"Don't you know nothin' about the history of country, the history of Thanksgiving, and the first turkey? I'll tell you the real story. When the pilgrim fathers seen the first Thanksgiving coming up on the calendar, they said we oughta have something special to eat, so they sent this guy Miles Sandwich out there and he was the guy that brought back the turkey. Now he first wanted a buffalo, but the buffalos all went west. And then he would have went for a horse, but a horse is too fast. He couldn't catch a horse. And then he would have picked some other bird, but all the other birds, they could fly. So he looked around him and he seen a turkey standing there. Turkey couldn't run, turkey couldn't fly, so he said, 'We'll eat this dumbbell.'" - Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) explaining Thanksgiving to his niece and grandson
Archie Bunker's Place: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
All in the Family's eighth season was supposed to be its last. The season's final episode, "The Stivics Go West," featured a poignant farewell in which Mike and Gloria Stivic (Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers) head off to California where Mike has landed a teaching job, leaving Archie and Edith Bunker (Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton) sitting alone in a now too-quiet 704 Hauser Street. These final scenes made this episode one of the most tearful, bittersweet series-enders of all time.
There was only one problem - the series didn't end there. Reiner and Struthers were eager to move on to the next phases of their careers, but when CBS offered O'Connor and Stapleton large salary increases, the two leads decided that maybe the characters of Archie and Edith still had a little life in them after all. All in the Family returned in fall 1978 without Reiner and Struthers. Also notably absent - the show's creator/producer Norman Lear. Added to the cast was young Danielle Brisebois as Stephanie Mills, Edith's niece, who was abandoned with the Bunkers by her ne'er-do-well father.
When Stapleton decided to cut back on her number of appearances the following season, the producers renamed the series Archie Bunker's Place and changed the setting from the Bunker household to the bar that Archie had purchased several seasons earlier. With Stapleton practically gone (out of 24 episodes, Edith shows up in approximately 5), the emphasis turned to the bar's patrons and staff, including Harry the bartender (Jason Wingreen), pal Barney Hefner (Allan Melvin), Archie's new business partner Murray Klein (Martin Balsam), blind customer Mr. Van Ranseleer (Bill Quinn), and short-tempered short order cook Veronica Rooney (Anne Meara).
The two-part season opener, "Archie's New Partner," sets up the series' new premise. Archie decides that in order for the bar to become truly profitable, they should break through to the abandoned restaurant next door and start serving food. He feels that this will expand their clientele from drinkers to the family crowd. Harry, a fifty percent owner of the business, wants nothing to do with this plan, but Archie is insistent. When Archie proceeds with his plans, Harry decides to sell his share. To Archie's dismay, the buyer is liberal, Jewish Murray Klein. Archie tries to talk him out of it, but with no luck, so Archie will now once again be forced to work in close quarters with his polar opposite.
When All in the Family began, Archie was an unrepentant bigot who foisted his conservative views on everyone around him. As the series progressed and we learned more about his background, Archie became a more sympathetic character. This, of course, happened over a number of seasons. In "Archie's New Partner," Archie's combative relationship with Klein is already diffused when Klein learns that Stephanie is Jewish and that Archie is supportive of her religious beliefs. He even gave her a Star of David pendant. The second episode ends with a shot of two hats - Archie's and Klein's - lying side by side on a desk as the men converse off camera. This is a maudlin, sentimental start to what should have been a combustible relationship.
For proof of how inferior Archie Bunker's Place is to its predecessor, look no farther than "Thanksgiving Reunion," a two part episode featuring a visit by the Stivics. Archie is shocked to learn that Mike has lost his teaching position after being arrested for protesting the government's plans to build a nuclear power plant on a nude beach. Mike, of course, was nude at the time, and his picture appeared in the local paper, leading to his dismissal. These episodes are a sad imitation of what All in the Family once was, simply connecting the dots of AitF's greatest hits: Gloria whines and cries, Archie blusters, Meathead pontificates, and no one gets to eat.
"Sammy's Visit," the season two All in the Family episode in which Sammy Davis, Jr. appears as himself, has long been a fan favorite. In "The Return of Sammy," the entertainer makes an appearance on the new series. Archie invites Davis to visit the bar after speaking to him on a local call-in talk show. Davis accepts the offer, but the visit doesn't exactly go as planned. Archie inadvertently insults the performer, Davis chokes on Veronica's food, and the gang ends up in the emergency room. In "Sammy's Visit," Davis diffused Archie's hang-ups with a shockingly funny kiss. "The Return of Sammy" is a bit more maudlin, though, as Davis proclaims that he respects Archie because "it's not what a person is that counts - it's what a person wants to be." This is what the show has been reduced to: Hallmark Card platitudes and soft, one dimensional characters.
Archie Bunker's Place's idea of a running gag is having various strangers give Archie the raspberry. Archie reacts with a horrified look, wondering aloud where someone would learn such a classless habit. The "joke" is that Archie is the King of Raspberries having doled them out often and indiscriminately over the years. The recurring gag involving Stephanie trying to sneak sips of beer is also unfunny in the extreme.
With Meathead, Gloria, and (essentially) Edith gone, the series lacks the heart and soul of All in the Family. Instead, Archie Bunker's Place comes across as Archie Bunker starring in a road company version of Alice. Watching Archie interact with the denizens of the bar in routinely plotted scripts is just not as compelling as All in the Family once was.
One problem may be that Sony has decided to release Archie Bunker's Place: The Complete First Season before the entire run of All in the Family has hit store shelves. While Place is a separate series, there is no denying that it is also a continuation of AitF. Perhaps holding off on the release of Place until its proper position in the AitF timeline could have helped to ease fans into the follow-up series.
The series is enlivened by its cast. Balsam is warm and engaging, even though he is given very little to do. Meara can spin even the lamest of one-liners into comic gold. Oddly enough, the holdovers from All in the Family are the weakest ones here. O'Connor seems determined to play Archie for sympathy, perhaps not realizing that Archie was always more sympathetic when not trying to be sympathetic. Stapleton appears so infrequently that she barely even registers. This may be a good thing since the writers appear to have lowered Edith's IQ by several points. And it hardly seems fair to pick on Brisebois who, after all, is stuck with the thankless job of perking up the Bunker household.
Familiar faces in season one include Florence Halop (Night Court), William Schallert (The Patty Duke Show), Sheree North (Bay City Blues), Charlie Brill (Laugh-In), Cynthia Sikes (St. Elsewhere), Jack Carter, Andy Garcia, Estelle Parsons (Roseanne), and Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld).
The twenty-four episodes that make up the first season are divided onto three discs. Each disc is decorated with a shamrock and looks vaguely like a coaster. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases. The first keepcase holds two discs. The front covers are decorated with group photos of the cast. Episode titles and plot synopses for each disc begin on the back covers and continue on the insides of the cases. This makes it extremely difficult to follow the episode guide, especially since much of it is covered up by the DVDs. The two keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which showcases the cast.
The static menus are simple to navigate. Viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or pick an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters (including one immediately after the opening credits).
