I was watching an episode of All In The Family and as usual Mike and Archie are arguing.
By this time Mike and Gloria have moved next door to the Jefferson’s old house. Mike says that Archie is calling him a moocher. So they argue, and Archie says “How much do you think you owe me for five years of room and board?”
Mike says "I kept records, it’s $2,600.00
Archie says “$2,600 dollars, you spilled more than that on your shirt.”
Mike says “OK how much do you figure I owe you?”
Archie replies “$3,640.”
Five years room and board. Five years is 60 months or 260 weeks.
OK now Mike & Gloria lived with Archie & Edith from 1971 - 1976 in Queens New York.
So who do you think is right? If neither then what do you think would be fair.
Yes, I realize there is no right or wrong here. I thought it might be interesting to speculate on
Assuming that Archie didn’t feel Gloria should have also paid room and board (she was his daughter, but she was also Mike’s wife), I’m still going with $14/week. Ten bucks probably covered Mike’s food, but Archie would’ve included laundry, a slice of the utilities, etc.
How the heck is anyone supposed to estimate what room and board cost in Queens in the early '70s? If one figure had been half or double the other maybe, but without knowing exactly how much Mike ate, it looks to me too close to call.
Actually you did see him help out. There was an episode where Mike said he was going up to fix the toliet. There was an episode where Mike and Archie worked to plane down the door so it fit. There was an episode where Mike was fixing something in the cellar. He also was seen to ask Gloria for an allowence, after she got her job so it appears he didn’t rely on Archie for spending money.
Look at the two personalities. Mike was lazy - he’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t have kept track of everything he was actually receiving. He might have counted up room and board but he would have taken things like snacks, laundry, utilities, household supplies, etc for granted. Archie, on the other hand, was the kind of guy who would have been noticing all these things and added them to the total each time - everytime Mike took a shower, Archie would be figuring out how much soap and shampoo he used.
As someone who lives in the area, I’m just agog at the idea of a time when a room in Queens could be that cheap - even accounting for inflation. If the Bunkers were around today, they’d either have been forced out, or they would have made a mint by selling their home.
Archie’s probably closer to the truth, although I’d agree $14 a week is likely low.
People reflexively assume Archie’s always wrong because he was always wrong about political stuff, but the genius of the show is that although he was usually right about political stuff, and although he was smart, Michael/Meathead was actually a bit of an asshole. He WAS lazy, he did mooch, and for all his alleged enlightenment he was sexist as all hell.
Having lived in the Bronx in the 1970s, I think even Archie’s estimate is low. Costs were much lower than today, but paying even $2 a day for room and board would have been pretty sweet. (IIRC, in the early 1970s minimum wage might have been something like $1.25/hr. Even someone on minimum wage could have afforded $14 out of a $50/week salary.)
I always thought that was one of the really great overlooked things about the show. Gloria married someone just like her Father. He had opposite political opinion, but, in general, he held his opinion in as much of stubborn pig headed way. He was usually unwilling to look beyond his opinion to see another point of view. While it is true he usually had the correct level headed idea about things. It never seemed like he arrived at these ideas by exploring all sides. He just got lucky that Archie was an ignoramus. And, yeah, he also was sexist and unwilling to accept criticism gracefully.
Yeah, I have to think Archie’s estimate is the correct one.
He didn’t want to get married to begin with (his excuse? “We don’t need a piece of paper”). He didn’t want kids when Gloria did. And he ended up leaving his wife and son when he decided being a husband was too bourgeois (i.e., he was tired of monogamy).
