"Pull that skirt down. Every time you sit down in one of those things, the mystery's over." - Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker
All in the Family: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
All in the Family, which was the number one show for half of the 1970s, won twenty-one Emmy awards, and spawned five spin-offs, almost never made it onto the air. ABC executives, who ordered two different pilots, liked the show, but decided that it was simply too risky a project. The show languished until CBS, eager to change the network's "rural" image, decided to take a chance on Norman Lear's creation.
Based on the British series Till Death Us Do Part, All in the Family focuses on the Bunker family of Queens, New York. Carroll O'Connor plays family patriarch Archie, an undereducated working-class bigot. Edith (Jean Stapleton) is his well meaning but somewhat dim wife. Also sharing the home are daughter Gloria Stivic (Sally Struthers) and her husband Mike (Rob Reiner). Gloria, who considers herself to be a liberated woman, does not understand why her mother is so unassertive, especially when it comes to Archie. Mike's liberal leanings clash with those of conservative Archie, but as a penniless college student, he and Gloria cannot afford to move out on their own.
The show premiered on January 12, 1971. Ratings were low at first, but the show climbed in popularity that summer when the thirteen episodes that made up the first season were rerun. The show was originally preceded by a lengthy disclaimer warning audiences that what they were about to see was not meant to offend. Watching these episodes today, it is easy to see why CBS felt the need to run the warning. Even by today's standards, the language in the series can be quite shocking. Archie constantly rails about "spics," "spades," "jungle bunnies," and "fags." It is amazing that a network was willing to put that kind of language on the air in 1971, especially since even today those words are off limits to most dramas, much less sitcoms.
As cutting edge as All in the Family is language-wise, structurally it is old fashioned by sitcom standards. While its sitcom contemporaries like The Mary Tyler Moore Show deal with multiple storylines and take advantage of a number of settings, All in the Family seems more like a weekly one act play. With few exceptions, the action takes place only in the Bunker household, usually in the kitchen, dining area, or living room, all of which exist in one plane, much like a theater set. The storylines are similarly single-minded, with only one plot followed through from beginning to end.
That "one act" structure affects the rhythm of the show. Even though I have seen and liked the show in the past, it took several episodes while watching this set to become re-accustomed to the show's style. After all, even the similarly structured The Honeymooners had a little more variety than All in the Family.
Another innovation of the series is that it expanded the types of plotlines that were acceptable in sitcoms. In "Gloria's Pregnancy," for example, the Bunkers and Stivics celebrate, to varying degrees, Gloria's unexpected news. Even Archie eventually accepts the fact that he will soon be a grandfather. In the final minutes of the episode, however, Gloria suffers a miscarriage, and Archie, holding a stuffed panda he bought for his grandchild-to-be, is left speechless when trying to comfort his "little goil." This type of serious issue is sometimes tackled in "Very Special Episodes" of sitcoms today but is rarely treated with the seamless ease and grace that All in the Family is so often able to achieve. In episodes such as "Gloria's Pregnancy," it is able to elicit tears without being treacly.
The show is able to believably tackle such issues because the characters are written with such depth. On the surface, Edith may seem like a simpleton, but in "Edith Has Jury Duty," her seemingly wrong-headed stance as the jury's one dissenting vote is eventually vindicated when new evidence proves the defendant's innocence. Mike is always open to an ideological fight with Archie, but in episodes like "Gloria Discovers Women's Lib" he is revealed to be just as close-minded and conservative as his father-in-law.
A few of the first season's thirteen episodes are below par. "Success Story," for example, is especially weak. "Story" is about a visit from one of Archie's revered Army buddies, Eddie. Although Archie builds him up as a great role model and a true success, it becomes evident that Eddie's personal life is rather tarnished compared to his golden business achievements. This points out a problem with the four character one act model - in order to prove points and bring some action into the series, the writers are often forced to introduce "great friends" of the characters that are never brought up before or after their solitary appearances.
The episodes, presented in production number order rather than airdate order, are spread over three discs. The discs are housed in an unattractive digipak. A booklet listing the episode titles, plot synopses, and selected credits, is sandwiched in the digipak. The menus are very basic, and the episodes are not divided into chapters.
