How All In The Household’s Norman Lear Tried To Put A Cease To Archie Bunker’s Place

“Archie Bunker’s Place” was removed from “All within the Household” with a unique title. In addition to the brand new setting, Archie’s doting spouse Edith (Jean Stapleton) solely appeared a couple of instances in season 1 earlier than dying firstly of the second season in 1980. In the meantime, different progressive-minded characters had been launched to butt heads with Archie, filling the outlet left by The Meathead, with Archie and Edith’s daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) solely exhibiting up a handful of instances (and Mike even lower than that). Thoughts you, this solely got here to go after Lear spent “some months” making an attempt to cease the sequence in its tracks.

In the long run, although, Lear gave in, not wanting to place an entire lot of individuals out of labor:

“The one time I met Mr. [William] Paley, who owned the community, was when he referred to as to ask me to lunch, 9 years later, to speak about wanting ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’ on air. The one means it received on was when [he] referred to 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. And so the present went on.”

It appears Lear’s points had been inventive. “All within the Household” labored because of the distinctive alchemy of its solid and characters; take a chunk or two away, and it simply wasn’t the identical. As unforgettable as O’Connor was as Archie, he may solely maintain the ship collectively for thus lengthy by himself. That was sufficient to maintain “Archie Bunker’s Place” on the airwaves for 4 seasons, which is nothing to sneeze at. Nonetheless, there is a cause the sequence did not take pleasure in anyplace close to the lasting cultural influence as its dad or mum present.