Archie Bunker Calls It a Day

Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker was some 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 enjoying Archie in Norman Lear’s CBS sitcom All within the Household in 1971. The present was an instantaneous cultural dynamo, producing controversy, reward, imitations and spinoffs, and it grew to become one of many most-loved sitcoms of its era. However by 1979, All within the Household appeared to have run its course.

Lear felt it was time for the present to “die an honorable demise,” based on an interview that O’Connor gave to the Emmy Basis. 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 may be “buried” underneath the character of Edith, limiting her to comparable roles sooner or later.

Watch the Intro to ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’

However Robert Daly, then-vice president of CBS Tv Community, felt the present might nonetheless churn out a minimum of yet another 12 months of excellent rankings. He despatched O’Connor to attempt to persuade Lear to allow them to maintain it operating.

“The one method it obtained on was when [CBS president William S. Paley] known as me to his workplace and had 4 or 5 pages of names of people that can be out of labor if the present did not go on,” Lear instructed The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. “And so the present went on.”

However Lear had some calls for: They needed to change the title, they couldn’t use the well-known opening credit score sequence of Archie and Edith enjoying the piano, they usually needed to honor Stapleton’s need to depart.

The consequence was Archie Bunker’s Place, which debuted on Sept. 23, 1979, and lasted for 4 seasons. The primary hurdle to clear was Edith’s absence. The present centered round the bar – the titular Archie Bunker’s Place – that Archie had bought in the course of the eighth season of All within the Household, which allowed a lot of the motion to happen in an area the place Edith wasn’t current. It additionally allowed the present to largely dispense with All within the Household 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 demise of Edith was mentioned at size by the solid of All within the Household,” Stapleton instructed The Christian Science Monitor in 1981. “It was vital as a result of it could have been dishonest for her to break up – the Bunkers would by no means divorce one another. If we despatched her off for an extended go to to California, she would nonetheless be hovering over the sequence, making it troublesome to enlarge and broaden Archie’s life.”

For essentially the most half, Archie Bunker’s Place was absolutely O’Connor’s present; in that sense, it achieved what it got down to do. Whereas it by no means matched the heights of its predecessor, it was profitable sufficient to provide Daly his earnings and achieved sufficient to provide O’Connor an opportunity 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 Household. 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 wide range of bar regulars crammed out the plot strains.

Watch Sammy Davis Jr. Go to the Bar in ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’

The present even produced some wonderful episodes and memorable moments. “Archie Alone,” the hourlong season 2 premiere wherein Archie struggles with Edith’s demise, is a minor masterpiece of writing and characterization. O’Connor as soon as once more shows the touching humanity beneath the floor of one of many crankiest characters in tv historical past. A number of high-profile and entertaining visitor appearances – together with Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Stiller, Reggie Jackson and Don Rickles – additionally stored issues full of life.

However, the present ran out of steam pretty shortly. Regardless of O’Connor’s immense expertise, Archie Bunker’s Place did not have the principle part that had made All within the Household so private and relatable: a powerful household dynamic to floor all of the bickering. As an alternative, Archie more and more started to really feel like a personality seeking a sequence, counting on the identical outdated bits that had propelled him to stardom.

It probably 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 is most likely not a coincidence that Archie Bunker’s Place concludes with Archie recounting his dream about being in the Oval Workplace, from which he was awoken by the sound of a flushing bathroom. In the tip, even O’Connor and the present’s producers realized his beloved character had lastly succumbed to historical past.