All in the Family is a sitcom about a man who hates everyone who disagrees with him. That sounds thin on paper. In practice, it is one of the most important shows ever made for American television.
The show follows Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor, a working-class man who calls his wife Edith a “dingbat” and thinks anyone who disagrees with him is wrong. His daughter-in-law Gloria is a feminist. His son-in-law, Mike Stivic, is a college student and a liberal. The show puts these two families in one house and watches them fight.
Trailer, via Shout! Studios.
The Cast
O’Connor plays Archie with a gruff charm that makes him hateful and funny at once. Jean Stapleton plays Edith as sweet and simple, a foil to Archie’s bluster. Sally Struthers plays Gloria with warmth and patience. Rob Reiner plays Mike as the show’s moral center, a man who gets called “Meathead” by Archie but never loses his temper.
The Setting
The show takes place in Astoria, Queens, at 704 Hauser Street. The exterior shots were filmed at a real house at 89-70 Cooper Avenue, Glendale, Queens. The writers, led by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, filled the show with real local details: Flushing High School, the Long Island Daily Press, Kelsey’s Bar, Northern Boulevard.
What Made It Work
The show took the sitcom formula and put real arguments inside it. Archie was not a cartoon. He was a man with real opinions, and the show treated those opinions with care, even when it disagreed with them. That earned the show a place in the history of television.
The show ran for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971 to April 8, 1979, with 210 episodes. It was the most watched show in the United States from 1971 to 1976, the first series to hold the top spot for five straight years.
Legacy
TV Guide ranked the show fourth among the 50 greatest television shows of all time. The episode “Sammy’s Visit” was ranked number 13 on TV Guide’s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. Bravo named Archie Bunker TV’s greatest character of all time.
The Problem
The show is dated. Some of its jokes rely on attitudes that feel worn now. Archie’s bigotry is played for laughs in ways that would not fly today. The show’s place in history does not excuse its flaws.
Where It Falls Short
The show is not perfect. Archie’s racism and sexism are part of a show that injected more dramatic moments and realistic, topical conflicts into the sitcom format, and some of the humor feels mean-spirited rather than pointed. The show’s politics are also uneven, with Gloria’s feminism sometimes playing a minor role rather than a central one.
Final Word
All in the Family is a show that changed television, even if it is not a show that holds up perfectly today. It brought real arguments into the living room and made them funny without losing their weight. That is a rare skill, and the show still shows it.
| Season | First Episode | Last Episode |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 12, 1971 | September 13, 1971 |
| 2 | September 14, 1971 | March 19, 1972 |
| 3 | September 17, 1972 | March 25, 1973 |
| 4 | September 16, 1973 | March 25, 1974 |
| 5 | September 15, 1974 | March 24, 1975 |
| 6 | September 14, 1975 | March 23, 1976 |
| 7 | September 13, 1976 | March 21, 1977 |
| 8 | September 11, 1977 | March 26, 1978 |
| 9 | September 10, 1978 | April 8, 1979 |
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
