ansel12, I don’t know why so many are giving you a hard time. I think your remarks are right on the money.
I was 17 when this series premiered, and I knew then it was Leftie propaganda.
Lear was notorious for his lefty views, and his sitcoms were designed to push the envelope at a time when our whole society was being assailed by the Left. In 1971, we were losing 225 men per WEEK in Vietnam and the country was split into hawks and doves over the war. Kent State happened a year before, and there was constant social upheaval. This sitcom was a departure from the usual sitcom—it dealt with “issues” of the day, rather then the comedic antics of its characters. It was groundbreaking in that regard.
Archie was not so much afraid of tomorrow—he just wanted to be left alone and not be bothered by the BS change the Left was constantly agitating for. Archie had lived through the Depression and World War II, so I don’t think he was afraid of anything except losing his America to a bunch of Meatheads.
Back then, you worked in a factory and when you came home, you were bone tired, you didn’t want to have deal with stupidity.That is why so many, including my machinist father and I, could identify with Archie. We were blue collar factory workers, me part-time when the series first aired, and then all through college, putting myself through school, working in a machine shop.
I enjoyed the show’s characters and its comedy, but it was relentless in attacking every known notion of good and decency in American culture. So did “Maude”, a few years later, and it was used as a cultural battering ram for the feminist agenda. It was unwatchable.
It is fine to honor Jean Stapleton, she was a talented actress and performer. So was Carroll O’Connor.
But Archie was always the bigoted right wing buffoon, who although he was loyal to his wife, was in serious need of “fixing” by his left wing liberal daughter and her shiftless far left boyfriend, then husband.Archie’s ,malapropisms were designed to make fun of the millions who actually held those views.
Lear allowed the show to go back and forth in the thought dynamics, but the overall result was a push to the left as the “wiser” and “more enlightened” and “more informed” alternative to the conservative Archie.
And ,like now, the conservative Archie was the one who supported the whole household, like conservatives support the present ship of state, while the freeloaders get the bennies.
Brilliant post...could not agree more.
Keep in mind that the show’s first pilot was made in 1968. It was based on an earlier British show that had the exact same premise.
Your description of Archie’s character and what the show was meant to do sounds exactly right. I was a child when it aired and picked up that Archie was old fashioned and wrong, and meathead was supposed to be more enlightened. Sad but that is how I read it as a young child.
Also I didn’t know the show dealt with impotence, ha, that episode must have been done discreetly enough that it went right over our heads!