Brian Damage
06-11-2010, 02:23 AM
I saw “All in the Family” on rerun on the Nickelodeon channel wondering why a show that was No. 1 for 6 consecutive years in the Nielsen’s fares so poorly in reruns.
Then I started watching it
I could see why.
The show is poorly written. Although well played by its cast (Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner), the show was a product of its time that ended with the election of Jimmy Carter.
Other shows that drew as high ratings still draw crowds. I laughed very hard a few months ago at an “I Love Lucy” episode that I had never seen before.
“All in the Family” just isn’t “Andy Griffith” or “Bill Cosby.” It isn’t even “Three’s Company.”
It is not that the lead character is such a buffoon and a conveniently unread conservative, but it was simply that Archie Bunker was a character that deserves no sympathy. He is a mean-spirited, hateful and unintelligent man. He is as unlovable as Homer Simpson or even Peter Griffin are lovable. He is pathetically possessive. Consider his beloved chair. A more uncomfortable easy chair does not exist. It looks like an extra chair that is dragged into the room when there are too many people to be seated. Only a fool would want it. And that is perhaps why he wanted it.
The saving grace was that Carroll O’Connor was smart enough to save the character by giving him a sad face that elicited some sympathy that his lines did not deserve. After a while, the punching bag’s stamina draws admiration. Hey, even the Harlem Globetrotters let the Washington Generals win a game or two. Not this show.
The two women — Edith and Gloria — are simps who eventually latch on to some sort of second-hand feminism not because they feel the desire to do more than live outside of their sad little home, but because it is fashionable. Feminism as a hairdo. Edith sort of found a voice toward the end of the series — and so they killed her off, replacing her as she lay dying with a bar and a female Cousin Oliver.
The shelf-life on Gloria’s good looks was painfully small and looking at her mother, one can see she will need something more going for her. Alas, her character had buffoons for parents. She fell close to that tree.
The plots were conveniently the same, but then most TV shows are. Every week someone barges into Archie Bunker’s home, accuses him of some sort of bigotry for which he is guilty and then stomps back out triumphantly. We have outsmarted the Village Idiot.
The writers, directors and actors never quite saw how rude this formula is — or how rude the running gag is of guests taking the man’s chair.
Which brings us to the guy who I really dislike, Michael Stivic, a professional student who beds a counter girl from the department store, weds and then spends the next 6 years mooching off her and her parents. He is a loathsome critter who is an odd choice for an alter ego for the show’s producer, Norman Lear, who should have by the time he was approaching 50 (he was 48 when it premiered) gotten over any issues he had with his father.
Instead we get a look at how Norman Lear would have re-written his family life, with him — the smarter and educated Lear — besting the Old Man night after night.
In real life, Reiner had no such issues. Liberalism aside, he got along with his Old Man and followed him into the industry, first as an actor. He actually believes in the character and plays Michael Stivic with an innocence that is convincing. In reality, the character is just using his wife and in-laws. The moment he was through with college, he left for the West Coast and while the divorce was mutual, all the Bunkers have for their trouble is a grandson and a bummed out daughter.
But Michael Stivic is a hero to the Lear liberals. He is smarter and better educated. That somehow entitles Michael Stivic to abusing his wife’s family for 6 years. In one episode, his Uncle Casmir Stivic arrives and naturally, like any other guest of the Bunkers, confronts Archie Bunker and lectures him on Polish-American civil rights. Why Archie Bunker put up with this week after week was as illogical as his lust for that damned chair. But as I watched this Uncle Casmir, my questions was why don’t you take Michael and Gloria home and care and feed for them?
My only conclusion is that Uncle Casmir Stivic is smart. Archie Bunker dumb.
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/14106
Then I started watching it
I could see why.
The show is poorly written. Although well played by its cast (Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner), the show was a product of its time that ended with the election of Jimmy Carter.
Other shows that drew as high ratings still draw crowds. I laughed very hard a few months ago at an “I Love Lucy” episode that I had never seen before.
“All in the Family” just isn’t “Andy Griffith” or “Bill Cosby.” It isn’t even “Three’s Company.”
It is not that the lead character is such a buffoon and a conveniently unread conservative, but it was simply that Archie Bunker was a character that deserves no sympathy. He is a mean-spirited, hateful and unintelligent man. He is as unlovable as Homer Simpson or even Peter Griffin are lovable. He is pathetically possessive. Consider his beloved chair. A more uncomfortable easy chair does not exist. It looks like an extra chair that is dragged into the room when there are too many people to be seated. Only a fool would want it. And that is perhaps why he wanted it.
The saving grace was that Carroll O’Connor was smart enough to save the character by giving him a sad face that elicited some sympathy that his lines did not deserve. After a while, the punching bag’s stamina draws admiration. Hey, even the Harlem Globetrotters let the Washington Generals win a game or two. Not this show.
The two women — Edith and Gloria — are simps who eventually latch on to some sort of second-hand feminism not because they feel the desire to do more than live outside of their sad little home, but because it is fashionable. Feminism as a hairdo. Edith sort of found a voice toward the end of the series — and so they killed her off, replacing her as she lay dying with a bar and a female Cousin Oliver.
The shelf-life on Gloria’s good looks was painfully small and looking at her mother, one can see she will need something more going for her. Alas, her character had buffoons for parents. She fell close to that tree.
The plots were conveniently the same, but then most TV shows are. Every week someone barges into Archie Bunker’s home, accuses him of some sort of bigotry for which he is guilty and then stomps back out triumphantly. We have outsmarted the Village Idiot.
The writers, directors and actors never quite saw how rude this formula is — or how rude the running gag is of guests taking the man’s chair.
Which brings us to the guy who I really dislike, Michael Stivic, a professional student who beds a counter girl from the department store, weds and then spends the next 6 years mooching off her and her parents. He is a loathsome critter who is an odd choice for an alter ego for the show’s producer, Norman Lear, who should have by the time he was approaching 50 (he was 48 when it premiered) gotten over any issues he had with his father.
Instead we get a look at how Norman Lear would have re-written his family life, with him — the smarter and educated Lear — besting the Old Man night after night.
In real life, Reiner had no such issues. Liberalism aside, he got along with his Old Man and followed him into the industry, first as an actor. He actually believes in the character and plays Michael Stivic with an innocence that is convincing. In reality, the character is just using his wife and in-laws. The moment he was through with college, he left for the West Coast and while the divorce was mutual, all the Bunkers have for their trouble is a grandson and a bummed out daughter.
But Michael Stivic is a hero to the Lear liberals. He is smarter and better educated. That somehow entitles Michael Stivic to abusing his wife’s family for 6 years. In one episode, his Uncle Casmir Stivic arrives and naturally, like any other guest of the Bunkers, confronts Archie Bunker and lectures him on Polish-American civil rights. Why Archie Bunker put up with this week after week was as illogical as his lust for that damned chair. But as I watched this Uncle Casmir, my questions was why don’t you take Michael and Gloria home and care and feed for them?
My only conclusion is that Uncle Casmir Stivic is smart. Archie Bunker dumb.
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/14106