Shark Bytes

This show, M*A*S*H, and The Civil War series to me were the 1,2,3 of TV.

The clip show from the late 70s displayed what Lear thought 'cutting edge' was.
It was the episode with Archie diaparing baby Joey. During the clip Lear freeze-framed it, pointed to little Joey's winkie and said "this is what its all about folks, right here".
To Lear, the ability to show a penis on national television as a 'step upward' in our civilization.....
Art.....yeeeeeeeAH........

One of the many claims Norman Lear pronounced was that HIS show, AITF, was the FIRST show to deal with the "issues" he brought forth.
A quick look at TV in that era says otherwise.
Race? Room 222 was dealing with that issue long a full year before AITF.
Abortion? Marcus Welby was dealing with that issue in 1968.
Vietnam? The Mod Squad was dealing with that issue long before AITF.
Sex? By the time AITF came along, several sitcoms were skuirting the boundries already, cop shows and medical dramas were already doing sex-related stories.
AITF was not as 'cutting edge' as people claim.
The British were doing 'cutting edge' years before Norman Lear got on his soapbox.

Dude, you don't need to be 60 to like this show. I'm about half that age and I like AITF. As for pushing a liberal agenda, there were times when liberal Meathead was exposed as a hypocrite. Case in point: He believes latinos, blacks, etc. deserve to be equal. But, when Gloria took up women's lib, it turns out that he feels WOMEN are not entitled to the same equal rights men are. He went so far as to rally support from Archie--knowing he too felt men were superior to women--when Gloria left the house after he kept treating her like an idiot. But once again Archie put him down with some good points.

P.S. My political slant? None of your beeswax.

AITF art?
Uhhhhhhh, OOOOOoooookeeeey.
So lemmie see if I got this straight:
A sitcom pushes its liberal agenda for a decade on TV...and its....art?
Words fail me to describe the utter stupidity of that idea.
BTW, if you need a sitcom to talk about a "wide range of issues, personal, social and political", yours was one screwed up childhood.
Enjoy your nursing home, the sixties are over, its cleanup time now.

This is a very cut case of a very specific shark jump moment. The minute that Mike, Gloria and Joey left for CA, the central conflict that had sustained the show for seven years (the ongoing one between liberal Mike and conservative Archie) was gone, and nothing ever did, or could replace it.

To the poster who said that "it's just a show, in the end it has no effect", you're demonstrably wrong. Art has a history of affecting the collective consciousness by enlightening minds and illuminating common tenets of the human condition. I don't just love AITF because it was a great show with excellent writing and acting (though it was); I love it because it made me think and talk to my parents about a wide range of issues, personal, social and political. Art is transforming at its best, and AITF certainly qualifies as such. AITF reached such a wide audience because it touched upon some very basic essential human concerns and presented them in an entertaining way. I don't care how much fashion or music or technology changes through the years, true art is timeless.

If you're blind to that power, I truly pity you.

Archie was a bigot, but his closed-mindedness got the best of him and in the end he got his comeuppance. That's where the comedy was. Sometimes he learned his lesson. Sort of. Obviously, his bigotry, racism, sexism, etc was wrong. But there were those times he was right (When Gloria became pregnant and he told Mike that he would need to get a job to support his baby and family). I loved how Lionel took advantage of his ignorance against blacks.

Some people here say the show is date now and certainly many of the topics are just that, but funny is funny and that will make All in The Family hold up well forever. Not so much because of the plotlines or drama(the show tried to become to dramatic and suffered comedy wise in later seasons imh opinion), but because of the writing, the chemistry of the actors, and the great comic timing of the actors(especially O'connor). It's also the reason "The Honeymooners" and the first five to eight seasons of "The Simpsons" will never get old- because they are rip roaring funny. By the way, I disagree with the poster who thought Sally Struthers was miscast as Gloria. I thought she was great.

Narcissistic personality disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), is a personality disorder defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV-R), the diagnostic classification system used in the United States, as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy." A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

The etiology of this disorder is unknown according to Groopman and Cooper. However, they list the following factors identified by various researchers as possible factors:

• An oversensitive temperament at birth
• Overindulgence and overvaluation by parents
• Valued by parents as a means to regulate their own self-esteem
• Excessive admiration that is never balanced with realistic feedback
• Unpredictable or unreliable care giving from parents
• Severe emotional abuse in childhood
• Being praised for perceived exceptional looks or talents by adults
• Learning manipulative behaviors from parents

Some narcissistic traits are common and a normal developmental phase. When these traits are compounded by a failure of the interpersonal environment and continue into adulthood they may intensify to the point where NPD is diagnosed. It has been suggested that NPD may be exacerbated by the onset of aging and the physical, mental, and occupational restrictions it imposes as can most personality traits.

People who look back on this show now and think it's "bigoted" or "mean-spirited," just didn't get it.

This show was looked at differently pre 9/11. Before then, it was typically regarded as too bigoted, mean-spirited, etc, but AFTER that fateful day, Archie's views were somewhat ACCEPTED more, to a degree. WHY? Fear, anger, resentment, all things Archie felt, and was reflected in his behaviour. The fact 9/11 occurred in NYC, the same locale as AITF, was ironic at best.

To say that this show had a massive left wing bias would be stating the blatantly obvious. The most topical show ever made. It worked nicely in the early 70s when hawks/doves, liberals/conservatives and young/old were at each other's throats over the war and what it means to be an American. Because of its topicality, it hasn't aged well at all. Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton and Rob Reiner were brilliant in their respective roles. Sally Struthers was a bit mis-cast as little goyle. They don't make shows like this anymore. Truly a landmark in television history. It obviously went soaring over the shark in later seasons and w/ Archie Bunker's Place.

Re: All In The Family , All In The Family and a few of the other shows in the late 60's & 70's Dick Van Dyke, That Girl, Mary Tyler Moore, Room 222, The Odd Couple, These and a few other shows that I proberly know of and can't recall right now, where all in there own rights diiferent, but brought to attention diiferent things to everybodys attention (I Dream Of Jeannie, was not allowed to show her belly button) or Mary Tyler Moore was the single girl who can do it on her own. Ann Marie on that girl who was a single girl as well. and Room 222 with talking about race relations, vietnam war and of course with All In The Family with Archie/Mike going at it with different topics (War/Race Etc...) and who can forget the episode with Sammy Davis JR where he kisses Archie???!!! A lot of diffrent shows during the 60's and 70's made a diffenece so it was not just one!!!

Mark again. I would like to have a real time TV show filmed in one of my high school buddies homes with their kids. THAT would give you a shot of ground breaking TV. Alec Baldwin's description of his daughter to his daughter would describe it perfectly! Dope? My IQ is 168.

joeyc09, Maybe when I was in my late teens and early 20’s back in the 80’s I may have been a little narcissistic. I graduated Cum Laude from the University of Illinois majoring in Electrical Engineering. A good dose of the real world corrected that issue. Despite mastering the martial arts and the stock market I like to think of myself as a humble man. All I meant by what I said was I believe I could assemble a good pilot for a modern American TV family that would be realistic and address today’s issues.