Anybody Know Why Martin Balsam (Murray Klein) Left 'Archie Bunker's Place?' - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Brian Damage · 01-09-2011, 06:04 PM

Anybody know?

Dr. Thong · 01-09-2011, 07:50 PM

I've wondered that myself. Have no idea.

I think the show was better with him in it, as it gave Archie a strong character to play off of. He really didn't have that afterwards, as the other characters were supporting characters who really didn't challenge Archie all that much.

MikeLutton · 01-09-2011, 08:26 PM

i read somewhere he got tired of playing 2nd fiddle to archie bunker and believed he deserved better and he left.

i liked his charactor on there he and Archie had great chemistry

Dr. Thong · 01-10-2011, 09:45 AM

That's odd, because Carroll O' Connor had been the star of his show for almost 10 years when Balsam came on board. It was O' Connor's show, so it doesn't make sense that he would think that he would be on a par with the star of a long-running show.

ThomasE · 01-23-2011, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Thong

That's odd, because Carroll O' Connor had been the star of his show for almost 10 years when Balsam came on board. It was O' Connor's show, so it doesn't make sense that he would think that he would be on a par with the star of a long-running show.

Exactly! I really don't want to believe Martin Balsam thought like that. I hope not. He was great in the role. I loved his interaction with Edith.

Retro4Life · 01-23-2011, 04:02 PM

Yeah I thought I heard he and O'Connor didn't see eye to eye, but that may have just been a rumor.

tviewer · 03-15-2011, 09:18 AM

I'd heard that he wanted to leave an do more movies. But, I also heard he was jealous of Allan Melvin of all people and felt he was poisoning the show with all the goofy lines he got. Wanted that airtime more for himself just to make it more worthwhile since he wasn't doing movies. O'Connor wanted to keep Melvin and Balsam couldn't get out of his contract during the second season, so he just rode it out after basically being told, "Allan's staying and you can leave". Btw, Jason Wingreen said in an interview that Melvin was actually a bigot in real life.
Again, this is all just rumor material...

lucyandethel · 03-16-2011, 02:34 AM

I heard O'Connor and Balsam didn't get along. Balsam was a wonderful actor, just not a sitcom actor.

Heenan Fan · 02-15-2017, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tviewer

I'd heard that he wanted to leave an do more movies. But, I also heard he was jealous of Allan Melvin of all people and felt he was poisoning the show with all the goofy lines he got. Wanted that airtime more for himself just to make it more worthwhile since he wasn't doing movies. O'Connor wanted to keep Melvin and Balsam couldn't get out of his contract during the second season, so he just rode it out after basically being told, "Allan's staying and you can leave". Btw, Jason Wingreen said in an interview that Melvin was actually a bigot in real life.
Again, this is all just rumor material...

Jason Wingreen thought everyone was a bigot. He even accused Andy Griffith of being a bigot of all people. Wingreen was a known as being a bitter stooge.

MikeLutton · 03-25-2017, 03:16 PM

it was not the same without murrey on there he and archie got along great did not know they did not get along in real life,

Babalu · 03-25-2017, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heenan Fan

Jason Wingreen thought everyone was a bigot.

Well, then he was certainly on the right show.

Norman Lear was a liberal propagandist yet he rode bigots all the way to the bank.

Bonniegirl · 09-09-2018, 03:23 AM

I like Murray! He seems like such a nice man !

On screen and in real life !

charliewindow · 04-12-2020, 01:39 PM

I thought that the last 2 seasons of the series were its best. Martin Balsam...for as much experience as he'd had...kept gulping his lines. Throwing them away. Archie and Murray never really established the rhythm that Archie & Mike did...a tough thing to do, I know. And Anne Meara contributed nothing other than the episode about her admitting her alcoholism. That was All In The Family level work on all sides. Once those two left the show, the show really came back together. (Although there were many ATIF quality episodes in Season 2.) And, though Barney, in essence, was supposed to replace Edith, in terms of having someone dumb that Archie could play off of, I think they went too far. Made him too much of a clown. (One other thing about the Murray character. I didn't ever feel connected enough with him to be interested in shows about his family. With the three other principles from the first 10 years of the series gone, the show was at it absolute funniest when Archie was on screen. Stories about the other characters...except Barney, oddly enough...probably because Archie could be there egging him on or criticizing him...didn't work...and, of course, with all of the 'family' gone, there wasn't a lot you could do with Archie concerning his life...though the shows with him trying to get custody of Stephanie tore your heart out. BTW, as everyone on the board probably well knows, the only reason the show wasn't called "All In The Family" for its entire 14 year run is that Norman Lear wouldn't allow it as part of the deal to let the show continue after Jean Stapleton left as a regular. And the Billie/Gary relationship was important. It could re-create the vibe that Archie had with Mike & Gloria, Billie was a character in both centers of story material in the series...home and bar...meaning we could go back to 704 Hauser Street more...and we did. And Gary was a softer version of Mike. Very good in its own way. CBS should have given the series one more year. There were plenty of other story lines left and with Rob Reiner offering to come back for a few episodes, the show would have given us another 22 episodes of very good TV...especially considering the other sitcoms on the air at the time. After doing so much...in terms of the quality of its work and its popularity, CBS did, indeed, owe that show a proper send off. Let's see if they do anything for the show's 50th anniversary...and, I wonder if they do, if they'll include clips from APB in it. (You can't profile the series whole run and ignore the "Archie Alone" episode. It won a Peabody award for heaven's sake!)

TVFactFan · 04-12-2020, 04:26 PM

His last appearance was in episode 20 of season 4. it dont look like he left the show since it was only 4 eps left in the series

TVFactFan · 04-12-2020, 04:29 PM

I see he did leave the show in season 2 and returned for that last appearance in season 4. The real question is why did he come back for that one episode

01-09-2011, 06:04 PM	#1
Brian Damage I'm Rich Bitch Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 03, 2002 Location: What Ain't No Country I Ever Heard Of...They Speak English in What? Posts: 63,108	Anybody Know Why Martin Balsam (Murray Klein) Left 'Archie Bunker's Place?' Anybody know?
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01-09-2011, 07:50 PM	#2
Dr. Thong a/k/a "ACK!" Forum Veteran Join Date: Jul 10, 2001 Location: New Hampshire, USA Posts: 5,545	I've wondered that myself. Have no idea. I think the show was better with him in it, as it gave Archie a strong character to play off of. He really didn't have that afterwards, as the other characters were supporting characters who really didn't challenge Archie all that much.
	__________________ "Sunday has been cancelled due to lack of interest. That is all."

01-09-2011, 08:26 PM	#3
MikeLutton Mike Lutton DVD Legend! Forum Veteran Join Date: Jan 05, 2005 Location: usa pennsyvania Posts: 6,870	i read somewhere he got tired of playing 2nd fiddle to archie bunker and believed he deserved better and he left. i liked his charactor on there he and Archie had great chemistry
	__________________ Tv And DVD Addict got over a hundred dvds in my collection more than anyone in the neighborhood. also huge Animal lover family man

01-23-2011, 04:02 PM	#6
Retro4Life Accept No Substitutes Forum Veteran Join Date: Feb 04, 2009 Location: IL Posts: 6,706	Yeah I thought I heard he and O'Connor didn't see eye to eye, but that may have just been a rumor.
	__________________ Alex Reiger :[Trying to convince Louie not to antagonize Bobby] "It's not hard to make people feel bad about their lives. What's hard is making people feel good about their lives."

01-10-2011, 09:45 AM	#4
Dr. Thong a/k/a "ACK!" Forum Veteran Join Date: Jul 10, 2001 Location: New Hampshire, USA Posts: 5,545	That's odd, because Carroll O' Connor had been the star of his show for almost 10 years when Balsam came on board. It was O' Connor's show, so it doesn't make sense that he would think that he would be on a par with the star of a long-running show.

03-15-2011, 09:18 AM	#7
tviewer Member Occasional Poster Join Date: Mar 15, 2011 Posts: 7	I'd heard that he wanted to leave an do more movies. But, I also heard he was jealous of Allan Melvin of all people and felt he was poisoning the show with all the goofy lines he got. Wanted that airtime more for himself just to make it more worthwhile since he wasn't doing movies. O'Connor wanted to keep Melvin and Balsam couldn't get out of his contract during the second season, so he just rode it out after basically being told, "Allan's staying and you can leave". Btw, Jason Wingreen said in an interview that Melvin was actually a bigot in real life. Again, this is all just rumor material...

03-16-2011, 02:34 AM	#8
lucyandethel Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Dec 18, 2009 Location: Los Angeles CA Posts: 435	I heard O'Connor and Balsam didn't get along. Balsam was a wonderful actor, just not a sitcom actor.

03-25-2017, 03:16 PM	#10
MikeLutton Mike Lutton DVD Legend! Forum Veteran Join Date: Jan 05, 2005 Location: usa pennsyvania Posts: 6,870	it was not the same without murrey on there he and archie got along great did not know they did not get along in real life,

09-09-2018, 03:23 AM	#12
Bonniegirl AKA Hazel Horvath Forum Addict Join Date: Jul 10, 2014 Posts: 65,405	I like Murray! He seems like such a nice man ! On screen and in real life !

04-12-2020, 01:39 PM	#13
charliewindow Member Forum Cub Join Date: Mar 18, 2005 Posts: 2	I thought that the last 2 seasons of the series were its best. Martin Balsam...for as much experience as he'd had...kept gulping his lines. Throwing them away. Archie and Murray never really established the rhythm that Archie & Mike did...a tough thing to do, I know. And Anne Meara contributed nothing other than the episode about her admitting her alcoholism. That was All In The Family level work on all sides. Once those two left the show, the show really came back together. (Although there were many ATIF quality episodes in Season 2.) And, though Barney, in essence, was supposed to replace Edith, in terms of having someone dumb that Archie could play off of, I think they went too far. Made him too much of a clown. (One other thing about the Murray character. I didn't ever feel connected enough with him to be interested in shows about his family. With the three other principles from the first 10 years of the series gone, the show was at it absolute funniest when Archie was on screen. Stories about the other characters...except Barney, oddly enough...probably because Archie could be there egging him on or criticizing him...didn't work...and, of course, with all of the 'family' gone, there wasn't a lot you could do with Archie concerning his life...though the shows with him trying to get custody of Stephanie tore your heart out. BTW, as everyone on the board probably well knows, the only reason the show wasn't called "All In The Family" for its entire 14 year run is that Norman Lear wouldn't allow it as part of the deal to let the show continue after Jean Stapleton left as a regular. And the Billie/Gary relationship was important. It could re-create the vibe that Archie had with Mike & Gloria, Billie was a character in both centers of story material in the series...home and bar...meaning we could go back to 704 Hauser Street more...and we did. And Gary was a softer version of Mike. Very good in its own way. CBS should have given the series one more year. There were plenty of other story lines left and with Rob Reiner offering to come back for a few episodes, the show would have given us another 22 episodes of very good TV...especially considering the other sitcoms on the air at the time. After doing so much...in terms of the quality of its work and its popularity, CBS did, indeed, owe that show a proper send off. Let's see if they do anything for the show's 50th anniversary...and, I wonder if they do, if they'll include clips from APB in it. (You can't profile the series whole run and ignore the "Archie Alone" episode. It won a Peabody award for heaven's sake!)

04-12-2020, 04:26 PM	#14
TVFactFan Member Forum Junkie Join Date: Aug 17, 2002 Posts: 98,951	His last appearance was in episode 20 of season 4. it dont look like he left the show since it was only 4 eps left in the series

04-12-2020, 04:29 PM	#15
TVFactFan Member Forum Junkie Join Date: Aug 17, 2002 Posts: 98,951	I see he did leave the show in season 2 and returned for that last appearance in season 4. The real question is why did he come back for that one episode