The Miracle of a Ditz With Depth

NYT ^ | 6/2/2013 | NEIL GENZLINGER

[knarf]

The scripts and acting were not to mimic life exactly, but like a comic strip, be just a bit garish in the presentation to hold attention.

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.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Another couple that were really good were Ed O’Neil and Katy Sagal in “Married with Children”. Now that show was awful in a lot of ways, but if you watch it you see how good these two did, they really played their parts to the hilt and yet never crossed that very, very fine line where it would have become just burlesque and been not believable at all.

At least in it's early years, "Married with Children" never worried about being politically correct and it made about as many valid social observations about marriage and the relationship between American men and women as "All in the Family" ever did. And it did it without the large doses of liberal preaching and white-male-bashing that "All in the Family" was built on.

[ansel12]

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.

[jocon307]

Here is a good piece from the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-appreciation-jean-stapleton-19232013-20130602,0,5631429.story

[jiggyboy]

“Edith Bunker and the Cling Peaches” (about 2 min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoIMvOUM3po

[stormhill]

Everybody, and I mean everybody in that show was a flaming lib. Jean Stapleton was quite the feminism activist.

[ansel12]

“”To combat the Christian right, Lear founded People for the American Way (PFAW) in 1981.””

[stormhill]

Makes absolutely perfect sense. Combat is the right word.

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.

[ansel12]

IBTimes: After about five seasons, “All in the Family” seemed to run out of gas -- Nixon was out of office, the Vietnam War was over and U.S. society had drastically changed since the 1960s. Why did the show go on for another four seasons when it had little left to say?

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.

[ansel12]

Actress Jean Stapleton was one of the IWY Commissioners