All in the Family

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All in the Family
All in the Family (official television logo).svg
Genre Sitcom
Based on Till Death Us Do Part
by Johnny Speight
Developed by Norman Lear
Directed by
Starring
Theme music composer Lee Adams (lyrics),
Charles Strouse (music), Roger Kellaway (ending theme)
Opening theme"Those Were the Days"
Performed by Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton
Ending theme"Remembering You"
by Roger Kellaway, (music) and Carroll O'Connor (additional lyrics added in 1971; instrumental version)
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons9
No. of episodes205 (list of episodes)
Production
Production locations CBS Television City
Hollywood, California (1971–75)
Metromedia Square
Hollywood, California (1975–79)
Running time25–26 minutes
Production company Tandem Productions
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseJanuary 12, 1971 (1971-01-12) 
April 8, 1979 (1979-04-08)
Related

All in the Family is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. It was later produced as Archie Bunker's Place , a continuation series, which picked up where All in the Family ended and ran for four seasons through 1983.

Contents

Based on the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part , [1] [2] All in the Family was produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin. It starred Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, and Rob Reiner. The show revolves around the life of a working-class man and his family. It broke ground by introducing challenging and complex issues into mainstream network television comedy: racism, antisemitism, infidelity, homosexuality, transphobia, [3] women's liberation, rape, religion, miscarriages, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence. The series became arguably one of television's most influential comedic programs, as it injected the sitcom format with more dramatic moments and realistic, topical conflicts. [4] [note 1]

All in the Family has been ranked as one of the best American television series. [7] The show became the most watched show in the United States during the summer reruns of the first season, [8] and topped the yearly Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976, [9] the first television series to have held the position for five consecutive years. The episode "Sammy's Visit" was ranked number 13 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. [10] TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time ranked All in the Family as number four. Bravo also named the show's protagonist, Archie Bunker, TV's greatest character of all time. [11] In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked All in the Family the fourth-best written TV series [12] In 2023, Variety ranked All in the Family #16 on its list of the 100 greatest TV shows. [13]

Premise

All in the Family centers on a working-class White American family living in Queens, New York. Its patriarch, Archie Bunker (O'Connor), is an outspoken, narrow-minded man, seemingly prejudiced against everyone not like him or his ideas of how people should be. Archie's wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) is sweet and understanding, which can make her appear naïve and uneducated. Her husband often treats her dismissively and uses disparaging language, calling her "dingbat". [14]

Their one child, Gloria (Sally Struthers), is generally kind and good-natured like her mother, but displays traces of her father's stubbornness and temper. Unlike them, she is a feminist. Gloria is married to college, later graduate student, later college instructor Michael Stivic (Reiner)–referred to as "Meathead" by Archie–whose values are likewise influenced and shaped by the counterculture of the 1960s. The two couples represent the real-life clash of values between the Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers. For much of the series, the Stivics live in the Bunkers' home to save money, providing abundant opportunity for them to irritate each other.

The show is set in the Astoria section of Queens, with the vast majority of scenes taking place in the Bunkers' home at 704 Hauser Street. Occasional scenes take place in other locations, especially during later seasons, such as Kelsey's Bar, a neighborhood tavern that Archie spends a good deal of time in and eventually purchases, and the Stivics' home after Mike and Gloria move out.

Supporting characters represent the changing demographics of the neighborhood, especially the Jeffersons, a Black family, who live in the house next door in the early seasons and then left the area for the higher end Upper East side of Manhattan after George (the husband) made a fortune with his dry cleaning business. The Jeffersons then rented their home to Gloria and Mike.

Cast

Main characters

The Bunkers and the Stivics: standing, Gloria (Sally Struthers) and Michael (Rob Reiner). Seated, Archie (Carroll O'Connor) and Edith (Jean Stapleton) with baby Joey All in the Family cast 1976.JPG
The Bunkers and the Stivics: standing, Gloria (Sally Struthers) and Michael (Rob Reiner). Seated, Archie (Carroll O'Connor) and Edith (Jean Stapleton) with baby Joey

Supporting characters

When Archie visits a local blood bank to make a donation, he meets his neighbor, Lionel Jefferson, who is there for the same purpose. Archie and Lionel All in the Family 1971.JPG
When Archie visits a local blood bank to make a donation, he meets his neighbor, Lionel Jefferson, who is there for the same purpose.

Recurring characters

History and production

The show came about when Norman Lear read an article in Variety magazine on Till Death Us Do Part and its success in the United Kingdom. [22] He immediately knew it portrayed a relationship just like the one between his father and himself. [23]

Lear bought the rights to the show and incorporated his own family experiences with his father into the show. Lear's father would tell Lear's mother to "stifle herself" and she would tell Lear's father "you are the laziest white man I ever saw" (two "Archieisms" that found their way onto the show).

The original pilot was titled Justice for All [24] and was developed for ABC. Tom Bosley, Jack Warden, and Jackie Gleason were all considered for the role of Archie Bunker. In fact, CBS wanted to buy the rights to the original show and retool it specifically for Gleason, who was under contract to them, but producer Lear beat out CBS for the rights and offered the show to ABC. Mickey Rooney was offered the role but turned it down as he felt the character was "un-American".

In the pilot, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton played Archie and Edith Justice. Kelly Jean Peters played Gloria and Tim McIntire played her husband, Richard. It was taped in October 1968 in New York City. After screening the first pilot, ABC gave the producers more money to shoot a second pilot, titled Those Were the Days, [25] which Lear taped in February 1969 in Hollywood. Candice Azzara played Gloria and Chip Oliver played her husband Dickie. D'Urville Martin played Lionel Jefferson in both pilots.

After stations' and viewers' complaints caused ABC to cancel Turn-On (a sketch comedy series developed by Laugh-In's George Schlatter) after only one episode in February 1969, the network became uneasy about airing a show with a "foul-mouthed, bigoted lead" character, and rejected the series [26] [27] at about the time Richard Dreyfuss sought the role of Michael. Rival network CBS was eager to update its image and was looking to replace much of its then popular "rural" programming ( Mayberry R.F.D. , The Beverly Hillbillies , Petticoat Junction and Green Acres ) with more "urban", contemporary series and was interested in Lear's project; by this point, Gleason was no longer under contract to CBS (his own show was among those eliminated), allowing Lear to keep Carroll O'Connor on as the lead. CBS bought the rights from ABC and retitled the show All in the Family. The pilot episode CBS developed had the final cast and was the series' first episode.

Lear wanted to shoot in black and white as Till Death Us Do Part had been. While CBS insisted on color, Lear had the set furnished in neutral tones, keeping everything relatively devoid of color. As costume designer Rita Riggs described in her 2001 Archive of American Television interview, Lear's idea was to create the feeling of sepia tones, in an attempt to make viewers feel as if they were looking at an old family album. [28]

All in the Family was the first major American series to be videotaped in front of a live studio audience. In the 1960s, most sitcoms had been filmed in the single-camera format without audiences, with a laugh track simulating an audience response. Lear employed the multiple-camera format of shooting in front of an audience, but used tape, whereas previous multiple-camera shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show had used film. Due to the success of All in the Family, videotaping sitcoms in front of an audience became a common format for the genre during the 1970s, onward, until the advent of digital HD. The use of videotape also gave All in the Family the look and feel of early live television, including the original live broadcasts of The Honeymooners , to which All in the Family is sometimes compared.

For the show's final season, the practice of being taped before a live audience changed to playing the already taped and edited show to an audience and recording their laughter to add to the original sound track, and the voice-over during the end credits were changed from Rob Reiner's voice [note 2] to Carroll O'Connor's [note 3] (typically, the audience was gathered for a taping of One Day at a Time , and got to see All In the Family as a bonus.). Throughout its run, Norman Lear took pride in the fact that canned laughter was never used (mentioning this on many occasions); the laughter heard in the episodes was genuine.

Theme song

The series' opening theme song "Those Were the Days", was written by Lee Adams (lyrics) and Charles Strouse (music). [29] It was presented in a way that was unique for a 1970s series: Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton were seated at a console or spinet piano (played by Stapleton) and sang the tune together on-camera at the start of every episode, concluding with applause from a studio audience. The song dates back to the first Justice For All pilot filmed in 1968, although on that occasion O'Connor and Stapleton performed the song off-camera and at a faster tempo than the series version.

Six different performances were recorded over the run of the series, including one version that includes additional lyrics. The song is a simple, pentatonic melody, that can be played exclusively with black keys on a piano, in which Archie and Edith were nostalgic for the simpler days of the past. A longer version of the song was released as a single on Atlantic Records, reaching number 43 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in early 1972. The additional lyrics in this longer version lend the song a greater sense of sadness and make poignant reference to social changes taking place in the 1960s and early 1970s.

A few perceptible drifts can be observed when listening to each version chronologically. In the original version, the lyric "Those Were The Days" was sung over the tonic (root chord of the song's key), and the piano strikes a dominant 7th passing chord in transition to the next part, which is absent from subsequent versions. Jean Stapleton's screeching high note on the line "And you knew who you WEEERRE then" became louder, longer, and more comical, although only in the original version did the line draw a laugh from the audience.

Carroll O'Connor's pronunciation of "welfare state" added more of Archie's trademark whining enunciation, and the closing lyrics (especially "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great") were sung with increasingly deliberate articulation, as viewers had complained that they could not understand the words. Also in the original version, the camera angle was shot slightly from the right side of the talent as opposed to the straight on angle of the next version. Jean Stapleton performed the theme song without glasses beginning in season 6.

In addition to O'Connor and Stapleton singing, footage is also shown beginning with aerial shots of Manhattan, and continuing to Queens, progressively zooming in, culminating with a still shot of a lower middle-class semidetached home, presumably representing the Bunkers' house in Astoria, suggesting that the visit to the Bunkers' home has begun. The house shown in the opening credits is actually located at 89–70 Cooper Avenue in the Glendale section of Queens, New York. [30] [31]

A notable difference exists, between the Cooper Avenue house and the All in the Family set: the Cooper Avenue house has no porch, while the Bunkers' home featured a front porch. Since the footage used for the opening had been shot back in 1968 for the series' first pilot, the establishing shot of the Manhattan skyline was completely devoid of the World Trade Center towers, which had not yet been built. When the series aired two years later, the Trade Center towers, although under construction, had still not yet risen high enough to become a prominent feature on the Manhattan skyline. This did not happen until the end of 1971.

Despite this change in the Manhattan skyline, the original, somewhat grainy 1968 footage continued to be used for the series opening until the series transitioned into Archie Bunker's Place in 1979. At that time, a new opening with current shots of the Manhattan skyline were used with the Trade Center towers being seen in the closing credits. This opening format – showing actual footage of the cities and neighborhoods in which the show was set – became the standard for most of Norman Lear's sitcoms, including others in the All in the Family franchise – Maude, Good Times, and The Jeffersons.

At the end of the opening, the camera then returns to a last few seconds of O'Connor and Stapleton, as they finish the song. At the end of the original version, Edith smiles at Archie and Archie smiles off at a slight distance. In the longest running version (from season 2 to season 5), Edith smiles blissfully at Archie, and Archie puts a cigar in his mouth and returns a rather cynical, sheepish look to Edith. From season six through eight, Edith smiles and rests her chin on Archie's shoulder.

In the final season, Edith hugs Archie at the conclusion. In the first three versions of the opening, Archie is seen wearing his classic trademark white shirt. In the final version of the opening for the series' ninth season, Archie is seen wearing a grey sweater-jacket over his white shirt. In all versions of the opening, the song's conclusion is accompanied by applause from the studio audience.

In interviews, Norman Lear explained that the idea for the piano song introduction was a cost-cutting measure. After completion of the pilot episode, the budget would not allow an elaborate scene to serve as the sequence played during the show's opening credits. Lear decided to have a simple scene of Archie and Edith singing at the piano.

The closing theme, an instrumental, was "Remembering You", played by its composer Roger Kellaway, with lyrics later added by Carroll O'Connor. It was played over footage of the same row of houses in Queens as in the opening, but moving in the opposite direction down the street, and eventually moving back to aerial shots of Manhattan, suggesting the visit to the Bunkers' home has concluded. O'Connor recorded a vocal version of "Remembering You" for a record album, but though he performed it several times on TV appearances, the lyrics about the end of a romance were never heard in the actual series. In July 1986, vocalist Helen Merrill's contrastingly jazz-flavored rendition, accompanied by a Kellaway-led trio and introduced by O'Connor, was featured on The Merv Griffin Show . [32] [33] [34]

Except for some brief instances in the first season, scenes contained no background or transitional music.

Setting and location

The house featured in the opening credits sequence, as it appeared in late 2013 Archie Bunker House 01.JPG
The house featured in the opening credits sequence, as it appeared in late 2013

Lear and his writers set the series in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. The location of the Bunkers' house at 704 Hauser Street is fictitious. No Hauser Street exists in Queens. The address is not presented the way addresses are given in Queens: most address numbers are hyphenated, identifying the number of the nearest cross street. Nevertheless, many episodes reveal that the Bunkers live near the major thoroughfare Northern Boulevard, which was the location of Kelsey's Bar and later Archie Bunker's Place. [35]

The exterior of the house shown at the show closing is a home located at 89-70 Cooper Avenue, Glendale, Queens, New York, across from St. John Cemetery ( 40°42′45″N73°51′39″W / 40.712492°N 73.860784°W / 40.712492; -73.860784 ). [30]

Many real Queens institutions are mentioned throughout the series. Carroll O'Connor, a Queens native from Forest Hills, said in an interview with the Archive of American Television that he suggested to the writers many of the locations to give the series authenticity. For example, Archie is said to have attended Flushing High School, a real school in Flushing, Queens, although in the "Man of the Year" episode of Archie Bunker's Place, Archie attended Bryant High School in nearby Long Island City. As another example, the 1976 episode "The Baby Contest" deals with Archie entering baby Joey in a cutest-baby contest sponsored by the Long Island Daily Press , a then-operating local newspaper in Queens and Long Island. [36]

The writers of All in the Family continued throughout the series to have the Bunkers and other characters use telephone exchange names when giving a telephone number. Most other series at the time, such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, were using the standard fictitious 555 telephone exchange at a time when the Bell System was trying to discontinue them. At different times throughout the series, the exchanges Ravenswood and Bayside – both valid in the area – were used for the Bunkers' telephone number. Actual residents of the Bunkers' age continued using exchange names into the early 1980s, which is referred to in the 1979 episode "The Appendectomy", in which Edith gets confused between the two versions of a number she is dialing.

Episodes

SeasonEpisodesOriginally airedRankRating
First airedLast aired
Pilots 219681969
1 13January 12, 1971 (1971-01-12)April 6, 1971 (1971-04-06)3418.9
2 24September 18, 1971 (1971-09-18)March 11, 1972 (1972-03-11)134.0
3 24September 16, 1972 (1972-09-16)March 24, 1973 (1973-03-24)133.3
4 24September 15, 1973 (1973-09-15)March 16, 1974 (1974-03-16)131.2
5 23September 14, 1974 (1974-09-14)March 8, 1975 (1975-03-08)130.2
6 24September 8, 1975 (1975-09-08)March 8, 1976 (1976-03-08)130.1
7 25September 22, 1976 (1976-09-22)March 12, 1977 (1977-03-12)1222.9
8 24October 2, 1977 (1977-10-02)March 19, 1978 (1978-03-19)424.4 [lower-alpha 1]
9 24September 24, 1978 (1978-09-24)April 8, 1979 (1979-04-08)924.9 [lower-alpha 2]
  1. Tied with 60 Minutes and Charlie's Angels
  2. Tied with Taxi

"Sammy's Visit", first broadcast in February 1972, is a particularly notable episode, whose famous episode-ending scene produced the longest sustained audience laughter in the history of the show. Guest star Sammy Davis Jr. plays himself. Archie is moonlighting as a cab driver and Davis visits the Bunker home to retrieve a briefcase, he left in Archie's cab earlier that day. After hearing Archie's bigoted remarks, Davis asks for a photograph with him. At the moment the picture is taken, Davis suddenly kisses a stunned Archie on the cheek. The ensuing laughter went on for so long that it had to be severely edited for network broadcast, as Carroll O'Connor still had one line ("Well, what the hell — he said it was in his contract!") to deliver after the kiss. (The line is usually cut in syndication.) [37]

Syndication

During the show's sixth season, starting on December 1, 1975, CBS began airing reruns on weekdays at 3 p.m. (EST), replacing long-running soap opera The Edge of Night , which moved to ABC. The show would later move to 3:30 p.m. and in September 1978, 10 a.m. This lasted until September 1979, when Viacom distributed the reruns to the off-network market where many stations picked up the show. In 1991, Columbia Pictures Television began syndicating the show, and Columbia's successor companies have continued to do so.

Since the late 1980s, All in the Family has been rerun on various cable and satellite networks including TBS (although it held the rights locally in Atlanta, as well), TV Land, Nick at Nite, and Sundance TV. From January 3, 2011, to December 31, 2017, the show aired on Antenna TV. As of January 1, 2018, the show began to air on GetTV. Since February 5, 2023, MeTV aired episodes of the show on Sunday nights at 8:00 PM ET/7:00 PM CT. All episodes have been airing nightly on the Catchy Comedy (formerly Decades) digital retro TV network.

The cast forfeited their residual rights for a cash payout early in the production run. [38]

Ratings

All in the Family is one of three television shows ( The Cosby Show and the reality music competition American Idol being the others) that have been number one in the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive TV seasons. The show remained in the top 10 for seven of its nine seasons.

SeasonTimeNielsen ratings
RankRatingHouseholds
1 (1970–71) Tuesday at 9:30–10:00 pm on CBSNo. 3418.911,358,900 [39]
2 (1971–72) Saturday at 8:00–8:30 pm on CBSNo. 134.021,114,000 [40]
3 (1972–73) 33.321,578,400 [41]
4 (1973–74) 31.220,654,400 [42]
5 (1974–75) 30.220,687,000 [43]
6 (1975–76) Monday at 9:00–9:30 pm on CBS30.120,949,600 [44]
7 (1976–77) Wednesday at 9:00–9:30 pm on CBS (September 22 – October 27, 1976)
Saturday at 9:00–9:30 pm on CBS (November 6, 1976 – March 12, 1977)
No. 1222.916,304,800 [45]
8 (1977–78) Sunday at 9:00–9:30 pm on CBSNo. 424.4 (tied with 60 Minutes and Charlie's Angels )17,787,600 [46]
9 (1978–79) Sunday at 9:00–9:30 pm on CBS (September 24 – October 1, 1978)
Sunday at 8:00–8:30 pm on CBS (October 8, 1978 – April 8, 1979)
No. 924.9 (tied with Taxi )18,550,500 [47]

The series finale was seen by 40.2 million viewers. [48]

Spin-offs

As of 2009, All in the Family has the most spin-offs for a US prime-time television series, directly spawning five other shows, three of which were very successful, as well as two of those spin-offs each having a spin-off of their own: [49]

Specials

At the height of the show's popularity, Henry Fonda hosted a special one-hour retrospective of All in the Family and its impact on American television. It included clips from the show's most memorable episodes up to that time. It was titled The Best of "All in the Family" and aired on December 21, 1974.

On February 16, 1991, CBS aired a 90-minute retrospective, All in the Family 20th Anniversary Special, hosted by Norman Lear to commemorate the show's 20th anniversary. It featured a compilation of clips from the show's best moments, and interviews with the four main cast members. The special was so well received by the viewing audience CBS aired reruns of All in the Family during its summer schedule in 1991, garnering higher ratings than the new series scheduled next to it, Norman Lear's sitcom Sunday Dinner . [51] The latter was Lear's return to TV series producing after a seven-year absence, and was cancelled after the six-week tryout run due to being poorly received by audiences. [52] [53]

On May 22, 2019, ABC broadcast Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons, produced by Lear and Jimmy Kimmel and starring Woody Harrelson, [54] Marisa Tomei, [55] Jamie Foxx, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, Kerry Washington and Ellie Kemper. [56]

A second Live in Front of A Studio Audience special was announced in early November 2019 to air on Wednesday December 18, this time pairing the show with Good Times . [57] [58]

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment) released the first six seasons of All in the Family on DVD in Region 1 between 2002 and 2007. No further seasons were released, because the sales figures did not match Sony's expectations.

In June 2010, Shout! Factory announced that it had acquired the rights to the series and has since released the remaining three seasons. [59] [60] [61] [62]

In October 2012, Shout! Factory released All in the Family – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. The 28-disc boxed set features all 208 episodes of the series, as well as bonus features. [63]

In February 2018, Sony released All in the Family- Seasons 1–5 on DVD in Region 1. The 15-disc set features all episodes from the first five seasons. [64]

Vincent Gardenia, before becoming a regular cast member as Frank Lorenzo, and Rue McClanahan played a "wife-swapping" couple who meet the unsuspecting Bunkers in a 1972 episode. L-R: McClanahan, Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, and Gardenia. Rue McClanahan Carroll O'Connor Jean Stapleton Vincent Gardenia All In the Family 1972.JPG
Vincent Gardenia, before becoming a regular cast member as Frank Lorenzo, and Rue McClanahan played a "wife-swapping" couple who meet the unsuspecting Bunkers in a 1972 episode. L-R: McClanahan, Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, and Gardenia.
DVD NameEp #Release date
The Complete First Season13March 26, 2002
The Complete Second Season24February 4, 2003
The Complete Third Season24July 20, 2004
The Complete Fourth Season24April 12, 2005
The Complete Fifth Season23January 3, 2006
The Complete Sixth Season24February 13, 2007
The Complete Seventh Season25October 5, 2010
The Complete Eighth Season24January 11, 2011
The Complete Ninth Season24May 17, 2011
The Complete Series208October 30, 2012

Cultural impact

Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History All in the family props.JPG
Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

As one of US television's most acclaimed and groundbreaking programs, All in the Family has been referenced or parodied in countless other forms of media. References on other sitcoms include That '70s Show , The Simpsons , and Family Guy .

Popular T-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers showing O'Connor's image and farcically promoting "Archie Bunker for President" appeared around the time of the 1972 presidential election. In 1998, All in the Family was honored on a 33-cent stamp by the USPS. [66]

Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs are on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. [67] The originals had been purchased by the show's set designer for a few dollars at a local Goodwill thrift store and were given to the Smithsonian (for an exhibit on American television history) in 1978. It cost producers thousands of dollars to create replicas to replace the originals.

Then-US President Richard Nixon can be heard discussing the show (specifically the 1971 episodes "Writing the President" and "Judging Books by Covers") on one of the infamous Watergate tapes. [68] [69]

Rapper Redman has made references to Archie Bunker in a few of his songs, specifically his smoking of large cigars. [70]

Mad parodied the series in its 1973 special issue #11 entitled "Gall in the Family Fare", which also included a free flexi-disc record so the reader could listen to the parody as they read it. [71] [72] [73]

Awards and nominations

All in the Family is the first of four sitcoms in which all the lead actors (O'Connor, Stapleton, Struthers, and Reiner) won Primetime Emmy Awards. The other 3 are The Golden Girls , Will & Grace and Schitt's Creek .

Primetime Emmy awards and nominations

1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979

Golden Globe Awards and nominations

1972
  • Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy (Won)
  • Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy: Carroll O'Connor (Won)
  • Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy: Jean Stapleton (Nominated)
  • Best Supporting Actor – Television: Rob Reiner (Nominated)
  • Best Supporting Actress – Television: Sally Struthers (Nominated)
1973
  • Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy (Won)
  • Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy: Carroll O'Connor (Nominated)
  • Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy: Jean Stapleton (Won)
  • Best Supporting Actor – Television: Rob Reiner (Nominated)
  • Best Supporting Actress – Television: Sally Struthers (Nominated)
1974
  • Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy (Won)
  • Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy: Carroll O'Connor (Nominated)
  • Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy: Jean Stapleton (Won)
  • Best Supporting Actor – Television: Rob Reiner (Nominated)
  • Best Supporting Actress – Television: Sally Struthers (Nominated)
1975
  • Best TV Show – Musical/Comedy (Nominated)
  • Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy: Carroll O'Connor (Nominated)
  • Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy: Jean Stapleton (Nominated)
  • Best Supporting Actress – Television: Betty Garrett (Won)
1976
  • Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy: Carroll O'Connor (Nominated)
  • Best Supporting Actor – Television: Rob Reiner (Nominated)
1977
  • Best Supporting Actor – Television: Rob Reiner (Nominated)
  • Best Supporting Actress – Television: Sally Struthers (Nominated)
1978
  • Best TV Series – Musical/Comedy (Won)
  • Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy: Carroll O'Connor (Nominated)
  • Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy: Jean Stapleton (Nominated)
1979
  • Best TV Series – Musical/Comedy (Nominated)
  • Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy: Jean Stapleton (Nominated)
1980
  • Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy: Jean Stapleton (Nominated)

TCA Heritage Award

In 2013, the Television Critics Association honored All in the Family with its Heritage Award for its cultural and social impact on society. [75]

See also

Notes

  1. When the show premiered on January 12, 1971, CBS ran a disclaimer before it aired: "The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are." [5] [6]
  2. "All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live audience."
  3. "All in the Family was played to a studio audience for live responses."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carroll O'Connor</span> American actor (1924–2001)

John Carroll O'Connor was an American actor whose television career spanned over four decades. O'Connor found widespread fame as Archie Bunker, the main character in the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1979) and its continuation, Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983). O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995), where he played the role of police chief William "Bill" Gillespie. In the late 1990s, he played Gus Stemple, the father of Jamie Buchman on Mad About You. In 1996, O'Connor was ranked number 38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. He won five Emmys and one Golden Globe Award.

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Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional character from the 1970s American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker, a main character of the series, is a World War II veteran, blue-collar worker, and family man. All in the Family premiered on January 12, 1971, where he was depicted as the head of the Bunker family. In 1979, the show was retooled and renamed Archie Bunker's Place; it finally went off the air in 1983. Bunker lived at the fictional address of 704 Hauser Street in the borough of Queens, in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Bunker</span> Fictional character

Edith Bunker is a fictional character on the 1970s sitcom All in the Family, played by Jean Stapleton. She is the wife of Archie Bunker, mother of Gloria Stivic, mother-in-law of Michael "Meathead" Stivic, and grandmother of Joey Stivic. Her cousin is Maude Findlay, one of Archie's nemeses.

<i>Maude</i> (TV series) American television series (1972–1978)

Maude is an American sitcom television series that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 12, 1972, until April 22, 1978. The show was the first spin-off of All in the Family, on which Bea Arthur had made two appearances as Maude Findlay, Edith Bunker's favorite cousin. Like All in the Family, Maude was a sitcom with topical storylines created by producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Stapleton</span> American actress (1923–2013)

Jean Stapleton was an American character actress of stage, television and film. Stapleton portrayed Edith Bunker, the perpetually optimistic and devoted wife of Archie Bunker, on the 1970s sitcom All in the Family, a role that earned her three Emmys and two Golden Globes for Best Actress in a comedy series. She also made occasional appearances on the All in the Family follow-up series Archie Bunker's Place, but asked to be written out of the show during the first season due to becoming tired of the role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Struthers</span> American actress and activist (born 1947)

Sally Anne Struthers is an American actress and activist. She played Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker on All in the Family, for which she won two Emmy Awards, and Babette on Gilmore Girls. She was also the voice of Charlene Sinclair on the ABC sitcom Dinosaurs, Pebbles Flintstone on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, and Rebecca Cunningham on the Disney animated series TaleSpin.

<i>The Jeffersons</i> American sitcom (1975–1985)

The Jeffersons is an American sitcom television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The Jeffersons is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Stivic</span> Sitcom character

Michael Casimir "Mike" Stivic is a fictional character played by Rob Reiner on the 1970s American television sitcom All in the Family. He is the live-in son-in-law of the series' lead character, Archie Bunker, who frequently calls him "Meathead". Michael is the husband of Archie's daughter Gloria.

Gloria Stivic is a fictional character played by Sally Struthers on the American situation comedy All in the Family and the spin-off series Gloria. The only child of Archie and Edith Bunker, Gloria is married to—and eventually divorced from—Michael Stivic. She was born 11 months after Archie and Edith were married, according to the fifth season episode “The Longest Kiss”.

<i>Archie Bunkers Place</i> American television series (1979–1983)

Archie Bunker's Place is an American television sitcom produced as a continuation of All in the Family. It aired on CBS from September 23, 1979 to April 4, 1983. While not as popular as its predecessor, the show maintained a large enough audience to last four seasons. It performed so well during its first season that it displaced Mork & Mindy from its Sunday night time slot; a year earlier, during its first season, Mork & Mindy had been the No. 3 show on television.

<i>Gloria</i> (American TV series) American sitcom (1982–83)

Gloria is an American sitcom television series and a spin-off of Archie Bunker's Place that aired Sundays at 8:30 p.m. (EST) on CBS from September 26, 1982, to April 10, 1983. The series stars Sally Struthers reprising her role as Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie Bunker on All in the Family.

Tandem Productions, Inc. was a film and television production company that was founded in 1958 by television director Bud Yorkin and television writer/producer Norman Lear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joey Stivic</span> Fictional character

Joseph Michael "Joey" Stivic is a fictional character who first appeared on the 1970s American sitcom All in the Family. Joey Stivic was the son and only child of Mike Stivic and Gloria Stivic, and the grandson of Archie Bunker and Edith Bunker. The character first appeared as a newborn baby in a two-part episode of All in the Family that aired in December 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maude Findlay</span> Fictional character

Maude Findlay is a fictional character and protagonist on the controversial 1970s sitcom Maude. She was portrayed by the Emmy-winning actress Bea Arthur.

"Edith's 50th Birthday" are the fourth and fifth episodes of the eighth season of the American television sitcom All in the Family. The episodes, which originally aired as a two-part one hour story on CBS on October 16, 1977, were written by Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf, and directed by Paul Bogart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cousin Liz</span> 3rd episode of the 8th season of All in the Family

"Cousin Liz" is an episode of the American television sitcom All in the Family. The story concerns Edith Bunker's inheritance of a silver tea service from her deceased cousin Liz and her decision to let her lesbian lover keep the tea service to remember Liz by. The second episode of season 8, "Cousin Liz" originally aired on October 9, 1977 on CBS.

"Maude" is the twenty-fourth and final episode of the second season of the American television sitcom All in the Family; the episode also served as the eponymous pilot episode of its first spin-off series, Maude. The episode, directed by John Rich and written by Rod Parker, was videotaped on February 22, 1972, in front of a live audience at CBS Television City in Hollywood, California, and aired on March 11, 1972, at 8:00 p.m. EST on CBS.

"The 200th Episode Celebration of All in the Family" is a 90-minute retrospective of the American television sitcom All in the Family starring Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers which aired on March 4, 1979, on CBS. It was directed by Walter C. Miller, hosted by Norman Lear and videotaped on February 19, 1979, in front of a live audience at Mark Taper Forum of the Los Angeles Music Center in Los Angeles, California.

<i>Live in Front of a Studio Audience</i> Live performances of classic sitcom episodes

Live in Front of a Studio Audience is a series of live television specials that was first broadcast by ABC on May 22, 2019 and December 7, 2021 Conceptualized and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the specials feature all-star casting for live recreations of sitcom episodes of various televisions created by companies run by the renowned producer, Norman Lear, that originally aired in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Further reading