I'm smalling in like hands, your Spanish.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Prs in in California.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
There, your jacks, your chinamen, your crouching, your heaves, and
you're living us. Come in here, and they're all free
to live in their own separate sections.
Speaker 8 (11:58):
There ain't feel safe.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
And that bush you ahead if you go in there,
that's not nice, right, buddy.
Speaker 7 (12:06):
Chicago born Mike Stivick married Archie's daughter, Gloria, who works
full time while her husband is enrolled in college full time.
Mike is a jobless peace marching sociology major of heavily
left wing persuasion, and they both live with Archie and
Edith in Queen's. Mike's friends frequently seem to appreciate Gloria
(12:28):
more than he does.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
Indeed, in many.
Speaker 7 (12:30):
Ways he treats Gloria just as Archie treats Edith, with
the difference that maybe he'll kiss her in the living room.
Mike is of Polish descent, sports long hair and a
parted prince valiant cut and a mustache which Rob Ryder
grew at twenty four to look old enough to get
the part of Mike.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And also think, mister Bunker, At first I thought I
misjudged you, and I was right.
Speaker 11 (12:55):
I did misjudge you. You're a lot more ignorant than
I thought.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Shay, did you hear what.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
He called me? Well, let me tell you something. Sticks
and stones may break, Bargol, but you are one dumb pola.
Speaker 7 (13:13):
The jobless Mike doesn't consider that Archie has lived firsthand
a life he only reads about in sociology books.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
You get all these.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Ideas, oh, from the College of hard knocks, honey boy.
I've been everywhere the grass grows green.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I see in everything there is to see.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I know people. The reason you don't know nothing about
people is you always got your big mouth open. You're
never willing to listen to nobody. How do you do, sir,
may I have a moment of your time.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
No.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
The relationship between Archie and Mike was written by Norman
Lear to reflect his relationship with his own father. In fact,
Lear's father also referred to Norman as dead from the
neck up, an expletive which Lear has Archie hurling at
my Mike as early as the first episode.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
Let me tell you something, mister Punker.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
No, let me tell you something, mister Stivick. You are
at meeting and meetek dead from the neck up me.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
What Archie would love to see most of all is
Mike working, so adding insult to injury. When Mike inherits money,
he decides to donate it to George McGovern's presidential campaign
instead of toward repaying Archie, who has been subsidizing his lifestyle,
and then pontificates that Archie doesn't do enough for his
(14:37):
fellow man, and since Archie doesn't choose to give more
of his money away, Mike advocates a socialist system that
will call him nasty names and give it away on
his behalf. But through all of the wincing and laughter,
we also learn something. We learn how to be less
hateful and bigoted towards those who are hateful and bigoted.
(15:01):
The episode Two's a Crowd chronicles the events of Archie
and Mike getting locked in a storeroom overnight. When escape
seems futile, the two turned to sharing a bottle and
a large blanket as the episode slowly turns into an
incredibly honest, personal look at who these two men are.
This episode was Carol O'Connor's favorite. Here's a clip.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Did you ever think that that possibly your father just
might be wrong?
Speaker 12 (15:34):
Oh, my old man, I'll be still my old man.
Let me tell you about it. I mean, he was
never wrong about.
Speaker 9 (15:39):
Nothing, Yes he was, Archie, my old man used to
call people the same things as your old man.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
But I always knew he was wrong.
Speaker 12 (15:48):
So is your ole.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
No he was, Yes he was.
Speaker 12 (15:51):
Your father was wrong.
Speaker 8 (15:53):
Your father was wrong.
Speaker 12 (15:54):
I don't tell me my father was wrong.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 12 (16:01):
Your father, Oh may, oh, your father. The red wood
in the house. There, the man who goes out, I'm
bush's butt. They keep a goop over your head, close
on your back. You call your father wrong? Hey, hey,
your father. You're supposed to love your father. Of course,
(16:29):
your father loves you. How can any man I love
you show you anything that's wrong?
Speaker 7 (16:41):
As Rob Ryder's father Carl remarked, a few would deny.
All in the Family reshaped the face of television. For years,
every new sitcom on the air was either liberated by
or reacting to it.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
It's the Jefferson Sachi.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
I don't want to jet. Oh wait a minute, Holy
you don't mean they have new people that moved.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
In down a from the line.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
They're really very nice people.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Oh yeah, very nice. They're wonderful people, are lovely people. Leader,
but they are also colored people.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Better hold it there, daddy.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I listen, little girl, been around a lot of places.
I've done a lot of things. But there's one thing
Archie bunker right and that we're going to do, and
that's break bread with no jungle Bunnies.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
Within a few years of its debut in nineteen seventy one,
All in the Family, together with its spinoffs and god children,
The Jefferson's Maud, Good Times, and Sanford and Son, reached
one hundred and twenty million Americans, more than half the
nation's population. All in the Family frequently earned the accolade
(17:50):
of National Theater, and its best scripts fall not in
iota short of national literature. While Archie has joined the
pantheon of American folk heroes for his portrayal of Archie Bunker.
Carol O'Connor earned more awards than any other actor ever
received for a single TV characterization. When the Guinness Book
(18:13):
of World Wreckers recognized All in the Family as commanding
TV's highest advertising rates, the series became known as the
super Bowl of sitcoms and Archie as the most expensive
racist on television. Any topical program runs the danger of
quickly becoming dated. All in the Family escaped that fate.
(18:35):
So strong is the story, so real are the people
that the episode's work, even when occasional references elude the audience.
It is why Archie's chair, Edith's chair, and Archie's beer
can occupy a place of honor on display at the
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
(18:58):
They are as much a part of our national heritage
as Abe Lincoln stovepipe hat and George Washington's wooden teeth.
Speaker 8 (19:06):
All in the Family was recorded on the tape before a.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Live audience and a terrific job on the production editing
and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler, And what a
story he told. Norman Lear, the genius behind this show
and the many shows that spawned from it. But the
primary and driving force was that relationship between Michael, his
son in law, and Archie himself. But those scenes of
(19:32):
intimacy were always there. Both were equally ridiculed in the
writing and equally human in the writing of Lear's It's
what made it so good. It infuriated everybody, and everybody
loved the characters and recognized the characters in themselves, their
own families, and their own lives.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
No doubt, this show reshaped the face of TV.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Every show thereafter was liberated by it or shaped by it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
It was the super Bowl of TV sitcoms.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
The story of our American story, the story of all
in the family.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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