Reflections of a meathead on Archie’s bunker

"Boy, the way Glenn Miller played/Songs that made the Hit Parade/Guys like us, we had it made/Those were the days." — from the opening theme of "All In The Family"

Some families plan picnics and share beaming smiles and have nothing but good things to say about each other. Other families have problems, issues, trials and warts: they don’t always get along, and occasionally they have to remind themselves that they are related to these people who share their bloodline.

Examples of the first stereotype run through the lineage of early North American TV: “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Leave It To Beaver,” “Father Knows Best,” “Make Room For Daddy” and “My Three Sons” were the most well-known of the programs in the 1950s and ‘60s which featured kindhearted fathers as the core of a friendly family unit whose worst troubles seem innocuous today — mostly rehashed themes surrounding trust, responsibility and alienation, but generally with a convenient “uplifting” message at the end of each episode.

With the onset of the Vietnam War and various cultural upheavals taking place in the latter half of the 1960s, you could almost feel the societal pendulum swinging the other way. Nonetheless, it took years for producer Norman Lear to sell an edgy, controversial idea to a broadcast network — in this case, CBS. Once the idea hit the airwaves, though, the occupants of 704 Hauser Street in the borough of Queens, New York City, would reflect an exaggerated — yet deeply felt — impact of that epochal shift, as well as give the world one of its most enduring antiheroes.

Adapted from the British TV series “‘Til Death Do Us Part,” the core of “All In The Family” was a refutation of all the situation comedies that preceded it: the family was led by a bullying, rabidly right-wing dockworker (who would later become a bar owner in the followup series “Archie Bunker’s Place”) who openly detested foreigners and non-whites and “Polacks” and... well, anyone who didn’t look, or think, like him.

Here's Archie on Democrats (clip runs for 2:28)

To some, that might not sound like a formula which would go over big; they would be wrong. “All In The Family” topped the Neilsen audience ratings almost from its opening episode in 1971 until 1976, a run of success only equalled by “The Cosby Show” and “American Idol.” 

Along with the millions who loved “All In The Family” and watched it every week, I marvelled at how the show brazenly thumbed its nose at conventional taboos. I could hardly believe my ears when the show used epithets such as “fag” and “spic” and “wop,” but it also broke new ground in depicting issues and sparking international debates on topics such as discrimination, sexism and war.

Because I was a fan, I would also project the scenarios onto my own clan. Particularly, I saw my father as “Archie” because of their physical resemblance and the fact that they both liked to smoke and drink. It wasn’t a clear matchup: my dad eschewed cigars and preferred cigarettes; politically I would describe my dad as only slightly to the right, so he's nowhere near the shrill authoritarian xenophobe stereotype Archie represents; also, my dad is not an outlandish racist like Archie is.

The show was initially blasted by critics for its upfront nature, especially what some moral purists characterized as an attempt to make Archie a “lovable bigot.” As noted in Wikipedia, Archie lost many of his arguments because of the short-sightedness of his worldview. Through the series, though, the audience sees Archie soften many of his positions to the point where he becomes a grandfatherly curmudgeon, and he also means well for his family — even if he calls his Polish-heritage son-in-law a “meathead.”