The Christmas 1976 episode is not very easy to watch nowadays. On one hand, we can likely sympathize with the friend of Archie’s who lost a son in Vietnam and who was gracious and respectful enough to have Christmas dinner with the friend of Mike’s who dodged the draft. But then there is that other scene in which Mike lectures to Archie about “When the hell are you going to admit that the war was wrong?” and we know that at that time, the unspeakable brutality that took place both in Vietnam under the Hanoi government and Cambodia with the Khmer Rouge largely because the Norman Lears and others forced the Americans out of there.
Or, like Ukraine, we perpetuated a war we had no business fighting, giving one side a destructive illusion of victory.
Carol O’Connor’s acting in that scene was brilliant.
I saw that episode. I always wondered if the draft dodger was played by a young Harold Ramis. He bore a resemblance.
I was a very young Child at the time, but it was noticeable to even me. TV "comedy" got very preachy leftist. MASH and Happy Days went down the toilet at the same time.
What then replaced it was low brow "tits and ass" - shows like Three's Company, the Love Boat, etc....
Its why I hated Jimmy Carter, even as an 8 year old - he represented the decline of interesting and non-political TV.