"Can't you say you're expecting? 'Pregnant' sounds like you done something." - Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker to his daughter, Gloria (Sally Struthers), when she announces that she is pregnant
All in the Family: The Complete Sixth Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In the sixth season of All in the Family, the Bunker and Stivic clans - ultra conservative crank Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), his much-abused wife Edith (Jean Stapleton), their strong-willed (yet sometimes soft-headed) daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers), and their liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner) - continue their favorite pastime: arguing, bickering, and brawling. This time, however, their spats are combined with a little exercise, since the Stivics have moved next door.
Just when "Meathead" and Archie's little goil move out of the Bunker house and things seem as if they might become relatively placid, the two families find something new to argue about: Gloria is pregnant. Let the sparring begin! Archie doesn't even want Gloria to use the word "pregnant" to describe her condition ("The Very Moving Day"). Mike suggests "knocked up." Mike and Gloria shock Archie when they reveal that if the baby is a boy, they are thinking of naming him Stanislav Archibald after the baby's grandfathers ("Grandpa Blues"). Archie is horrified, but says it might be okay if his name gets top billing...until Gloria points out that Archibald Stanislav Stivic would have less than desirable initials. The grandpa-to-be never attends church himself - he criticizes Edith for spending too much time at church and never getting the reverend's name right - but ruins Thanksgiving when he insists that the child should be raised a Christian ("The Little Atheist"). Gloria and Mike want their child to decide on its own religion rather than foisting a belief system on it. But, as Archie vows to Edith, "we will raise our grandchild a Christian if we have to break every commandment."
After extremely short gestation period, Gloria gives birth in the two part "Birth of the Baby." Taken as a whole, "Birth of the Baby" is mixed. Gloria getting stuck in an Italian restaurant's phone booth is just plain goofy. Archie participating in a minstrel show at his lodge is not. This gag is milked for all its worth, but it's more likely to make you gag than actually laugh. Oddly enough, the minstrel show backdrop almost serves as a tribute to one of TV's most beloved births, that of Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. In that episode, Ricky races to the hospital to see his newborn son, not taking the time to remove his voodoo dance makeup and costume.
O'Connor continues to give a textured performance as Archie becomes softer and softer. We learn, for example, that when Gloria first began school, Archie walked her every day. The other kids began to tease her for being a baby, so after the first week, he sent her off to school on her own. Not really, though - he followed a block behind, bumping into garbage cans and bushes because he didn't want to take his eyes off of his young daughter. O'Connor relates the story in a believable, sweet way ("The Very Moving Day").
Stapleton also moves beyond caricature, projecting subtle realism even when asked to do cartoonish things. In "The Very Moving Day," Edith runs back and forth between her daughter and husband upon learning that she is about to be a grandmother. On the surface, this is very silly, but Stapleton manages to find the humanity in the goofiness. In the sixth season, Edith continues to stand up for herself. Against Archie's wishes, she continues to volunteer at the Sunshine Home for the Aged ("Edith Breaks Out"), expresses her own opinions ("The Little Athiest"), and goes out for a night on the town ("Edith's Night Out").
With the birth of Joey, Struthers' Gloria begins to develop beyond simply screaming like a spoiled child. After all, there's only room for one wailing baby in All in the Family. Reiner isn't given much to do - he alternately yells and smiles.
Season six opens up the Bunker's world by spending much time at the Stivics. In some episodes, we barely spend any time in the Bunker's home. The series still feels like a collection of miniature plays rather than a modern sitcom, but it is entertaining, fun, and well worth watching.
Familiar faces in season six include Betty Garrett (Laverne & Shirley), Sorrell Booke (The Dukes of Hazzard), Sandy Kenyon (Love on a Rooftop), Robert Guillaume (Soap), Beatrice Colen (Wonder Woman), Ray Sharkey (Wiseguy), Bernadette Peters (Into the Woods), Charles Siebert (Trapper John, M.D.), Frank Campanella (Quincy, M.E.), Priscilla Morrill (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Barbara Cason (It's Garry Shandling's Show), Billy Crystal (Soap), Jack Gilford, and Doris Roberts (Remington Steele).
The twenty-four episodes that make up The Complete Sixth Season are divided onto three discs. Overall, the packaging is similar to that of previous seasons. The three discs are housed in a cardboard digipak decorated with production stills. A folder panel holds a booklet that serves as an episode guide. The digipak slides into a cardboard outer sleeve. The menus are a no-frills affair. Although there are no scene selection menus, the episodes are divided into chapters.
