Unfortunatatewly, Sampiro, a lot of people didn’t get the joke, and thought the show was about how meatheaded progressives were. It’s even worse today now that the issue is mostly past. Without the historical context, people just think it’s a racist show.
And, anyways, things get bleeped because of advertisers who think they know what people want, not by the people themselves.
Although it has a different spin, Curb Your Enthusiasm often comes close to achieving All In The Family level of controversy. Larry never backs away from saying/doing something offensive and getting the brunt of today’s politically correct backlashing.
Also, I am old enough to remember watching All In The Family when it was new and fresh. You have to remember that many people fully agreed with Archie and were able to enjoy the show as they thought he was representing their viewpoint (and often, Archie was not a fool and did have some points to be made). Back then, everybody knew an Archie - usually their own father or brother or whomever. But the show was so artfully written that even the “Archie’s” of the world didn’t feel like they were just being picked on. It was magic in a bottle…and credit Norman Lear and Carol O’Connor with keeping the Archie character real and not just a buffoon.
Yeah, to this day my Dad thinks that Archie Bunker was some sort of Conservative hero. HE’s otherwise a very intelligent guy, I swear!
I remember the episode very well. As most of them were (except, you know, the one where Edith gets almost-raped and the one where Beverly LaSalle is killed), it was hilarious.
What I’ve noticed as I get older though is that Archie is the a more sympathetic character than the Meathead even though he’s got all these terrible qualities. And the Meathead is just as closed minded as Archie, but just about different things. Archie, at least, doesn’t move in to some guy’s home, eat all his food and constantly have sex with that guy’s daughter.
In all fairness, he did marry her first . . .
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What I’ve noticed as I get older though is that Archie is the a more sympathetic character than the Meathead even though he’s got all these terrible qualities. And the Meathead is just as closed minded as Archie, but just about different things. Archie, at least, doesn’t move in to some guy’s home, eat all his food and constantly have sex with that guy’s daughter.
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Totally. There were several times I thought Meathead was in the wrong. A prime example was the episode where he gave the money he inherited to McGovern, who even McGovern knew didn’t have a prayer no matter how much he raised by that point in the election, instead of to Archie who was making real sacrifices was a major one; if Archie had wanted the money to give to “Richard E. Nixon” it would have been more excusable, or if he was having a fit because Mike and Gloria wanted to save it, but, if I were supporting somebody and they gave the first $1,000 that fell into their lap to a Tea Party candidate I’d be way more worked up than Arch.
That looks like a Benny Hill joke!
At the time “All in the Family” was broadcast, I had an Archie Bunker coworker. He said he agreed with everything Archie said, but couldn’t understand why people laughed at Archie and not Meathead.
This was the same coworker who was trying to sell leisure suits to us . . . five *identical *suits for $100.