I wondered if it would be that too.
I just watched the Beverly LaSalle episode where he gets mugged with Mike. I watched it appreciating how great the actors were. All of them. There’s nothing that compares as far as sitcoms today. As dated as it is now, it really was something for it’s time.
Wow! Uncle Cas was Sarge from Hill Street Blues? I’ve not seen that episode in a long time. I recall he was way left of even Micheal and gave Archie a lot of grief. I guess I just don’t recall who played him, till now.
Geez! Now I’m on a binge watch of All In The Family.
I remember one scene that really had me curled up laughing on the floor. When Gloria claimed she was allergic to kidney beans and Mike thought she was making it up so he called her on it and she ate a bean to show him how allergic she was. The way Sally Struthers pulled off that scene was effin hilarious and such great acting. I need to find that one next to see if it’s as funny as I remembered.
Beverly LaSalle. http://all-in-the-family-tv-show.wikia.com/wiki/Beverly_LaSalle
Archie met her when he was moonlighting as a cab driver. Beverly passed out in his cab and he performed CPR. If I recall correctly, when he found out later that she was a man he was a bit put out by the fact that he had performed mouth to mouth resuscitation on him. In spite of everything Archie eventually became fond of him if not totally accepting of his lifestyle and was upset when he died.
Remember the cling peaches… in heavy syrup?
That dead uncle episode had my favorite Archie line: “Death…that’s life!”
It was truly groundbreaking.
It’s Cousin Oscar who doesn’t appear on-screen. He eats a lot of food, drinks a lot of Brandy and smokes all of Archie’s cigars.
Michael Conrad plays Uncle Casimir Stivic in the flashback wedding episode(s). Dunno what he smokes or drinks, but from a quick youtube click, I see him sitting in Archies’ chair!
That actor (Michael Conrad, as others have pointed out) had a famous off-screen death in another role. Sgt, Esterhaus (“let’s be careful out there.”) died in flagrante delicto with Grace Gardner on Hill Street Blues. In reality, Conrad had died while the show was filming its fourth season.
According to IMDb, the method of Esterhaus’s death was done at Conrad’s request.
That was primary. I think this was the first show to be called a “dramedy”, and very aptly so. They not only treated a lot of serious issues, but they treated them seriously (with a lot of laughs to help the bitter pill go down.)
Not only the first, but I’m hard pressed to think of another show that combined serious issues with comedy as well, so quite possibly the best. It’s a hard act to follow.
I recall the term “dramedy” coming later - I associate it with “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” from the late 80s The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd - Wikipedia.
Ngrams shows “dramedy” as very rare until 1985 with a big spike at 1990 or so (which is consistent with being associated with Molly Dodd) Google Ngram Viewer: dramedy (the only pre-1980 example of “dramedy” referring to a tv show is in reference to “MASH”).
I had heard about the Edith rape episode, but I guess I thought it was more a one-off ‘‘Very Special Episode’’ thing than a recurring theme of the show.
The only other ‘‘dramedy’’ contender I can throw out, another show that was before my time and I didn’t watch much, was MASH.
So apparently the moral of all these sitcoms is: Don’t go upstairs, lest you die.
- Michael Conrad as Sgt Phil Esterhaus, Hill Street Blues
…
(ETA: I missed Robot Arm’s post of the above quote)
…and I double posted. Something weird going on with my laptop. Or with posting from .ru. 
Count me as one of those who thought this was a poorly-worded premature obit for Rob Reiner. Would it be possible to change the title to “All in the family - episode where son died?”
*“Let us contemplate the mystery of Richie’s older brother Chuck, who ascended the stairs with his basketball in season one, and never came down again.”
- — Peter Griffin, Family Guy, “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz”
Better yet, “Episode where cousin died,” since it wasn’t a son. That would eliminate any confusion with Rob Reiner.
So apparently upstairs, in general, is a bad place to be in sitcom-land.