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''Those were the days!''}}
''[[All in
The show was, at its heart, a [[Dom Com]] focused around the Bunker family and its titular head, Archie Bunker, an [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]] of the highest order. Archie was a blue-collar dock worker (later taxi driver and bar owner) with conservative and broadly bigoted views which he was unafraid to voice at any opportunity. Archie's major foils were his wife Edith, his daughter Gloria, and his son-in-law Mike Stivic. Mike, not-so-affectionately nicknamed "Meathead" by Archie, with the following explanation: "You heard me. Meathead. Dead from the neck up. Meat....head.", was every bit as opinionated and vocal as Archie, but liberal and socially active. This usually resulted in a verbal sparring match between the two, with Mike's solid, intellectual, but sometimes idealized arguments clashing with Archie's stance, usually full of malapropisms and wayward logic but also with a closer personal relationship to the situation at hand and an ability to be ''so'' cleverly obtuse that Mike was unprepared to answer him. Around this, Edith simply wanted to avoid conflict, trying her sweet best to
From the start, ''All in the Family'' broke a large number of unwritten network rules, particularly with the issues which were considered acceptable to air on public TV. Archie's language was laced with epithets common on the street but ''never'' heard on television. Mike and Gloria, the Bunkers' daughter, made it clear that they had an active and healthy sex life. Even the Bunkers' toilet was the first one heard actively used on air. As the show continued, it tackled a wide variety of taboo topics, either directly, or through the medium of Archie's debates with Mike and others. These included race relations, gender roles, homosexuality, war, economy, political current events, abortion, rape, child custody, and other issues that, if not new in the 1970s, were most certainly not brought up in a comedy show. Even in the later seasons, where the show had lost some of its initial luster, there were episodes which stand out as some of the best ever put to air. A fine example would be the death of Edith and Archie's incredibly moving breakdown, a show that won Carroll O'Connor two Emmys and another for Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner (Gloria and Mike).
The impact of the show was such that it became the focus of a heated national debate on whether the use of comedy was an appropriate means by which to combat prejudice and social inequality. Never before had a situation comedy, light family fare for the most part, ever
Even by today's standards, it's an incredibly frank sitcom,
{{quote|''If you were prejudiced, Archie, when I came into your house you woulda called me a'' '''coon''' ''or a'' '''nigger''' ''but you didn't say that, I heard you clear as a bell, right straight-out you said "colored!"''}}
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Can you imagine ''any'' sitcom daring to air a line like that today? And this from a show that never even came ''close'' to dropping an f-bomb.
The following series were [[Spin-Off
* ''[[Maude]]'' (1972-1978)
** Which spun off ''[[Good Times]]'' (1974-1979)
* ''[[The Jeffersons]]'' (1975-1985)
** Which spun off ''[[Checking In]]'' (1981, only four episodes)
* ''[[Archie Bunker's Place]]'' (1979-1983), an [[After Show]] focusing the location on Archie's bar.
* ''[
* ''[[704 Hauser]]'' (1994, only six episodes),
{{tropelist}}
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** A three-part story arc in season 5 [[Written-In Absence|had Archie disappearing]] due to a salary dispute with Carroll O'Connor.
* [[Abusive Parents]]: In the "Two's a Crowd" episode, a drunken Archie reveals details of his abusive father to Mike.
* [[Affectionate Parody]]: ''All in the Family: [[The Musical|The Opera]]'', performed on ''[[The Sonny
▲* [[Affectionate Parody]]: ''All in the Family: [[The Musical|The Opera]]'', performed on ''The Sonny & Cher Show''. The skit included Caroll O'Connor himself as [[Moral Guardian|The Censor]]. Archie defeats him by singing, essentially, Screw the Rules, I Have Ratings.
* [[Animated Adaptation]]: ''The Barkleys'', the '72-'73 story of opinionated bus driver Arnie Barkley, his wife Agnes, daughter Terri, son-in-law Roger, and son Chester. All played by different breeds of dogs.
* [[Attempted Rape]]: Happens to Gloria in "Gloria the Victim" and Edith in "Edith's 50th Birthday".
* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]: Every now and then in each season they need to make an episode that reminds the audience that yes, Archie is an asshole and gets frustrated with Edith a lot, but for all their squabbles, he
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Several examples:
** Edith, in "Edith's Problem." Framed around Edith going through the early stages of menopause, this classic episode became known for Jean Stapleton's comic timing and portrayal of Edith's irritability and mood swings as she deals with the symptoms. Her attempts to put Archie in his place – "Stifle, stifle, STIFLE!" – made this episode.
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* [[Blowing a Raspberry]]: Archie Bunker had this as his [[Catch Phrase]].
* [[The Board Game]]: Yep, the show had one. It was a party card game that asked people how they would honestly react to various social situations. The slogan: "Is there a little Archie in all of us?"
* [[Born in
* [[The Celebrity Lie]]: Inverted in an episode of ''Archie Bunker's Place'', where Archie can't convince his friends that he actually met Sammy Davis, Jr.
* [[Chain Letter]]
* [[Christmas Episode]]: Several, perhaps the most famous being "The Draft Dodger", in which Archie invites a friend who lost his son in the [[Vietnam War]] for Christmas dinner while Mike invites a friend who is a draft dodger...with completely unexpected results.
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** Following that, we hear a flushing noise and out steps Archie with a newspaper tucked under his arm. How's that for a series opener?
* [[The Couch]]: More like "The Armchair".
* [[Cousin Oliver]]: Stephanie, Edith's young grandniece who was adopted by Archie and Edith in season 9 after being left [[Door Step Baby|at their doorstep]] by her alcoholic father, and remained in the cast through the transition to ''Archie Bunker's Place''. Unlike most Cousin Olivers, she was not despised by the viewership, and many remember her fondly. (That she was played by [[Danielle Brisebois]], former "littlest orphan" in ''[[Annie]]'' on Broadway, probably helped.)
* [[Cultural Translation]]
* [[The Ditz]]: Edith, much of the time.
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* [[Embarrassing Nickname]]: "Shoebooty", what the other kids called Archie when he was little because his parents could only afford to give him a shoe and a boot to wear as a pair of footwear, according to the [[Bottle Episode]] where Archie and Michael are locked in the cellar.
* [[The European Carry All]]: Mike's "shoulder bag for men".
* [[Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics]]: In 1972, a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZsBFqfNpvs full single version of "Those Were The Days"] was released, containing three additional stanzas, which were never used on the show. In addition, the original, unaired 1968 pilot contains lyrics that don't even appear on the single.
* [[
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Literally. Was the first television show to feature a toilet flushing (offscreen).
* [[Heat Wave]]: The season 4 opener ("We're Having a Heat Wave") and its followup ("We're ''Still'' Having a Heat Wave").
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** More than 30 years after last playing Mike Stivic, on an episode of ''Real Time With Bill Maher'', Rob Reiner identified himself as an atheist. This is a twist on his character, who was ''not'' an atheist (he was agnostic, one who states it cannot be known whether there is a God) but was forever incorrectly called such by Archie.
* [[Hollywood Tone Deaf]]: Edith is not by any definition pleasant to hear when singing. But that doesn't stop her from carrying out one of her favorite tunes at any given moment.
* [[Ignore the Disability]]: Archie successfully keeps Edith from saying something stupid to Sammy Davis Jr. about his glass eye, then promptly [[Fee Fi Faux Pas|does so himself]].
* [[In-Series Nickname]]: "Meathead", Archie's name for Mike. Archie also calls Gloria "little girl" while Mike calls him "Arch".
* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: In "Henry's Farewell", Archie tricks George Jefferson into entering his house by claiming that standing on his stoop counts as being inside his house. George, caught up in the argument, chases him into the house, thus breaking his vow.
* [[Irishman and a Jew]]:
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Archie gradually developed into one of these as the years went by. While he was a bigot, his attitudes came about more due to the society he grew up in, rather than genuine malice or racism. Once he actually got to know other cultures and peoples better, he was able to accept them at least a little more easily.
** When he turned down an invitation to join a Ku Klux Klan-like lodge and burn a cross in "commie" Michael's front yard, he told the group he was black because he [[Continuity Nod|had once had a blood transfusion from a black woman]].
* [[Locked in a Room]]
* [[Long Runners]]: Counting the continuation ''[[Archie Bunker's Place]]'' Carroll O'Connor played Archie for an astounding 13 seasons and 300 episodes between the two shows. Almost unparalleled for a live
* [[Lowered Recruiting Standards]]: Archie's lodge is in trouble for not having any black or Jewish members. So he suggests that they invite one black to join - Solomon Jackson. And one Jew - [[Twofer Token Minority|also Solomon Jackson]]. At the end of the episode Jackson accepts their invitation to join, and promises to invite all his black friends and all his Jewish friends to join too.
* [[Malaproper]]: Archie, leading to many a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].
* [[Miss Conception]]: Led to a [[Very Special Episode]].
* [[Moving the Goalposts]]: One of Archie Bunker's favorite fallacious debating tactics. If anyone ever comes up with solid counter to his arguments, he'll get a look of disgust and try to steer the conversation in a different direction entirely. He only ever admits he's wrong when he's well and truly cornered.
* [[My Friends and Zoidberg]]{{context}}
* [[Never My Fault]]: One of Archie's other major character traits: he was lighting-quick at diverting blame.
* [[New Year Has Come]]: "New Year's Wedding".
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* [[Seventies Hair]]: Mike and a number of his hippie friends.
* [[Smarter Than You Look]]: It was apparent that Edith was much more intelligent than she let on, she just had a tendency to ramble and was a [[Cloudcuckoolander]].
* [[Something Something Leonard Bernstein]]: The classic performance of the theme song ("Those Were the Days" by Charles Stouse and Lee Adams) by O'Connor and Stapleton was infamous for a couple of mumbled/garbled lines (most notably "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great"), which left viewers arguing about them for years. To help viewers actually understand what they were singing, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SwUEYoeVA0 the season 9 (1979) opener is far more clearly enunciated]; beyond that O'Connor and Stapleton actually performed another clearly enunciated version in front of a live audience for one of the specials near the end of the series' run.
* [[Standardized Sitcom Housing]]
* [[Stealth Insult]]: Sammy Davis, Jr. gives a fantastic one to Archie: "If you were prejudiced, you'd go around thinking that you were better than everyone else in the world. But after spending these wonderful moments with you, Archie, I can honestly say - you ain't better than anybody."
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{{reflist}}
{{TV Guide's 50 Greatest}}
{{Best in TV: The Greatest TV Shows of Our Time}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Comedy Series]]
[[Category:The Seventies]]
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[[Category:Dom Com]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:
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