[C. Edmund Wright]

Carroll O’Connor and the liberal writers believed they were creating a hateful, blue collar bigot. Sadly, the audience identified with Archie Bunker’s complaints and he became a folk hero.

You are right, the same thing that happened with Michael J. Fox and Family Ties. Like Archie Bunker, Alex as portrayed by Fox became the hero.

Rob Reiner was the intended star of All in the Family and Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter Birney were the intended stars of Family Ties - you know - as the enlightened liberals having to put up with Archie Bunker or Alex P. Keaton. Unintended consequences indeed, except that all the idiot liberals got rich due to their huge miscalculation. I think Norman Lear produced both.

[sodpoodle]

Lucky for Lear and the liberals associated with ‘All in the Family’ the show made a fortune.

While the audience did not always approve of Archie’s biases - we all appreciated his disgust with ‘the powers that be’ and government interference. Sadly, it has gotten worse.