TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Archie Reveals His Mastery of English—and German)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “It's irrelative.”

Mike Stivic [played by Rob Reiner] [correcting him]: "Irrelevant."

Archie: “Whatever, it ain't German to the conversation.” —All in the Family, Season 1, Episode 3, “Archie’s Aching Back,” original air date Jan 26, 1971, teleplay by Norman Lear, Stanley Ralph Ross, and Johnny Speight, directed by John Rich

Carroll O’Connor, a veteran character actor who reached stardom as Queens blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker, was born 100 years ago today in Manhattan.

Over the last half dozen years, and especially during the isolation of COVID-19, I have been able to watch well-known actors in their more obscure roles. That has been an especially fascinating experience when it comes to watching the pre-Bunker career of O’Connor.

My jaw dropped, for instance, when I spotted him as Casca, one of the conspirators against Julius Caesar, amid the multitudinous cast members in the notorious 1963 epic Cleopatra. I also caught him, in more modern clothes, in the neo-noir films Marlowe and Point Blank, and the early Sixties cop show, Naked City.

Like another actor with a burly frame, James Gandolfini, he might have been fated simply to a career of colorful but subordinate roles until he came across a part that, at best, could be described as an anti-hero—someone who thinks (and often acts) appallingly, but who, through the actor’s overwhelming talent, becomes all too recognizably human.

O'Connor was a major reason why Norman Lear's sitcom became that era's equivalent of "Appointment TV" not only in America, but our house in particular. The actor, you see, bore something of a physical resemblance to my father.

I chose the above quote for a couple of reasons.

First, contrary to viewers who never noticed the show’s satiric bent, these lines make unmistakably clear that Bunker is an idiot who is continually shown up.

Second, I wouldn’t be surprised if this exchange, like many during the show’s run, was not in the original script but instead improvised by O’Connor.

(Incidentally, as the son of a liberal lawyer and teacher, the actor was not remotely close to the character he played. According to this 2001 Irish Echo article, some people had a difficult time believing it, notably the board of New York's famed Dakota, which looked askance at his application for an apartment. It took a reference from Paul O'Dwyer, the Irish-born New York lawyer, politician and activist whose progressive bona fides were beyond doubt, to do the trick.)

I can’t think of another character in sitcom history who’s fractured the English language with malapropisms more often or more hilariously than Archie Bunker.

With Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers, and then Jean Stapleton gone, O’Connor chose to continue playing the character that won him four Emmy Awards in Archie Bunker’s Place.

But without this trio as foils, I’m afraid it was like Michael Jordan closing out his career with the Washington Wizards without the “supporting cast” he enjoyed with the Chicago Bulls.

(Yes, I know he played Chief Bill Gillespie for eight seasons on In the Heat of the Night. But it’s like Dick Van Dyke: Do you remember him for the five years he played Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show or the eight years he played Dr. Mark Sloan on Diagnosis: Murder?)