Those Were the Days

America's Foist Family

My final sitcom review (at least for a while) is All In the Family which debuted in January of 1971. Where Mary Tyler Moore broke the ice with subtlety, AITF used more of a hammer approach. The show depicted a working class family in Queens. We had Archie, the bigoted dock worker, Edith his patient wife, Gloria his strident, liberal daughter and Mike, the liberal son-in-law ("Meathead") who challenged all of Archie's cherished precepts and prejudices.

AITF was revolutionary in several respects. It showed a blue collar family making ends meet, where most shows at the time (Brady Bunch, My Three Sons) swept economic need under the rug along with race, sex and politics. It's interesting that in a time of such political upheaval, the name "Nixon" was never said on scripted TV. AITF went much further than that, usually framing political discussions as heated arguments between Archie and Mike. The show also tackled many (most?) other taboo topics - abortion, gay rights, rape, women's rights, organized crime, hate crimes, civil rights, sexual freedom, etc.

The Jeffersons, the Bunkers' black next door neighbors, provided excellent foils for Archie. Midway thru the series' run, the Jeffersons were spun off to their own series (one could say they "moved on up to the East Side") and they were replaced with neighbors Frank and Irene Lorenzo. The Lorenzos had a metrosexual husband who was sensitive and liked to cook. Irene was the handy man of the pair. The Lorenzos didn't quite click as well on the show, and AITF started to fade. The shows tended toward preachiness or pop psychology after a point.

They did evolve Edith's character and show her to be more self-confident after a few seasons. She could stand up to Archie and stand on principle in general. What's interesting about AITF, is that it had a dramatic decline in quality over its nine year run; it's a perfect example of a show overstaying its welcome by probably 3 seasons. The Mike and Gloria characters left and a Puerto Rican housekeeper, along with a little girl named Stephanie, were brought in to shore up the cast. These two new characters were no equal to the Mike/Gloria duo. At the same time, Archie's character was watered down to that of a kindly, politically correct, slightly gruff care bear. One can suppose the writers were trying to show that a person can become enlightened and change; the net result in this case was to take a zesty soup and turn it into cold broth. Archie Bunkers Place replaced AITF @ 1980, and it was a very pale approximation of the original show. One can see why Seinfeld and Raymond decided to close down operations when they detected the first signs of staleness.

Still and all, one can have no better entertainment than the first 3 seasons of AITF. Many of the discussions on the show have tremendous relevance now. America just reelected a very conservative president in 2004, and one ponders whether Mike or Archie would be considered more out of touch now. Another interesting footnote: Current TV shows are very liberal with regard to sexual subjects, but sitcoms that take on politics are few and far between. AITF was first and almost alone in its political daring do. For those of us aging boomers who remember watching the AITF shows on their original run, it's a wonderful reminiscence.