Most viewers never knew Archie Bunker was created to belittle
and demean like-minded conservatives who thought like him.
In recent years his creator has toned down his rhetoric....a little
Archie Bunker would have been on Team Trump........so says Norman Lear, the creator of “All in the Family,” the landmark sitcom that made the bigoted but beloved family man Archie, played by Carroll O’Connor, a working-class American icon.
In a commentary in the New York Times to mark his 100th birthday on Wednesday, Lear wrote about his hit show of the ‘70s and its signature character. “He probably would have been a Trump voter,” Lear said of Archie.
At the same time, Lear said that the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — and the more recent House investigation into former President Donald Trump’s role in it — might have provoked certain strong reactions from a Trump-supporting Archie.
The “sight of the American flag being used to attack Capitol Police would have sickened him,” Lear wrote. “I hope that the resolve shown by Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and their commitment to exposing the truth, would have won his respect.”
Lear, who also created such shows as “Sanford and Son,” “Maude,” “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times,” has long been a liberal activist and supporter of progressive causes. He is a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts and was a Kennedy Center honoree.
Meathead was used to mock liberals.
There was a great episode where Lionel Jefferson chastises Meathead for only wanting to talk about race issues with him.
“Why don’t we ever talk about the weather? Black people have weather too, you know.”
Archie Bunker was a construct of Norman Lear and Carroll O’Conner, both big libs back then. Let us not forget “Meathead” Rob Reiner. I’m sure all three of them were “Meatheads” in real life.
I quit watching TV in the 1970s and when the show ran I was only watching sports and movies on TV. I never saw it.
I was in a video store back in the 90’s and an episode was playing on one of the TV’s in the store. I watched a few minutes and I found it the most crude stereotyping propaganda; too crude for Goebbels or Stalin.