Posted on 06/02/2013 11:48:11 AM PDT by Borges
It’s not easy playing dumb. But Jean Stapleton, who died on Friday in Manhattan at 90, did it spectacularly for more than 200 episodes of “All in the Family,” a watershed television show that never would have worked without her daft, poignant portrayal of Edith Bunker.
The role, wife to the bigoted Archie of Carroll O’Connor, could easily have been rendered as a mere middle-aged bimbo. But Ms. Stapleton didn’t just toss it off; she put everything she had into it, and what she had was a lot of stage training.
Her résumé when the series began in 1971 included Broadway musical comedies like “Damn Yankees” and “Bells Are Ringing” and plays like Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros.” The tics with which she invested Edith — the shuffling walk, the zinger delivered without realizing its zinginess — are stage techniques translated expertly to television, delivered with the comic timing and commitment of a theatrical performance.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Archie WAS the union guy down at the plant and Edith WAS the dutiful housewife at home.
Actually, IMO .. meathead and Gloria were third wheels that, though needed to round out the plot, were an uneasy necessity rather than a given.
I saw Lear’s portrayal of middle class working Americans as ugly, and repulsive, insulting, they were practically sub human, especially when contrasted with the many intelligent, fair and caring liberals that paraded through that ape like couples home.
Here is a good piece from the LA Times:
“”To combat the Christian right, Lear founded People for the American Way (PFAW) in 1981.””
Carroll O'Connor, for instance, deployed his considerable acting talent to make conservatives as repugnant as possible. In spite of that, some naïve folks practically adopted Archie as their spokesman! Really? You actually can't tell when you're being insulted? This show was the medium used to introduce many Americans to such wonderful phenomena as the gay lifestyle.
Someone mentioned Married With Children. That show was, from beginning to end, an advertising poster for the gay rights movement. Sherman Hemsley who played George Jefferson was himself gay; please don't get me started.
Strate: It was popular, it was profitable, and commerce trumps art for the most part on television, which is why such programs often get stretched out in this way. But in all fairness, along with the lure of success, I think Lear and his colleagues felt that with this platform, they had a responsibility to continue to express their progressive views.
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