Last year, Glenn acquired the entire set of All in the Family, the iconic sitcom starring Carroll O'Conner as the old-school, working-class conservative, Archie Bunker, and Rob Reiner as the hippie progressive, Michael Sitvic, or, as Archie called him, "Meathead." With the set finally assembled, Glenn began last week's Glenn TV special by recalling his viewers to a former time captured in All in the Family, a time when Americans were shown how to have meaningful dialogue, and even full-fledged arguments, about the issues of their time with those they disagreed with.
All in the Family aired during one of the most contentious times in U.S. history. In the early 1970s, the Vietnam War was still raging, Marxism and Progressive Feminism were sprouting out of the soil tilled by the 1960s counterculture, and everyday Americans were reeling from skyrocketing inflation. Instead of shying away from these topics, as Glenn said, All in the Family "brought them directly to your living room."
Archie and Meathead rarely agreed on anything. To Archie, Meathead was a free-loading, welfare-dependent hippie who was as content living off of his in-laws' pockets as the government's. To Meathead, Archie was an old-school, stick-in-the-mud conservative who was willfully blind to the plights of others and the potential changes needed to help them.
Fights about welfare, big government, Marxism, racism, and any other hot-button issue under the sun would erupt in the Bunker home. Archie and Meathead rarely agreed on anything, and they would seldom convince the other of their perspective. Yet they were always able to eat at the same kitchen table and sit next to each other in the living room. They were family, and they were Americans. They both cared deeply for their country, though they disagreed on which policies would best serve it.
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Could you imagine having these conversations today? Meaningful civil disagreement often feels like a bygone relic of a former, wholesome era, one that we longingly look at in old-school shows like All in the Family. Families are more divided than ever. Communities are more divided than ever. America is more divided than ever. We not only lack a common view of what America is and should be; but a growing portion of Americans are ambivalent towards their country. Would Meathead and Archie be able to debate politics if they both didn't share a love for America?
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All In The Family reminds us that national change begins in our homes, in conversations at the dinner table, in disagreements in the living room. As Glenn said during last Wednesday's Glenn TV episode, the Bunker family "demonstrated how important freedom of speech is, not only to our families, but to our homes, a family who showed that can still love those who think differently from yourself." If love and family could bring Archie and Meathead together during their divided time, perhaps we can take a few notes from them in our time.
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All in the Family set arrives at Mercury Studios
Check out the photos of the All in the Family set in its permanent home in Mercury Studios. Click HERE for a full view of the set from last week's Glenn TV special.
The Bunkers' front door and Archie and Meathead's iconic living room chairs
Katarina Bradford / Staff | Mercury Radio Arts
The Bunkers' living room and staircase
Katarina Bradford / Staff | Mercury Radio Arts
The Bunkers' original dining set used during scenes filmed in their dining room.
Katarina Bradford / Staff | Mercury Radio Arts
Original 'family photos' of the Bunkers and Sitvics.
Katarina Bradford / Staff | Mercury Radio Arts