These All In The Family Facts Would Make Even Archie Bunker Blush

Before All in the Family became a TV classic, it had humble beginnings. Originally, the show was going to be aired on ABC — not CBS. But while the production company created a pilot episode, executives at ABC didn’t like it. Producers took another crack at that first episode, but the execs still weren’t happy. Eventually, the rights to All in the Family were sold to CBS.

Archie Bunker only made it to air when the new CBS president decided he wanted more socially relevant programming. Attempting to attract younger viewers, Robert Wood axed several comedies, including Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, to make way for shows such as All in the Family. This became known as the Rural Purge.

The idea for All in the Family wasn’t pulled out of a hat. Back in the 1960s, Norman Lear was heavily influenced by the BBC comedy Till Death Us Do Part. The British sitcom revolved around a prejudiced man who freely shared his views with his family. Sound familiar at all?

That first pilot created for ABC? It was not called All in the Family. The show was originally dubbed Justice For All, which sounds more like a courtroom drama than a sitcom. ABC’s second attempt? Those Were The Days. Finally, when CBS bought the show, it was given its iconic name — and the rest is history.

In the original pilot, Archie Bunker wasn’t actually Archie Bunker. He was “Archie Justice” and even had his last name printed on his door mat. The showrunners may have gone with this as a kind of play on his bigoted ways, but perhaps it was too on the nose. Thankfully, in the next version of the pilot, Archie’s last name was changed.

All in the Family’s famous theme song wasn’t created by just any studio schmuck, either! Lyricist Lee Adams and composer Charles Strouse worked together to engineer the tune every U.S. household would be humming. And the pair had quite some pedigree, as they also composed for the well-known musicals Bye Bye Birdie and Annie.

Still, Adams and Strouse almost never gave us the version of the theme song we know today. Producers couldn’t find the money for an orchestral rendition of “Those Were the Days,” and they only brought in Carroll O’Connor — who played Archie — and Jean Stapleton — who played Edith — to sing an off-key rendition as a last resort.

O’Connor also played a part in All in the Family’s closing theme tune, and this proved to be surprisingly lucrative. The actor received royalties and a co-writer credit for the song “Remembering You.” This was despite the fact that the lyrics he penned never ended up being used on the show!

Casting for the show proved to be quite the adventure, but showrunners certainly got the right man for Archie Bunker — the blue-collar, cigar-smoking family man who always knew the wrong thing to say. As a liberal, O’Connor may have seemed an odd fit for the role, but his strong acting abilities helped him make Archie entertaining.

In the beginning, Norman Lear wanted someone else to play Archie: Mickey Rooney! After learning about the role, however, Rooney was rumored to have been uncomfortable. He agreed with critics that Archie was controversial — too controversial. Basically, he didn’t want to play the man at all — and who can blame him?

It took All in the Family a while to find the right actors for its liberal characters. Before Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers were ultimately cast as Michael and Gloria, respectively, executives tried out two other pairs: Kelly Jean Peter and Tim MacIntire, and Candy Azzara and Chip Oliver.

On another interesting note, Penny Marshall — the wife of Rob Reiner — almost earned the role of Gloria. But Sally Struthers and Carroll O’Connor shared a familial likeness that executives appreciated. No one should feel too badly for Marshall, either, as she later landed a lead role in Laverne and Shirley.

It’s hard to think of anyone besides Rob Reiner playing Polish-American hippie Michael, but studio executives had a few additional casting choices in mind for the role. Norman Lear even tried his best to lure Harrison Ford to the project! The future Han Solo found Archie Bunker too offensive, however, and declined.

As shows in the ’70s started using laugh tracks, Norman Lear adamantly defended filming in front of actual people and refused to pump fake chuckles in. He was so proud of this, in fact, that every episode of All in the Family bore the end note: “All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live studio audience.”

Before the All in the Family pilot finally aired, CBS was terrified of the potentially offensive material Lear was about to deliver by way of Archie Bunker. So, network executives ordered a huge team of operators to man the phone lines when the episode aired — expecting the viewer complaints to come flooding in.

And when the show finally aired, did the phones ring off the hook with viewers livid about Archie’s bigotry being broadcast on primetime TV? No. Almost no one called to complain. Maybe that was because CBS added in a disclaimer at the start of the pilot; maybe it was because audiences were unfazed.

But while CBS worried audiences would be unsettled by the show’s topics, it was another matter entirely that caused the phones to ring. In a nutshell, some viewers had a hard time comprehending the last lines of the opening theme song. Calls about the muffled lyrics became so frequent, in fact, that showrunners had to re-record the song.

Lear used his own family experiences as the basis for much of the show. In fact, two of Archie’s most famous quips were first uttered by his parents. His father would often tell his mother to “stifle herself.” She would then retaliate by saying, “You are the laziest white man I ever saw.”

The big reason Lear made the show was the anticipation that Archie was always going to be in the wrong. In every episode, someone would correct him or reprimand him — or tried to, anyway. And when fans grew to love Archie so much that they called for him to be president, Lear couldn’t help but feel as though they had missed the show’s point.

During the first season of All in the Family, Rob Reiner started to get on the bad side of the writers and producers. But it wasn’t due to contractual demands or anything like that. Instead, Reiner’s hairline was receding — which didn’t make him look like a hip young guy. To fix the problem, the producers handed him a hairpiece.

Commercial time increased in the 1970s, meaning each episode of All in the Family lost about three additional minutes to ads. And Lear couldn’t stand this. Citing his show’s decreased run-time as a reason, Lear offered to pay CBS to give up these extra commercial spots. Unfortunately for him, his offer was ultimately denied.

Lear also created “the bottle episode" — a term used for a TV episode that takes place all on one or two sets, or “trapped in a bottle.” We saw this for the first time in the episode “Two’s a Crowd,” when Archie and Michael get stuck in a bar’s storeroom. And, obviously, the limited set pieces saved production a ton of money.

Lear was influenced by the greats of cinema, too. In the All in the Family episode “Everybody Tells the Truth,” the creator drew inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Both stories feature flashbacks to offer different viewpoints of a single incident — although Rashomon is a drama rather than a comedy.

The Bunkers’ far more liberal next-door neighbors Frank and Irene Lorenzo were originally intended to be long-running characters. But while Betty Garrett played Irene until 1975, Vincent Gardenia only appeared as Frank for one season. The actor quit the show in its infancy — apparently because he found his character boring.

As All in the Family steamrolled through successful season after successful season, Carroll O’Connor demanded a new contract. He wanted 12 weeks of vacation time with a 24-week work schedule, even going on strike to get his wish. When some of his demands were met, he finally returned — which is just as well, as the show wouldn't be the same without him.

And O’Connor had taken some persuading to accept the role in the first place. Based in Italy at the time, the actor had wanted reassurance that his flight home would be paid for if All in the Family stalled at the pilot stage. But as we all now know, producers never needed to take out their wallets.

Only a couple of years after the Stonewall riots propelled gay rights into the social consciousness, All in the Family introduced a gay character — making it the first TV sitcom to do so. In the episode, the word “gay” is never said once, but Michael and Gloria’s flamboyant friend still makes Archie flustered and uncomfortable.

CBS worried that many elements of the show would be offensive to viewers, but executives probably didn’t expect what would set audiences off the most. In an episode where Gloria delivers a baby, the camera briefly catches the nude newborn. That short glimpse of bare skin left mouths agape — and complaints rolling in.

Writer Ben Styler won an Emmy for “Edith’s Problem,” an episode in which the family matriarch accepts that she will go through menopause. Frustrated and anxious, Edith unleashed on her husband, who always gave it back to her in hefty supply. It was one of the many “taboo” topics All in the Family wasn’t afraid to address.

In 1971 All in the Family nearly lost Edith Bunker for several episodes — perhaps even a whole season! Jean Stapleton had the opportunity to play the role of Mrs. Teavee in the then-upcoming Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She decided that she preferred portraying Edith, however, and ultimately declined the role.

Along with bringing up menopause and the gay rights movement, the sitcom also threatened to ruffle feathers when talking about the Vietnam War. “The Draft Dodger” put Archie in the middle of the conflict, having him host a Christmas dinner attended by a draft dodger — much to the patriarch’s chagrin. The episode became iconic.

O’Connor wanted to extend All in the Family’s legacy with a brand new series in the early ’90s. The show would focus on Archie’s full-time cab driver job and his topical conversations with passengers. Lear was left unconvinced, however, and instead decided to focus on developing 1994’s 704 Hauser.

Frustrated with her character’s lack of development, Sally Struthers took very drastic measures. The actress, who played Gloria Bunker, sued producers in 1974 so that she could break free from her contract. The tactic worked, and Struthers was given more to do. In the end, she appeared on the show for 157 episodes.

Who was the most famous guest star on this sitcom? That would have been Sammy Davis Jr. When the famous Black entertainer arrived, Archie put his foot in his mouth again and again, which gave the Rat Pack star the chance to fire back. There was even the opportunity to plant a kiss on Archie’s cheek!

What happened to the artifacts from All in the Family? Well, the two chairs Archie and Edith always sat in are carefully preserved in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Those two chairs were purchased from a thrift shop prior to the pilot — only to be immortalized by Lear’s sitcom!