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This is Unsung History, the podcast where we discuss people and events in American history that haven't always received a lot of attention. I'm your host, Kelly Therese Pollack. I'll start each episode with a brief introduction to the topic and then talk to someone who knows a lot more than I do. Be sure to subscribe to Unsung History on your favorite podcasting app so you never miss an episode. And please tell your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, maybe even strangers to listen to. In 1965, the BBC aired a pilot episode of a series that would become a long running British hit called Till Death Us Do Part. The sitcom, written by Johnny Sprite and produced by Dennis Main Wilson, focused on the bigoted working class character of Alf Garnett and his relationship with his wife, his daughter, and especially with his son in law, Mike Rollins, a socialist from Liverpool. American television director Bully Yorkin saw the show and brought it to the attention of Norman Lear, with whom he had co founded Tandem Productions. Lear bought the rights to the show and developed an American version for ABC. After two pilots in 1968 and 1969, both starring Carroll O' Connor as Archie Bunker and Jeanne Stapleton as Edith Bunker, ABC passed on the show in 1969. CBS named a new president of the television station, Bob Wood. Wood had previously run the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles and then had run the division in charge of all five affiliates the that were directly owned by cbs, all in major markets. He knew that the shows most profitable to CBS weren't always those with the best national ratings, but rather those most popular in the major markets where CBS owned and operated the affiliates. The Federal Communications Commission FCC limited the number of those markets. Wood's innovation was to purge the network of some of the longest running shows popular in the rural markets, including Hee Haw, Green Acres and the Beverly Hillbillies, to make room for shows that would appeal to a younger, more urban audience. It was against this backdrop that Wood screened All in the Family. At the urging of his programming department. Wood was ready to take a risk on the controversial show and set about convincing the regional affiliates to air the show. It still starred o' Connor and Stapleton, but now added Sally Struthers as their daughter Gloria Stivic and Rob Reiner as her husband Mike. On January 12, 1971, the first episode of all in the Family hit the airwaves. Starting with an advisory message quote the program you are about to see is all in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, priority prejudices and concerns by making them a source of laughter, we hope to show in a mature fashion just how absurd they are. The network was prepared for a barrage of complaints about the show, but that first week there were fewer than a thousand calls, a much lower volume than expected, and more than 60% of those had positive things to say about the show. Part of the minimal reaction was because very few people had even seen the show it didn't break the top 40 in Nielsen ratings that week. For their part, critics were conflicted, although most thought the show was clearly different than what they had seen before in its willingness to tackle topics that most other TV wouldn't touch at the time, Some were offended, with one AP reviewer calling it, quote, a half hour of vulgarity and defensive dialogue, unquote. Countering that view, Jack Gold, one of the most respected TV writers of the time, wrote in the New York Times, some of Archie's words may chill the spine, but to root out bigotry has defied man's best efforts for generations, and the weapon of laughter just might succeed. In May 1971, just four months after it launched, all in the Family won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, and within a month it became the number one show in the country. During its nine season run, all in the Family would garner 55 Emmy nominations and 22 wins, with all four lead actors taking home Emmys. In addition to wins for writing and directing, audiences liked the show as much as critics did. It topped the yearly nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976, the first show in Nielsen history to do so for five consecutive years. The show was so popular that multiple shows spun off from it, including Maude, which followed Edith's liberal cousin Maude, played by Bea Arthur. Maude, which also tackled controversial issues, ran for 141 episodes across six seasons from 1972 to 1978. The Bunker's African American neighbors, the Jeffersons, had their own spin off, which ran 11 seasons and 253 episodes, making it perhaps even more successful than the original. Maude and the Jeffersons spawned their own spinoffs, Good Times and Checking in, respectively. And after the end of all in the Family, two continuation shows followed Archie Bunker's Place and Gloria. There was even a show in the 1990s that was set in the bunker's house at 704 Hauser, though without any of the original characters. One critic of all in the Family was none other than President Richard Nixon, who stumbled across the show while trying to find a rained out baseball game. He called the show the damnedest thing I'VE ever seen and fumed over a gay character ranting to White House Chief of Staff H.R. haldeman and Domestic affairs advisor John Ehrlichman. Quote, God damn it, do not think that you glorify on public television homosexuality. You see, homosexuality, dope, immorality in general. These are the enemies of strong societies. Today, all in the Family is generally regarded as one of the best American TV shows of all time, with several best of lists ranking it in the top 10. While the Smithsonian doesn't have a ranking of TV shows, the National Museum of American History does display Archie and Edith Bunker's easy chairs in the museum demonstrating the show's importance to our national history. Joining me in this episode is is Dr. Oscar Winberg, postdoctoral fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies and the John Morton center for North American Studies at the University of Turku and author of Archie Bunker for President How One Television Show Remade American Politics.
