Posted on 01/16/2006 5:48:46 AM PST by raccoonradio
Probably over now unless they're continuing it today on the MLKing holiday but hope you were able to catch this. Great show--writing, acting, etc. Yeah, a bunch of libs put it together and they portrayed a traditionalist/ conservative as an ignorant bigot while liberal Mike was a college student, but whaddaya expect. Still entertaining.
So many phrases and lines pop into one's head: Stifle; Meathead; Dingbat; lil' girl; ya figured that out, hah?; Edith, get me a beer, hah?; You're a pip, etc.
More than a few dramatic moments mixed in with the comedy. What other comedy show ends an episode with a vigilante getting blown up in his car? Edith was raped and later her character was killed off (in between, she was severely depressed and lost her faith when her transvestite friend Beverly LaSalle was killed), etc.
There were Archie's malapropisms: When Edith got menopause, she had to go to the "groinocologist". A big labor union was the "UFO-CIA".
Noticed that even though in the "Archie Meets Mike" episode that Mike says he's from Chicago, Rob Reiner seemed to have a NYC accent (maybe just me, but...) Checked IMDB.com and found out that he indeed is from Gotham: both Reiner and his dad Carl were born in the Bronx.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great..
One of my favorite shows of all time.
>>as an ignorant bigot while liberal Mike was a college student
oops, really meant that Archie was shown as either a
high school dropout or just a high school graduate while
Mike was smart enough to make it to college, etc. Of course Mike did his share of anti-war protests...remember when he
got arrested by a "gigantic cop with a face like Ed
Sullivan!"? I think Archie wound up in jail along with the protestors, as he was trying to pull Mike out of it.
The show premiered 1/12/71, IIRC, thus the 35th anniversary
I worked my way through college at a five star hotel and met Rob Reiner when he stayed there. In the six and a half years I was there, I met everyone from near Saints to Sociopathic slime balls. He makes my list of top ten duce bags.
Owl_Eagle(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Rob Reiner, played a meathead on TV and is one in real life.
I've seen the first episode a few times and noticed Edith was portrayed as er, less of a dingbat, and not afraid to say things. They come back from church and Edith sarcastically refers to "Mr. Religion, here..." And there was incidental music in between scenes (played on a piano, I believe)
Trivia: Mickey Rooney almost wound up with the role of Archie,
and he almost wound up with the surname of Justice. How did
"Meathead" come about? Norman Lear's father used to call him that, along with "you must be the laziest white man I ever saw". Both wound up in the show.
The show was based on a British comedy called "Till Death
Us Do Part". Ray Davies of the Kinks did the theme song for that series.
... and what's with the endless reruns of the bond films on amc?
True, and what's with that stupid hat Norman Lear is always shown wearing? :)
The show started with weak ratings, IIRC, but credit CBS with sticking with it. After awhile it got so popular that celebs wanted to be guest stars, like Sammy Davis, Jr. They cooked up a premise of Sammy (Archie: "now, do you take cream and sugar in your eye?") being in Archie's cab and leaving his briefcase behind. The kiss at the end is priceless.
Archie: Guess what celeb was in my cab...(he was) black as the ace of spades. In fact in my book, this guy WAS the ace of
spades.
Mike: Belafonte?
Archie: No, meat head, I said black, Harvey Belafonte
ain't black. Just a good looking white guy dipped in
car'meal.
(and...another meathead...) :)
"Stifle it Edith!" Lol.
You never see Archie so made as when the draft dodger has Christmas dinner with them. Archie was livid to put it mildly.
Some FReepers are going to flame you because they see the character of Archie Bunker as an attack on conservatives. However, a close watching shows that liberal "Meathead" is shown to be just as narrow-minded and thoughtless in his own way.
Exactly--and the spinoff character Maude Findlay was a narrow
minded, loud-mouthed liberal. Needless to say, the actor who played Meathead is pretty similar to his character.
Anyone see Mike Farrell, BJ Funnybutt--er, Hunnicutt--of
MASH? Big opponent of death penalty. Ingraham keeps playing tape of him saying "you disgust me! you are about to take
a human life..." etc. And then there's Ed Assner, er,
Asner... :)
(I.E., anyone see him during the Tookie controversy. Is he
going to oppose every single execution like that? Where was he for the last one?)
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