According to me, before 1971 January 12, the televison was a safer place.
Why do I tell you that? Let me explain….
Before that, we had awesome antics of The Brady Bunch and the gentle wisdom of Mayberry. Basically, families were able to fix their problems within 30 minutes using the lessons they learned.
Then booom, the sound of a flushing toilet came to the stage.
CBS was literally scared to hire an extra phone operator to handle the angry calls. Because All in the Family was started.
CBS literally put a disclaimer on the screen. They warned viewers that what they were about to see might be offensive. Lol.
Actually, they were right!
We knew Archie Bunker was not just a person. He was literally a cultural earthquake.
He was sitting in his worn-out armchair. He had a cigar in his hand and was just telling jokes. Nothing fancy about that!
But those jokes were brutal. They had the power to rip the bandage of American society. He literally said things that people only whispered behind closed doors.
He literally made them public. Lol. Shocking right?
Let me tell you 5 quotes he said that changed our television forever.
The Warning Label That Started It All
Actually, CBS apologizes before each episode of All in the Family. It was the first time this happened.
When the screen faded up, there was a message for the viewers.
It was, “The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show in a mature fashion just how absurd they are.” Funny right?
The production team knew they were putting a bigot in prime time. Actually, they called him a “lovable bigot,” which was meant to soften the blow during the press conference.
But that night, millions of Americans were shocked in silence. You know why? Because they weren’t sure whether they should laugh or not.
The man on TV used words that were banned from polite society. Then people knew why they showed the warning label in the first place before starting the episode. Lol.
1. “Stifle Yourself, Edith!”
If Archie had a catch-phrase that every kid on the playground was repeating the next day, this was it.
Archie ran his castle at 704 Hauser Street as a dictator, and poor, sweet Edith was his loyal subject.
Whenever she would start to ramble on about her day or make a gentle opinion of opposition to his, out would come the command: “Stifle yourself!”
It was funny because of Carroll O’Connor’s delivery, but it also stung.
This was not just a cranky man having a bad day. It was literally a microcosm of an entire generation of men who demanded a meal on the table and quiet in the living room.
Actually, Gloria showed the burgeoning feminist movement in the 70s. Edith represented the compliant past.
The truth is, every time Archie’s Edith tells him to “stifle,” the audience guffaws with laughter.
However, they also cringe as they realize that the era represented in the dialogue is dying in the United States.
2. “Meathead, Dead From the Neck Up”
Archie did not hate the change. He hated his liberal, long-haired son-in-law, Mike Stivic. Lol.
In the Bunker house, there were dinner table arguments. They weren’t just comedies. Actually, they were real life for millions of families divided by Vietnam and Nixon. Wow right?
Archie showed the World War 2 generation. They believed “my country, right or wrong.”
But on the other hand, Mike showed the Baby Boomers who were questioning everything.
Actually, calling an educated college student a “Meathead” was Archie’s way of striking back against a world he no longer understood.
To Archie, book learning was useless without common sense. Every time Archie yelled the words that seemed to come the easiest, “You are a Meathead, dead from the neck up!” he was not just ranting at Mike.
He was ranting at a changing America that was moving past him.
3. “England is a Fag Country”
Okay, so perhaps the most shocking moment in the whole history of sitcoms?
Well, this is literally the moment when Archie was sipping a drink in a bar, just sipping away, dismissing an entire nation of people.
And the episode was titled ‘Judging Books by Covers,’ where Archie said that England’s a fag country. Woooow.
There’s silence, living rooms all over America, of course. You didn’t say that word on television in 1971.”
But the reality shock wasn’t about the slur. Actually, it was effectively about what happened next.
Archie learns his manly, macho partner for an evening of beers is gay, and the geeky, feminine target of his slurs is straight. This literally broke Archie’s worldview.
Finally, the taboo of homosexuality left the closet and entered prime time. But as the food for the foolish machismo of the bigoted tough guy.
4. ‘I Ain’t No Bigot, I’m the First One to Say.’
Archie’s default argument was that ‘I ain’t no bigot!’ followed closely, always, by something entirely bigoted. Right?
Archie’s interactions with new neighbors, the Jeffersons, were electrifying.
He was terrified of the neighborhood ‘changing’ and wasn’t afraid to say the quiet parts out loud.
He would rationalize why he was a bigot. Plus, how he had ‘colored friends’ or ‘knew their people.’
It was cringeworthy. You know why? because it was so true to life. According to me, who watched the entire series, Archie was a commentary on a certain type of American hypocrisy.
He was the liberal who was tolerant in theory, but in reality, has a nervous breakdown when a black family moved in next door.
You know what? It was cringy because it made you laugh at the ridiculousness of racism, but shudder at the unpleasantness of it all.
5. “God’ll Get You For That, Walter”
You know nothing was sacred to Archie Bunker, right? He was a lion, right?. Honestly, not even the “most trusted man in America.” Woooow.
When Archie’s wife, Edith, excitedly told him that Walter Cronkite was on the news, Archie Bunker would sometimes snarl, “God’ll get you for that, Walter.”
To Archie, the news wasn’t actually news. He figured that it was just basically a big trick by the liberals.
You know why? ‘Cause Archie just mixed up religion, politics, and being scared into one big, angry mess.
And he wasn’t finished there. He started going after the news guys, the government, and everybody else who didn’t look like him. It was kinda scary because it was like a peek into the future, right?
Archie showed us how bad the division has been for this country. It was the “fanciful” elites on television versus the regular working Joe sitting his butt in a chair.
And quite honestly, folks, we’re still working with that stuff today. Crazy, huh?”
Why We Loved Him Anyway
Even though we criticize him, hate him, we do still love him, right? I love him. Let me tell you why.
Actually, Carroll O’Connor gave him a heart. Archie was a scared man. He was just terrified.
He was scared of losing his place in the world. Becasue accoring to him, the world was moving too damn fast.
We knew Archie. He was our uncle, our neighbor, or sometimes our father. We all have become a little bit of Archie during our lives.