When legendary television producer Norman Lear launched All in the Family in the early 1970s, no one would have imagined that the comedy’s lead character was modeled after Lear’s own father.
‘All in the Family’ premiered in 1971
The man behind so much of what is now classic television opened up in his memoir Even This I Get to Experience about his decision to immortalize his father in the short-tempered, hard-headed, and complex character of Archie Bunker.
The comedy marked its 50th year in 2021, enduring through the decades even as the times changed. When it premiered in the early 1970s, it scandalized American viewers with Archie’s over-the-top, bigoted personality and the show’s fearlessness in approaching previously taboo topics such as racism, sex, and social inequity. As alarmed as the viewing public seemed to be, the show starring actors Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton was a ratings hit.
“I would get mail by the tens of thousands,” USA Today quoted Lear as saying in 2009. “Whether they agreed with Archie or disagreed with Archie, what they all said was, ‘My father … my mother … my sister … my family … we argued about this, that and the other thing.’ I think conversation about those issues is what our democracy is all about.”
‘All in the Family’s Creator Said the Show Was His ‘Love Letter’ to His Father
