Posted on 01/11/2021 10:14:04 AM PST by Borges
I always wanted to see a show like MASH and the military about the EPA or a welfare office.
The Partridge Family, anti-American?
Yes. Had the Sammy Davis one on late last month.
Partridge Partridge family predates Norman Lear‘s shows. And mash does as well for all intents and purposes.
I'm in the same age bracket as you and also grew up with the show. It might have been the intent of Norman Lear to present Meathead as the "reasonable liberal counterpoint" to Archie's bluster but as I grew older, I began identifying with Archie more and more and began viewing Meathead as a lazy bum who had no shame mooching off his wife's parents instead of making an honest living.
Not that Archie was what we would call a conservative today. For one thing, he idolized FDR and was pro-union.
“The Partridge Family, anti-American?”
Yup.
S1 E4 “See Here, Private Partridge!”
Just as they’re about to record their first album, the Partridges have a bomb dropped on them: ten-year-old Danny’s been drafted into the Army.
S1 E12 “My Son, the Feminist”
Keith promises his feminist girlfriend that the Partridge Family will perform at an upcoming rally, which puts them under attack from the morality watchdog group in their neighborhood.
S1 E19 “To Play or Not to Play”
Laurie refuses to cross the picket line and play when the hotel workers where they’re scheduled to perform go out on strike.
Start with those episodes and you’ll see what I’m talking about. It was right there all along.
They were responding to the culture around them. Do you think the model should be “My Mother, the Car”?
Sorry, I always saw the show as liberal propaganda.
The Partridge Family was un-American? No way. Danny Partridge was totally cool and if I’m not mistaken, Danny (Bonaduce) grew up to become a conservative.
I still don’t think anything made me laugh longer than, “Mr Davis, do you take cream and sugar in your eye?”
The way I remember it was that Archie did not idolize FDR. The first visit by Maude on All in the Family displayed that! Archie destroyed FDR on that episode. (It was Edith’s, and cousin Maude’s side of the family that though FDR was great. Archie was pro-union as you said though.)
It’s a wonder with all the “liberal propaganda” I grew up with and enjoyed, and yet here I am, a diehard Conservative.
Archie Bunker : [Maude refuses to get out of Archie’s chair] Well, I got the secret weapon that can lay this little lady right away. Here we go. This country was ruined by Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
Cousin Maude : You’re fat.
Archie Bunker : Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
Edith Bunker : Archie, you promised never to say that name again in front of Maude.
Archie Bunker : Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
Edith Bunker : [to Maude] He don’t mean nothing. His whole family was for Roosevelt.
Archie Bunker : That was for two terms. But that was it. We didn’t know the guy was going to hold on to the job like a pope!
No he did not. He also doesn’t fit into what the Left regards as the conservative constituency...he isn’t a fat cat CEO or a religious fundamentalist. He’s a blue collar union worker. Norman Lear said that one of the biggest leaps of faith he was asking audiences to make is to imagine that Caroll O’Connor was actually NOT Irish Catholic.
All in the Family may have turned 50, but it didn’t age well.
It’s still pretty funny. I’ve watched it recently. SOme of it is dated obviously.
Most 70s shows didn’t age well. Even now if I watch an old MASH episode, I think “This show really wasn’t all that great”, and I used to never miss an episode.
George Jefferson didn’t approve of the mixed race couple the Willises, and he always called his future daughter-in-law Jenny a “zebra.” He was the black version of Archie.
Your argument reminds me of a person I got into an argument on here years ago who claimed “The Honeymooners” was liberal elitists making fun of ordinary Americans.
Yes Lear is a liberal, but I think it wasn’t as one-sided liberal as maybe he intended. It’s not as if the liberals on the show were all that likable.
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