TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As a Prior Generation Deals With a Broken TV Set)

[Archie is eager to watch his "man-in-the-street" interview on "The CBS Evening News" with Walter Cronkite, but his TV set begins to malfunction 45 minutes before before air time.]

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor] [accusingly, to wife Edith]: “You’re wearin’ out this set with them sufferin’ soap operas.”

Edith Bunker [played by Jean Stapleton] [moving back by the sofa]: “Sometimes it clears up, Archie, if I stand right here and jump up and down a few times.” [She tries it, three times.]

Archie: “Will you cut that out? This is serious here.” [He turns back to the set. Edith jumps even higher this time. Archie points at the set.] “Hold on…we got a picture with that last jump.”

Gloria Stivic [played by Sally Struthers]: “But it’s bending in the middle.”

Archie [waving at the set ineffectually]: “It’s bending in the middle here!”

Mike Stivic [played by Rob Reiner]: “You can fix that easy just by hitting it on the side.”

[Archie pounds three times on the set, which lets out a long, low, dying cry. Archie looks at the set for a long second, then stares balefully at his son-in-law for offering this unhelpful advice.]—All in the Family, Season 2, Episode 11, “The Man in the Street,” original air date Dec. 4, 1971, teleplay by Don Nicholl, Paul Harrison, and Lennie Weinrib, directed by John Rich

Even when All in the Family didn’t resort to topical humor, it could mine comic gold from the humdrum frustrating daily situations facing American families. 

Today, younger generations used to cable TV or (more likely these days) streaming multiple station don’t understand the desperation that could ensue in households like the Bunkers’ when a favorite show (on only three networks and several syndicated channels) came on but you could hardly enjoy it because of dots or lines on your small screen.

Well, I guess what’s worse these days is if you get no picture at all—and you call the cable company for help, only to get a customer rep answering you from, say, Southeast Asia—or, worse yet, you’re told it might take hours, maybe even a day or so, before a repair techie can come to the house.