All in the family

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Television series
Original title All in the family
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1971-1979
Production
company		 Bud Yorkin Productions
CBS
Norman Lear / Tandem Productions
length 30 minutes
Episodes 212
genre Sitcom
First broadcast Jan 12, 1971 ( USA ) on CBS
German-language
first broadcast		 June 15, 1974 on III. TV program of the Nordkette
occupation

All in the Family is a popular 1970s US sitcom set in Queens , New York . It aired on CBS from January 12, 1971 through September 16, 1979 . Her producer was Norman Lear . The sitcom dealt with topics that had not been featured on early-evening television other than news and political magazines, such as racism , homosexuality , emancipation , rape , breast cancer and impotence . It is based on the British series Till Death Us Do Part . In addition to M * A * S * H and Mary Tyler Moore , All in the Family is considered to be a comedy series of the 1970s that revolutionized US television and made today's TV landscape possible.

In Germany, a very successful German adaptation of the English model was created around the same time with Ein Herz und eine Seele by Wolfgang Quantity ; therefore All in the Family was only synchronized and broadcast three years later.

Main characters and plot

The explosive, controversial series is about a family, the Bunkers from Queens, a working-class district of New York City . Archie Bunker (played by Carroll O'Connor ) is a dock worker. He is middle-aged, a little fat, uneducated, in a bad mood, and rude; he mercilessly hates almost every minority , be it blacks, Mexicans, Jews , Asians or Catholics . He even regarded English people as weak and homosexual ("English fags"), although he himself is presumably of English origin. He fought in World War II (which he always calls “the big one”) and complains about the French and Germans (“frogs” and “krauts”). He believes every prejudice stereotype he's ever heard. Of course he supports the Vietnam War and the then US President, Richard M. Nixon , whom he always incorrectly calls "Richard E. Nixon". He hates the opponents of the war, all leftists and also feminists, because he believes that a woman should only stay at home and mute. That's why he always says his domestic and nice, but simple little and unfavorably dressed wife Edith ( Jean Stapleton ) "Stifle yourself!" (Roughly: "Würg you up!") His beautiful daughter Gloria ( Sally Struthers ) and her husband, Michael Stivic ( Rob Reiner ), staying with Archie and Edith because Michael is in college. Since Michael's opinions mostly contradict Archie's, they constantly bicker over politics, women's rights , the Vietnam War, minorities and countless other topics. Archie regards Mike as a worthless slacker and communist ("pinko", red) who likes to parasitize and corrupt his daughter, his dear "little girl". Archie always calls Mike “Meathead” (“dumpling head”) and, because of his origins, “stupid Polack” (a dirty word for Poles). For Mike, however, Archie is the epitome of every bad quality in American society: Archie is greedy, self-righteous, hypocritical, pious, narrow-minded and racist. Mike's father-in-law symbolizes for him the relentless adage of the 1960s, "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" ("If you're not a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem") .

meaning

The concept of All in the Family turned out to be groundbreaking. So far it would have been incredible to portray such sensitive topics on television, let alone racist swear words like "Coloreds" (colored people) for blacks (this term was long outdated), "Hebe" for Jews, "Greaser" (greasy people) for Mexicans and to express others. Norman Lear said he shaped the character Archies after his own father, who was very narrow-minded. Lear's father once told his son that Norman was "the laziest white man I have ever known." Lear and Carroll O'Connor were left-wing politicians, and it was their hope that the grotesque, ridiculous Archie would prove the absurdity and injustice of prejudice, war and hatred. Both were disappointed and their well-intentioned plans failed: it turned out that a clear majority of television viewers loved the series precisely because they identified with Archie and agreed with him. In addition to the English original, the series was one of the models for the German television series Ein Herz und ein Seele .

reception

The documentary series "Visible: Out on Television" on Apple TV deals with the role of the series in relation to the visibility of homosexual characters on television.

actor

role actor
Archie Bunker Carroll O'Connor
Edith Bunker Jean Stapleton
Michael Stivic Rob Reiner
Gloria Stivic Sally Struthers
Frank Lorenzo Vincent Gardenia

Offshoot

The series has produced numerous offshoots .

DVD

The first seven seasons have already appeared in regional code 1.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mary Tyler Moore
  2. ↑ Philipp Emberger: https://fm4.orf.at/stories/3003057/. FM4, accessed May 27, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : All in the Family  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files