The good bishop probably doesn’t remember that Archie was written to be a detestable bigot and it irked Norma Lear to no end that viewers generally cheered Archie along while disparaging Meathead at the same time. Mickey Rooney was slated to be Archie, originally, BTW. It’s nice to know the Bishop finds Archie Bunker’s acceptance of stereotypes and the behavior that resulted was ‘charming.’
Same thing happened with “Wall Street”’s Gordon Gekko. Michael Douglas is irritated to this day that people remember “Greed is good” more than any other line he had, and that movie-goers generally sided with Gekko.
Actually, I’d say that Norman Lear portrayed Archie Bunker as a guy, who underneath it all, was a decent person, but was programmed to be a bigot by his upbringing.
The message of All In The Family was that prejudice is learned behavior, which is why it’s so important to not expose children to bigotry.
On one hand, I think All In The Family was very nasty in it’s partisanship. Yet the fact that, in the end, Archie usually wound up doing the right thing, contributed to the show’s popularity, as viewers saw him as a complex and conflicted character.
If anything, Norman Lear may have questioned if viewers were sympathetic to Archie for the reasons he wanted them to be sympathetic, or if they simply cheered on his bigotry.