I'm curious to know people's opinions on this. In my own personal opinion, he was right. I wouldn't want any narrow minded bigot with Archie's inflammatory attitudes raising my child either. You could argue that Gloria didn't turn out that way, but Archie did inherit his father's mind full of bugs.

Gloria *didn't* turn out that way. I guess because of the partial infuence of Edith. If the Bunker's inherited Joey, they would probably not be much different in the parenting arena. If you look at how Archie was with Stephanie later on, you can see that he is gradually mellowing. Remember when he gave her the Jewish symbol necklace? "You have to love someone an awful lot to give someone one of them." So...my take is that he would have not been as racially biased with Joey--perhaps because deep down he loved Mike, and he would want to respect a dead Mike's wishes-- not to mention the wishes of his "little goil." :D

The biggest mistake Mike and Gloria made in that episode was telling Archie and Edith about their will. Of course, Mike's friend made a pass at Gloria, so that was a problem too.

Archie's character definitely "mellowed" in the later seasons. I actually think it went beyond mellowing and was more like a personality change or inconsistent writing. One great example was the later episode where Archie's lodge buddies trick him into thinking that he made love to a young African American woman. After getting drunk, Archie wakes up with her in his bed. The main issues discussed were age, infidelity to Edith, and Archie's self esteem. If race was discussed at all, it wasn't a big aspect of the whole thing. Can you image how the Archie Bunker of the first season would have reacted in the same situation?

I understand Mike's reasoning but still Archie & Edith raising little Joey made the most sense. They both loved that child so much that you knew they would take care of him.

I'm curious to know people's opinions on this. In my own personal opinion, he was right. I wouldn't want any narrow minded bigot with Archie's inflammatory attitudes raising my child either. You could argue that Gloria didn't turn out that way, but Archie did inherit his father's mind full of bugs.

Archie was not a bigot.