Archie Bunker: My old man? Don't be stupid. My old man? Let me tell you, he was never wrong about nothing.
Mike Stivic: Yes he was, Arch. My old man used to call people the same things as your old man. But I knew he was wrong. So is your old man.
Archie Bunker: Don't tell me my father was wrong. Let me tell you something, a father who made you is wrong? A father, the breadwinner of the house there? The man who goes out and busts his butt to keep a roof over your head and clothes on your back you call him wrong? Father, that's the man that comes home, bringing you candy. Father is the first guy to throw a baseball to you. And take you for walks in the park holding you by the hand? My father held me by the hand, hey, my father had a hand on him though I tell you. He busted that hand once, and he busted the other on me to teach me to do good. My father, he shoved my in a closet for seven hours to teach me to do good, 'cause he loved me. Don't be looking at me. Let me tell you something, you're supposed to love your father 'cause your father loves you. How can any man who loves you tell you anything that's wrong?
- IMDB
😠(The script is heartbreaking when you consider the real life father-son dynamic Rob had to later contend with.)
Archie was the “bad, ignorant” conservative. Yet he was the one working outside the home on the loading dock bringing in the money for the rest of them. So they mooched off of him. Eventually Gloria has some shit work study college job for a pittance that presumably went to pay for her college fees, not the HH bills.
Lionel Jefferson nailed Meathead’s condescending a$$:
Lionel: Yeah man just once I’d like for you to talk to me like I was Lionel Jefferson and not a representitive of the whole black race.
Mike: Oh come on Lionel, I don’t do that.
Lionel: What’s the first thing you say whenever I see you? Always something about the black problem right?
Mike: What do you want me to talk about, the weather?
Lionel: Sometimes yeah, I mean black people have weather too you know? We get rained on and everything.
There were some pretty powerful episodes. One was when edith was nearly raped- she escsped by throwing hot water on the frlla, but when archie heard about it, the show got powerful. It was one of the best shows going for a long time. The writers were brilliant.