I love "All In The Family" on Tvland

[searadiofreak]

I know there are a limited number of episodes, and the cream of the crop is generally 1971-1976, but this series attracts me to Tvland. Most episodes during this period are among the best written and best acted in the history of TV sitcoms.

Just tonight, they aired the episode from '76 where Archie exclaims, "Reagan will be back in 1980, buddy". How forsightful!

The issues on this series still resonate today. Fantastic that Tvland sticks with this series, but 1977 forward the quality dips, IMO.

 

[therealjm12]

I agree. AITF is one of the greatest shows on TV. Too bad the quality went downhill after all the spin-offs. Every episode is like watching an excellent play.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I recently caught that episode where Archie and Gloria are having a heated argument,
and Gloria suddenly yells out "I'm not your little girl any more!"

Archie suddenly becomes very stern, glares at her with this very intense look, and
says "Hey, hey...............don't youse EVER say that to me ever again!"

I had seen that dozens of times and never paid much attention. But now, having two
nearly grown daughters, it really resonated with me at a deep level. Carroll O'Connor
could not have captured a father's emotion any better.

 

[onairb]

I agree, that is one of O'Connor's best scenes in the series.

The quality dropped around 1975/76-Nixon was out of office, Vietnam 'officially' ended(the series pretty much stopped talking about the war in 1972, anyway, with the peace talks looming), the show had already spun off 'Maude' and 'The Jeffersons'(and, indirectly, 'Good Times'), and was starting to move away from the topical, political humor(aside from an occasional, half-hearted joke about Ford being clumsy, or Carter liking peanuts).
Once Mike and Gloria became the next door neighbors(and Betty Garrett, as Irene Lorenzo, left), it was still at least occasionally funny, but by no means a powerhouse.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Here is a perfect example of what happens when a show has run its course.

AITF lost it's 'punch' when Gloria and Mike moved out of the house, and Archie toned down his racial remarks.

I was never a fan of Archie Bunker's Place. O'Connor and the rest of the cast should have decided to call it quits after four, perhaps, five years, and had a on-air ending to the program.

AITF had some decent spin-off shows like "The Jeffersons" "Maude". I was reading that even Sally Struthers' show "Gloria" did well in the ratings but was cancelled after the first year.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Because of today's PC environment, we will never see shows like "All in the Family" again. Can't say certain words because it might offend someone. So instead TV just bores people with the same plot lines. :

 

[therealjm12]

Because of today's PC environment, we will never see shows like "All in the Family" again. Can't say certain words because it might offend someone. So instead TV just bores people with the same plot lines

I don't agree with all that, though there is some merit in the statement. Programmers now days are looking for women 25 -54. That's it in a nut shell. Back in AITF days the wider audience was considered more desirable. Things that are said on TV now days are far more shocking than in Archie's day. And besides that, the audience now days has been dumbed down not to appreciate a program like ALL in the Family that takes a little thought to understand.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Because of today's PC environment, we will never see shows like "All in the Family" again. Can't say certain words because it might offend someone. So instead TV just bores people with the same plot lines. :

I agree. The entire CBS Saturday Night lineup would have a hard time.
I can't imagine The Bob Newhart Show successfully running the gauntlet of
mental health advocacy groups, for one.

 

[azumanga]

Because of today's PC environment, we will never see shows like "All in the Family" again. Can't say certain words because it might offend someone.

Chances are, that "someone" might be the Parents Television Council or the American Family Association.

 

[BRNout]

Because of today's PC environment, we will never see shows like "All in the Family" again. Can't say certain words because it might offend someone.

Chances are, that "someone" might be the Parents Television Council or the American Family Association.

Or GLSN or CAIR or the NAACP or La Raza or PETA or the AARP or NAMBLA or any number of other advocacy groups who Hollywood fears more than death. All get 'offended' a lot more often than the 2 groups that you cited - and each is a lot more successful in blackballing the offending party than the PTC or AFA (who get laughed at more often than not).

 

[MattParker]

The CBS Saturday Night Line-up in the 70s was outstanding. Not just All in the Family but also Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, MASH, Alice and Carol Burnett. People stayed home on Saturday nights because TV was so good. Now the networks don't even do original programming on Saturday nights. Shows how the industry has fallen.

Correction: Mike and Gloria moved into the Jefferson's old house. George rented it to them (very cheaply) because he knew having The Meathead around would annoy Archie. Frank disappeared after one season and that left Irene with not much on the show to do until she disappeared, also without explanation. The premise of the Lorenzos was Frank liked to cook and Irene liked fix things, which went against Archie's ideas of sex roles, never worked well and didn't work at all when Frank disappeared. AITF had more than its share of great scripts but it had some clunkers, too. Norman Lear did not do that well bringing in new characters and keeping the show fresh (like MASH and Cheers did).

 

[SteveRichards]

"All in the Family" lost some punch when Mike and Gloria moved next door, and it really went downhill when Mike and Gloria left the show. Even then, CBS still liked the show enough that they wanted to extend it into "Archie Bunker's Place," which was never the out-and-out hit that AITF was, but it usually won its time slot on Sunday nights following "60 Minutes."

In regard to keeping shows fresh with new characters, MTM Productions and CBS took a big risk when they spun-off "Rhoda" from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Cloris Leachman also got her own spin-off in "Phyllis," although not nearly as successful as "Rhoda." Despite the loss of two characters, the producers of "Mary Tyler Moore" were successful at developing Betty White's character of Sue Ann, and also Georgia Engel's character of Georgette as a love interest (and later wife) of Ted Baxter.

I would agree that "M*A*S*H" and "Cheers" both did excellent jobs of developing new characters during the run of both shows.

 

[Braves2005]

I remember watching All In The Family and Archie Bunker's Place on Sunday nights as a kid since I was born in 1971 and had to watch the afternoon reruns on CBS during that time mainly during summer vacation from school.

I noticed that when All In The Family moved away from Saturday nights that the whole lineup on CBS on Saturday night suffered on account of it and in each timeslot that All In The Family and later Archie Bunker's Place inherited afterwards (Monday night in 1975-1976 it was still #1) ratings actually improved especially when it moved to Sunday nights after 60 Minutes.

I don't think that Gloria would have lasted much longer than a season anyways since both ABP and Gloria were cancelled at the same time and besides Gloria without Mike wasn't that fun anyways.