Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker was one of the celebrated, vital and outrageous characters ever to seem on American community tv. For 12 years, Bunker appeared on TV weekly, dishing out reactionary opinions, arguing with these round him and sometimes even studying one thing.
Then, on April 4, 1983, with the tip of his second present, Archie Bunker’s Place, he was gone — and American tv was by no means the identical.
O’Connor first started taking part in Archie in Norman Lear’s CBS sitcom All within the Family in 1971. The present was an instantaneous cultural dynamo, producing controversy, reward, imitations and spinoffs, and it turned one of many most-loved sitcoms of its era. But by 1979, All within the Family appeared to have run its course.
Lear felt it was time for the present to “die an honorable death,” in keeping with an interview that O’Connor gave to the Emmy Foundation. Jean Stapleton, who performed Archie’s spouse Edith, had additionally introduced that she didn’t intend to return after the ninth season. She frightened that her appearing profession is likely to be “buried” beneath the character of Edith, limiting her to comparable roles sooner or later.
Watch the Intro to ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’
But Robert Daly, then-vice president of CBS Television Network, felt the present may nonetheless churn out not less than another yr of fine rankings. He despatched O’Connor to attempt to persuade Lear to allow them to hold it operating.
“The only way it got on was when [CBS president William S. Paley] called me to his office and had four or five pages of names of people who would be out of work if the show didn’t go on,” Lear advised The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. “And so the show went on.”
But Lear had some calls for: They needed to change the identify, they couldn’t use the well-known opening credit score sequence of Archie and Edith taking part in the piano, they usually needed to honor Stapleton’s want to go away.
The outcome was Archie Bunker’s Place, which debuted on Sept. 23, 1979, and lasted for 4 seasons. The first hurdle to clear was Edith’s absence. The present centered round the bar – the titular Archie Bunker’s Place – that Archie had bought throughout the eighth season of All within the Family, which allowed many of the motion to happen in a area the place Edith wasn’t current. It additionally allowed the present to largely dispense with All within the Family stalwarts Sally Struthers, who performed Archie’s daughter Gloria; and Rob Reiner, who performed Gloria’s husband Michael.
Watch Gloria and Meathead Return from California in ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’
Stapleton agreed to seem sporadically and acted in 5 episodes of the primary season, however she was written off the present earlier than season 2, which opened with an episode wherein she had succumbed to a stroke. “The death of Edith was discussed at length by the cast of All in the Family,” Stapleton advised The Christian Science Monitor in 1981. “It was necessary because it would have been dishonest for her to get a divorce – the Bunkers would never divorce each other. If we sent her off for a long visit to California, she would still be hovering over the series, making it difficult to enlarge and expand Archie’s life.”
For essentially the most half, Archie Bunker’s Place was totally O’Connor’s present; in that sense, it completed what it got down to do. While it by no means matched the heights of its predecessor, it was profitable sufficient to offer Daly his earnings and completed sufficient to offer O’Connor a likelihood to proceed exploring his beloved character.
Archie Bunker’s Place ranked among the many prime 15 exhibits for its first three seasons, with Nielsen rankings within the 20s — not a full-blown hit, however nonetheless a modest success for CBS. It additionally replicated the clever, culture-war commentary that was so notable in All In The Family. The conservative, obstreperous Archie continued to conflict with the liberals in his midst, now supplied by a succession of Jewish enterprise companions – first Martin Balsam as Murray Klein, then Barry Gordon as Gary Rabinowitz – whereas a number of bar regulars crammed out the plot strains.
Watch Sammy Davis Jr. Visit the Bar in ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’
The present even produced some effective episodes and memorable moments. “Archie Alone,” the hourlong season 2 premiere wherein Archie struggles with Edith’s loss of life, is a minor masterpiece of writing and characterization. O’Connor as soon as once more shows the touching humanity under the floor of one of many crankiest characters in tv historical past. Several high-profile and entertaining visitor appearances – together with Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Stiller, Reggie Jackson and Don Rickles – additionally stored issues vigorous.
Nevertheless, the present ran out of steam pretty shortly. Despite O’Connor’s immense expertise, Archie Bunker’s Place did not have the primary part that had made All within the Family so private and relatable: a sturdy household dynamic to floor all of the bickering. Instead, Archie more and more started to really feel like a character in quest of a collection, counting on the identical outdated bits that had propelled him to stardom.
It doubtless did not assist that, with the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980, O’Connor’s conservatism went from an outsider place to the established order. It’s most likely not a coincidence that Archie Bunker’s Place concludes with Archie recounting his dream about being in the Oval Office, from which he was awoken by the sound of a flushing rest room. In the tip, even O’Connor and the present’s producers realized his beloved character had lastly succumbed to historical past.
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