Edith Writes a Song

[tdr]

I happened to catch the last half of this ep a few days ago, coming in when the robbers were already in the Bunker house. While I understand AITF was the first comedy show that could (or dared to) put these kind of scenes into the plots, if it's meant to have a reasonable level of believability, the whole ep in on the level of the tape of the watchdog barking. When the robbers come down from hiding after the family returns, the scene would have been a bit... uglier, to put it mildly. If you've actually confronted black (or any color) thugs with no scruples about robbery and violence who think you're part of the 'enemy,' they don't stand there laughing and slapping each other's palms, joking about their living conditions and showing sarcastic manners ["I beg your pardon-- who's the thief here?"] They make threats, they shove and grab, they take out a knife and start talking about how sharp they keep it; to women they say things like, "I wonder what that white p____ of yours really feels like," to see how scared they are. But that scene really takes it when they give back the $30 (and Archie's gun!), saying stealing from Edith "would be like stealing from my mother." Well, since this is comedy, maybe that lunacy fits.

Of course, the actions of the Bunker family are stupid, too. Does Mike really think he could get them on his side by placing the blame for crime on poverty? If anyone has ever really tried such a thing with a robber, let me know how it turned out. Gloria acted like it was party time with their new guests. Archie made himself the baffoon he is, and the robbers could spot that easily enough-- and they gave him back his gun . While Edith may have showed she has concern and is unvengeful, that wouldn't be nearly enough for them to give back the easy cash they found. And singing her song for them? They'd have literally slapped her mouth, at the least. But that, of course, would show them as evil through and through, not "victims of underlying social causes."