110 Fun Facts About All in the Family

On which network did All in the Family air from 1971 to 1979?

CBS picked up the show after ABC had rejected two pilots; it premiered on 12 January 1971.

All in the Family was based on which British sitcom?

Till Death Us Do Part, Johnny Speight's BBC sitcom, inspired Norman Lear, who saw his own father in its bigoted lead.

What does Archie Bunker bark at Edith whenever he wants her to stop talking?

Stifle came from Norman Lear's childhood home: his father used to order his mother to 'stifle herself'. In one episode Edith finally snaps and turns the word back on Archie.

Who produced All in the Family alongside Norman Lear?

Bud Yorkin recalled catching the British original while directing a film in London, hardly believing anyone could put that on television, and sending a copy to his partner Lear.

The Bunkers live in which borough of New York City?

Queens was home turf for Carroll O'Connor, though not Archie's side of it: a lawyer's son, he spent part of his youth in one of the borough's most comfortable enclaves.

What is the Bunkers' home address?

704 Hauser Street is fictional, and the house in the opening credits isn't even in the Bunkers' neighbourhood: it stands miles away on Cooper Avenue in Glendale.

What nickname does Archie use for his son-in-law Michael Stivic?

Meathead came from Norman Lear's own father, who used to call his son 'a meathead, dead from the neck up'.

What does Archie call his wife Edith?

Dingbat was Archie's put-down, yet Edith gradually became the show's voice of reason: Jean Stapleton played her as a gentle soul whose tenderness cut through all the shouting.

Which former child star turned down the role of Archie Bunker as too risky?

Mickey Rooney's refusal sent Lear to Carroll O'Connor, who was living in Italy and so sure the show would flop that he asked for a return ticket to Rome before taking the part.

Which 1968 pilot gave Archie and Edith a different surname?

Justice for All starred Archie and Edith Justice. The network paid for two pilots, with a new daughter and son-in-law in the second, then passed on both; only Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton made it to the series.

Archie constantly mocks his son-in-law Mike Stivic for which family background?

Polish-American Mike was a change of plan: in the two unaired pilots, Archie's son-in-law was Irish.

Mike Evans, who played Lionel Jefferson, co-created which Norman Lear sitcom?

Good Times was created by Evans and Eric Monte while he was playing Lionel, a part that later passed for a time to Damon Evans, no relation, before he returned to it in 1979.

Which actress, later a hit film director, was considered for Gloria before Sally Struthers won the part?

Penny Marshall lost out months before marrying Rob Reiner, who did get cast, as Mike. Her own sitcom stardom arrived five years later with Laverne & Shirley.

Which actress and singer played Edith's cousin Maude in two episodes before her own spin-off?

Bea Arthur made such an impression in her first guest spot that a network executive phoned Norman Lear at once to say the character needed a series of her own.

What business made George Jefferson rich enough to move to Manhattan?

Dry cleaning paid for the Jeffersons' move, and it changed life next door too: Mike and Gloria rented the house they left behind, finally getting out from under Archie's roof.

George Jefferson was heard about but never seen until 1973, while Norman Lear waited for Sherman Hemsley to finish what?

A Broadway musical, Purlie, had Hemsley's word and he wouldn't break it. Lear held the part open and wrote in George's brother Henry to do the sparring with Archie in the meantime.

The theme song 'Those Were the Days' is performed by Archie and Edith at what instrument?

A piano was, by composer Charles Strouse's account, his suggestion: his happiest boyhood memories were of his family gathered round one to sing, and he pictured Archie and Edith the same way.

The composer of the All in the Family theme later wrote which stage hit about an orphan?

Annie's composer, Charles Strouse, wrote the Bunkers' theme with lyricist Lee Adams. He had studied under Aaron Copland and meant to write for the concert hall before the theatre claimed him.

Unlike most 1960s sitcoms, All in the Family was recorded on what medium?

Videotape was a point of pride: a voice over the closing credits announced that the show was recorded on tape before a live audience, because Lear refused to use canned laughter.

How did Norman Lear originally want to shoot All in the Family?

In black and white was Lear's request for the pilot that finally aired, but the network balked and the Bunkers went out in colour.

Which nostalgic sitcom ended All in the Family's five-season run at number one in the ratings?

Happy Days took the top spot in 1976-77 as the Bunkers slid to twelfth: after five years of arguing about the present, America's favourite show was a cosy comedy set in the 1950s.

Which entertainer played himself in a 1972 episode, calling at the Bunker house to collect a briefcase left in Archie's cab?

Sammy Davis Jr. ends the visit by posing for a photo with Archie and kissing him on the cheek as the shutter clicks, setting off one of the longest studio laughs in the show's history.

Which museum was given Archie and Edith's chairs from the All in the Family set?

The Smithsonian keeps the two armchairs in its National Museum of American History, which credits the show with shattering television comedy's tradition of happy families untouched by social strife.

All in the Family got its chance when its network turned against hit shows that were favourites of whom?

Rural viewers kept those shows highly rated, but the network wanted a more affluent city audience, so its new president cleared out the country comedies in what became known as the rural purge and gambled on the Bunkers.

Which US president complained to his aides that an episode of All in the Family glorified homosexuality?

Richard Nixon was caught on his own White House tapes in 1971, recapping for two aides the episode in which Archie's macho football-player friend turns out to be gay.

Why was Carroll O'Connor missing from the 1974 episodes in which Archie vanishes on the way to a convention?

A contract dispute over money kept O'Connor away, so the writers had Archie go missing, and a castmate recalls that Norman Lear was ready to kill the character off for good before his star settled.

Which crime drama did Carroll O'Connor star in after Archie, as police chief Bill Gillespie?

In the Heat of the Night turned TV's most famous bigot into a Mississippi police chief working side by side with a Black detective, and won O'Connor a fifth Emmy to add to his four as Archie.

Jean Stapleton turned down the role of which Willy Wonka child's mother?

Mike Teevee's mother was offered to Stapleton for the 1971 film, but the shoot clashed with the All in the Family pilot, so she picked the sitcom over the boy who is obsessed with television.

After playing Edith, Jean Stapleton was first choice to star in which hit 1980s series, but turned it down?

Murder, She Wrote's producers wanted Stapleton before anyone else, and one of them later wrote that her withdrawal threatened to stop the project dead, until Angela Lansbury took the part of Jessica Fletcher.

Rob Reiner, who played Mike Stivic, is the son of Carl Reiner, creator of which classic 1960s sitcom?

The Dick Van Dyke Show began as Carl Reiner's scripts about his own life as a TV comedy writer, with himself in the lead. It sold only after a producer insisted the part be recast.

Which 1984 film was Rob Reiner's first as director?

This Is Spinal Tap put Reiner in front of the camera too: he plays Marty DiBergi, the earnest filmmaker trailing a fading heavy-metal band, in a mock documentary whose dialogue was mostly improvised.

Sally Struthers played gossipy neighbour Babette Dell on which later series?

Gilmore Girls kept Struthers busy from 2000 to 2007 as Lorelai's eccentric neighbour, far longer than her own spin-off, Gloria, which was cancelled after a single season.

After All in the Family, Sally Struthers became the long-serving television face of which charity?

Christian Children's Fund, since renamed ChildFund, had Struthers appealing for impoverished children overseas for years. In other ads of the same era she pitched correspondence courses with the line 'Do you want to make more money?'

What is the name of Gloria and Mike's son, born in a two-part 1975 episode?

Joey Stivic was born in the December 1975 two-parter 'Birth of the Baby', and Ideal Toys sold an anatomically correct Joey doll in 1976.

Which nine-year-old girl do the Bunkers take in during the final season of All in the Family?

Stephanie Mills was played by Danielle Brisebois, who grew up to be a songwriter and co-wrote Natasha Bedingfield's hit 'Unwritten'.

What is the name of the bar Archie frequents and eventually buys?

Kelcy's Bar never settled on a spelling: the credits call its owner Kelcy in the early seasons and mostly Kelsey after that, and episode guides still use both.

How did Archie raise the money to buy the bar?

A mortgage on his house, taken out by forging Edith's signature, funded Archie's purchase of the bar; bartender Harry Snowden became his partner.

What was Archie Bunker's day job for most of All in the Family?

Loading dock foreman was the job Archie finally quit in 1977 to run his own tavern; until then he topped up his wages by driving a friend's cab at night.

Which sharp-tongued regular on George Jefferson's sitcom briefly got her own spin-off, Checking In, in 1981?

Florence Johnston, George and Louise's maid, left to run housekeeping at a New York hotel, but Checking In lasted only four weeks and she went straight back to her old job.

Which South Park character did creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone describe as 'a little Archie Bunker'?

Eric Cartman struck Parker that way within the first season: he and Stone had been watching the old reruns, and found that an eight-year-old was free to say whatever he liked.

What was All in the Family renamed when it carried on from 1979 to 1983?

Archie Bunker's Place moved the action to his tavern and ran until 1983, though Jean Stapleton, ready to move on, agreed to only five guest appearances in its first season.

How was Edith Bunker written out after All in the Family ended?

She died of a stroke off screen after Jean Stapleton decided to leave the role; the hour-long episode 'Archie Alone' picks up weeks later, with Archie still unable to accept that she is gone.

George and Louise Jefferson leave the house next door to the Bunkers for which part of Manhattan?

The Upper East Side high-rise proved a long stay: their spin-off ran eleven seasons, two more than All in the Family itself, until the network dropped it so abruptly that there was no farewell episode.

Which decision does the 47-year-old heroine of the spin-off Maude face in a famous two-part 1972 episode?

To have an abortion was Maude's choice on finding herself pregnant at 47. When the episodes were repeated the next summer, dozens of stations refused to carry them and almost every sponsor pulled out.

In Norman Lear's 1994 sequel, a liberal Black couple live in the Bunkers' old house with a son who is what?

A conservative son, Goodie, argues politics with his liberal father, played by John Amos, turning the Archie-and-Mike formula inside out. Only five episodes were shown.

Who played Archie and Edith in ABC's 2019 Live in Front of a Studio Audience recreation?

Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei even sang the theme song themselves, before replaying the 1973 episode in which viewers first set eyes on George Jefferson.

Which advocacy group did Norman Lear found to counter the Moral Majority?

People for the American Way began the way a television producer would begin it, with a run of TV ads from Lear, and went on to campaign against Supreme Court nominees including Robert Bork.

In All in the Family's 1979 finale, a sick Edith cooks dinner for which holiday?

St. Patrick's Day found Edith under doctor's orders to stay off her feet with phlebitis. She cooked the big Irish dinner anyway and kept from Archie how ill she was.

James Cromwell, Archie's workmate Stretch Cunningham, was Oscar-nominated as the farmer in which film?

Babe was two decades away when Cromwell played Stretch. The character was later killed off, and a reluctant Archie found himself delivering the eulogy at his funeral.

In which New York neighbourhood is All in the Family set?

Astoria has swung a long way since Archie's day: by the 2020s the neighbourhood that once stood for his brand of politics was sending democratic socialists to the state assembly and to Congress.

Which actress played Louise 'Weezy' Jefferson?

Isabel Sanford was some twenty years older than her screen husband, Sherman Hemsley, yet the pairing clicked so well that Norman Lear gave the couple a series of their own.

Archie Bunker is a veteran of which war?

World War II puts Archie in the so-called Greatest Generation, and the show's weekly argument was that generation against the Baby Boomers, in the shape of his son-in-law.

Late in All in the Family, Archie learns that the girl he has taken in was born into which faith?

Judaism, it turns out, and the man who spent nine seasons making cracks about Jews ends up, grumbling all the way, seeing that she is raised in her own faith.

Which former MGM musical star played Irene Lorenzo, Archie's handy neighbour and co-worker?

Betty Garrett had co-starred in On the Town before her husband, Larry Parks, was blacklisted in Hollywood and the work dried up for them both. Irene Lorenzo began her comeback on television.

Archie Bunker's speech is famous for which verbal trademark?

Malapropisms take their name from Mrs. Malaprop, a character in the 1775 comedy The Rivals who mangled long words in just the same way, two centuries before Archie made it a weekly event.

To which state do Mike and Gloria move when they leave All in the Family in 1978?

California was meant as a fresh start, with Mike teaching at a university in Santa Barbara, but the sequels reveal that he walked out on his wife and son there to join a commune with one of his students.

Which magazine parodied All in the Family as 'Gall in the Family Fare', with a flexi-disc version in 1973?

Mad liked the joke enough to tell it twice: first as a comic-strip parody in 1971, then re-recorded as a radio play on a flexi-disc bound into one of its special issues.

Edith Bunker took a part-time job at the Sunshine Home, looking after whom?

Elderly residents were Edith's charges until 1979, when she was fired for honouring a dying patient's wish to be left in peace instead of calling for help.

What is Edith Bunker going through in an Emmy-winning 1972 episode that leaves her snapping at Archie?

Menopause, as Gloria has to explain to a baffled Archie after a visit to the doctor. Until then gentle Edith, who never swears, has been shouting at the family to leave her alone.

Norman Lear paid over $8 million for a rare first printing of which document, then sent it on a national tour?

The Declaration of Independence copy that Lear bought had turned up behind a painting picked up for four dollars at a flea market. He put it on the road so that people across the country could see it.

Which future film star turned down the part of Mike Stivic on All in the Family over Archie's bigotry?

Harrison Ford was still years from Star Wars when he passed on the son-in-law role; Rob Reiner took it and won two Emmys.

A toy doll of Archie Bunker's grandson from All in the Family was considered the first boy doll to be what?

Anatomically correct boy dolls were new to toy shops when Ideal released this one in 1976, modelled on the Stivics' infant son.

Danielle Brisebois, the Bunkers' young niece on All in the Family, later co-wrote which Natasha Bedingfield hit?

Unwritten was co-written by the former child star, who went on to earn an Oscar nomination for the song Lost Stars from the film Begin Again.

Where did the set designer of All in the Family buy Archie and Edith's famous chairs for a few dollars?

A Goodwill thrift store sold the pair for a few dollars; when the originals were donated in 1978, building replicas cost the producers thousands.

Which Manhattan landmark is missing from the skyline in the opening credits of All in the Family?

The World Trade Center was still unbuilt when the skyline was shot in 1968 for a pilot, and the grainy footage stayed in use until 1979.

Before Carroll O'Connor was cast in All in the Family, which comedy legend did one network want as Archie Bunker?

Jackie Gleason was under contract to the network, which hoped to buy the British format and retool it for him; Norman Lear secured the rights first.

In 1972, T-shirts and bumper stickers jokingly promoted Archie Bunker of All in the Family for which office?

President was the joke: shirts, buttons and stickers bearing Carroll O'Connor's face backed a mock run for the White House around that year's election.

In All in the Family, which holiday dinner seats a draft dodger beside a man whose son died in Vietnam?

Christmas Day 1976 was also its air date: The Draft Dodger sat Mike's old school friend beside Archie's pal Pinky Peterson, who had lost his son Steven.

Before All in the Family, Carroll O'Connor was considered for a part that went to Alan Hale Jr. on which sitcom?

Gilligan's Island nearly had him as the Skipper, and he was also in the running to play Dr. Smith on Lost in Space.

Which Oscar winner played George Jefferson, flubbing a line on air, in the 2019 live restaging of All in the Family?

Jamie Foxx broke character to own up to the stumble, then carried on; the special recreated the very episode in which George first appeared on screen.

Norman Lear based Archie Bunker of All in the Family partly on which relative, a salesman who went to prison?

His father, Herman, was jailed for selling fake bonds when Lear was nine; Lear called him a rascal and drew Edith partly from his mother.

Which 1980s sitcom later matched All in the Family by topping the Nielsen ratings for five straight seasons?

The Cosby Show equalled the streak in the 1980s; Archie's sitcom had been the first series ever to lead the ratings for five years running.

Rob Reiner of All in the Family co-founded which film company, named after a town in Stephen King's fiction?

Castle Rock Entertainment was founded in 1987, the year after Reiner's hit Stand by Me, itself adapted from the King novella The Body.

Which long-defunct car brand do Archie and Edith fondly recall in the All in the Family theme song?

LaSalle was a Cadillac companion brand that General Motors dropped in 1940; viewers found the word so hard to catch that the opening was re-recorded with it sung more clearly.

Norman Lear took pride that All in the Family never used which sitcom staple?

Canned laughter was never added, a point of pride for Lear; every laugh was genuine, even in the last season, when finished episodes were screened for a crowd.

After playing Edith on All in the Family, Jean Stapleton earned an Emmy nomination portraying which First Lady?

Eleanor Roosevelt was her subject in the 1982 TV film Eleanor, First Lady of the World, and she later toured the role as a one-woman stage show.

Before All in the Family, Rob Reiner wrote for the Smothers Brothers alongside which future comedy superstar?

Steve Martin and Reiner were writing partners on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968 and 1969, at the very start of both careers.

In an Emmy-winning All in the Family episode, Edith innocently answers an ad from a couple hoping to do what?

Swap spouses was the plan Edith failed to grasp; the visiting wife was played by Rue McClanahan, more than a decade before The Golden Girls.

Allan Melvin, who played Archie's pal Barney Hefner on All in the Family, was also Sam the butcher on which sitcom?

The Brady Bunch cast him as the boyfriend of Alice the housekeeper, and cartoon fans knew his voice as Magilla Gorilla.

Besides All in the Family, which other hit 1970s Norman Lear sitcom was adapted from a BBC comedy?

Sanford and Son moved the junk dealer and his grown-up boy of Steptoe and Son from west London to the Watts district of Los Angeles.

Which late-night host dreamed up and fronted the 2019 live restaging of All in the Family with Norman Lear?

Jimmy Kimmel, who has called the sitcom and The Jeffersons his favourite series of all time, conceived the special and recruited a starry cast.

Alongside Sesame Street and Earth Day, All in the Family was picked to represent the 1970s on a set of what?

US postage stamps in the Celebrate the Century series gave each decade of the 1900s a sheet of fifteen designs; the sitcom shared a row with Big Bird.

Jean Stapleton, Edith on All in the Family, played the confidante of Meg Ryan's shopkeeper in which romantic comedy?

You've Got Mail cast her as a close co-worker at the bookshop, two years after its director, Nora Ephron, used her in the angel comedy Michael.

Just before All in the Family, Sally Struthers had a supporting role opposite Jack Nicholson in which film?

Five Easy Pieces, Bob Rafelson's 1970 drama, was only her second film; within months she was on television as Gloria Stivic.

All in the Family, launched in January 1971, first became America's most-watched show during what?

Its summer reruns turned the newcomer into a hit, and it went on to top the yearly ratings from 1971 to 1976.

Mike Stivic of All in the Family lost his parents young and was raised by an uncle in which Midwestern city?

Chicago is where a car crash orphaned him and where his uncle, a Marine lieutenant turned florist, brought him up.

In The Elevator Story on All in the Family, Archie and his fellow trapped passengers must help to do what?

Deliver a baby is the job when the janitor's wife goes into labour; the stuck lift also holds a lawyer, a secretary and a young Hector Elizondo.

After arguing with Mike over it, what does Archie decide to do to his baby grandson himself in All in the Family?

Baptise him was Archie's answer in a 1976 episode when Mike, a determined agnostic, would not agree to have his son christened.

Carroll O'Connor, the star of All in the Family, finished his degree and began acting in which European capital?

Dublin is also where he married Nancy Fields in 1951; he had moved to Ireland to help a younger sibling, Hugh, get into medical school.

In a famous All in the Family scene, what does a celebrity visitor do to Archie as their photo is taken?

Kiss his cheek, to Archie's horror: the audience roared for longer than at any other moment in the sitcom's history, and the reaction had to be heavily trimmed.

In the spin-off Gloria, the Bunkers' daughter from All in the Family starts over as an assistant where?

A veterinary clinic in upstate New York takes her on; one of its two vets, who is also her landlord, was played by Burgess Meredith.

By the time of the 1982 spin-off Gloria, Mike Stivic of All in the Family had left his wife to live where?

On a commune, with one of his own students: he walked out on his wife and young son, and the couple divorced.

Norman Lear said he found the British sitcom behind All in the Family through an article in which trade paper?

Variety is his version; Sally Struthers later claimed the idea came from Carroll O'Connor, who had watched the original on a visit to Britain.

In the All in the Family episode Archie and the Computer, a clerical glitch wrongly records Archie as what?

Deceased was the machine's verdict on a very much alive Archie, while a second computer error kept sending quarters to Edith.

Which production company, set up by Norman Lear and a partner in 1958, made All in the Family?

Tandem Productions got its name because Lear and his director partner felt like two men pedalling a two-seater bicycle uphill; the name lasted until 1986.

Which twice Oscar-nominated actor played Frank Lorenzo, the Bunkers' cooking-mad neighbour on All in the Family?

Vincent Gardenia earned his nominations for Bang the Drum Slowly and Moonstruck; before joining as Frank he had turned up in the sitcom as two other characters.

After All in the Family ended, which Oscar-winning actor played Murray Klein, Archie Bunker's partner in the bar?

Martin Balsam, an Oscar winner for A Thousand Clowns, played the partner for two seasons before the character remarried and left for San Francisco.

Mike Stivic enrages Archie on All in the Family by giving an inheritance to which Democrat's 1972 campaign?

George McGovern got the $275 that Mike had inherited from an uncle; Archie thought it should have gone towards his room and board.

In an All in the Family bet over who can last two days without a favourite vice, what must Archie give up?

His cigars were the stake in the 1975 episode No Smoking, while food-loving Mike had to curb his appetite for the same two days.

In the All in the Family episode Archie Is Branded, what does Archie find painted on his front door?

A swastika appears one Sunday and Archie shrugs it off as a prank, but Mike suspects something far more serious.

In the Emmy-winning All in the Family episode Cousin Liz, which heirloom does Edith give to Liz's partner?

A silver tea set, in Edith's family for a century and worth at least $2,000, goes to Veronica, who had shared afternoon tea with Liz for 25 years.

Late in his career, Carroll O'Connor of All in the Family played the dad of Helen Hunt's character in which sitcom?

Mad About You cast him as Gus Stemple, Jamie Buchman's dad, for several episodes in the late 1990s.

Before George Jefferson was finally seen on All in the Family in 1973, which relative of his sparred with Archie?

His brother Henry, played by Mel Stewart, stood in for the unseen George in the early seasons and bowed out in the very episode that introduced him.

Which subject is Mike Stivic studying for his degree while living under Archie's roof on All in the Family?

Sociology was his field: he first planned to be a social worker, then turned towards teaching and joined a college faculty.

What rude noise does Archie Bunker of All in the Family often make to wave away an uncomfortable truth?

A raspberry, also known as a Bronx cheer, was his way of ending an argument he was losing without conceding a thing.

In the All in the Family episode Two's a Crowd, where do Archie and Mike accidentally get locked in together?

The bar's storeroom is where Mike learns that Archie was mistreated as a boy by the very parent who taught him his prejudices.

George and Louise Jefferson, first seen on All in the Family, buy the Banks family home in which sitcom's finale?

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ended in 1996 with Sherman Hemsley and his screen wife arriving as buyers, eleven years after their own sitcom finished.

How did Sherman Hemsley say he found out that the All in the Family spin-off The Jeffersons had been cancelled?

From a newspaper, he said: the network dropped the sitcom after eleven seasons without telling the cast or allowing a proper finale.

Archie finds neighbour Irene Lorenzo a job at his workplace on All in the Family, operating which machine?

A forklift was her machine, and the scheme backfired: Archie only wanted her away from Edith, but she proved an outstanding worker.

In the All in the Family episode Edith's Accident, which grocery item is involved when Edith dents a priest's car?

Cling peaches in heavy syrup did the damage outside Ferguson's Market, and the honest note Edith left for the owner did not sit well with Archie.