My father never understood that they were making fun of people like him.
But the Archie and Meathead in that first episode did change over the years.
The scene that will always stay with me is the Thanksgiving episode with the Draft Dodger, and Archie’s reaction, that wasn’t for laughs, it was real and you could feel Archie’s revulsion.
Because "normal" viewers perceived Meathead, Gloria, and other bufoons as the butt of jokes, and Archie as an ordinary guy. It's why the show was so successful.
Lear intended the show as a parody of conservatism, and it backfired.
I totally agree. They made Archie look like a low IQ buffoon with lots of laugh track noise whenever he expounded his thoughts aloud. That kind of shaming and criticsm continues to today with all (and I mean "all) heterosexuals being portrayed as mindless boobs who "just don't understand" how being a homosexual is so wonderful and beyond question.