TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Archie Addresses His Bar’s Customers on Super Bowl Sunday)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “Before the second half starts here, I just want to take the opportunity to express my, whaddyacallit, gratitude and depreciation to all my loyal friends and customers here who are here with me today to share with me in watching this magnificent sportin' event.” —All in the Family, Season 8, Episode 16, “Super Bowl Sunday,” original air date Jan. 15, 1978, 78, teleplay by Bob Weiskopf, Bob Schiller, and Johnny Speight, directed by Paul Bogart

One difference between this Super Bowl and the one 48 years ago: “this magnificent sportin' event” concludes the NFL season three weeks later. Way too long, as far as I’m concerned.

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ With ‘Archie Bunker's Bicentennial Minute’)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor] [to liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic]: “That ain't the American way, buddy. No, siree. Listen here, professor. You're the one who needs an American History lesson. You don't know nothin' about Lady Liberty standin' there in the harbor, with her torch on high, screamin' out to all the nations in the world: ‘Send me your poor, your deadbeats, your filthy.’ And all the nations send 'em in here, they come swarming in like ants. Your Spanish P.R.'s from the Caribboin, your Japs, your Chinamen, your Krauts, and your Hebes, and your English fags. All of 'em come in here and they're all free to live in their own separate sections where they feel safe. And they'll bust your head if you go in there. That's what makes America great, buddy.” [exits the Stivic house]

Mike Stivic [played by Rob Reiner] [to Gloria]: “I think we just heard ‘Archie Bunker's Bicentennial Minute.’"—All in the Family, Season 6, Episode 7, “Mike Faces Life,” original air date Oct. 27, 1975, teleplay by Mel Tolkin, Larry Rhine, and Johnny Speight, directed by Paul Bogart

I felt a shock of recognition when I heard about these lines a few weeks ago. For starters, it was Archie’s benighted view of immigration—one, with its nonstop onslaught of slurs and utter disregard for any notion of a "melting pot," that might have seemed ready to fade into the margins a half-century ago, but resurgent now, with the issue even central to the 2024 Presidential election.

But that phrase “Bicentennial Minute” also struck a chord with me. These short educational segments commemorating the American Revolution aired on CBS—the same network that ran All in the Family—from July 4, 1974, until December 31, 1976.

During that two-year period, one of my high school’s history teachers thought of including similar segments during morning announcements. I was selected to write them. 

Though I enjoyed learning about such bits of history, I came to groan each time as I watched members of my homeroom roll their eyes when the pieces were read into a microphone in the principal’s office and heard all over the school.

It’s funny how the world turns. Public television viewers were lucky to take in Ken Burns’ documentary series on the Revolutionary War, rolling out with greater depth and complexity than those “Bicentennial Minutes.”

On the other hand, the White House has announced the Salute to America 250 Task Force (“Task Force 250”). One of its early initiatives, “The Patriot Games,” doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence, with a name sounding all too much like “The Hunger Games.” How much will its participants learn about the groups that heeded the call of Lady Liberty?

Quote of the Day (Rob Reiner, on How He’d Like To Be Remembered)

“Complete this sentence (fact or fiction are both acceptable): ‘I was born in THE BRONX, N.Y. and I studied MY FATHER AND MOTHER at HOME. I became world famous in SHOW BUSINESS and I hope I'll be remembered as MORE THAN JUST A MEATHEAD.”—American film director (and actor on TV’s All in the Family) Rob Reiner (1947-2025), completing “The Mel Brooks Questionnaire,” T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Sept. 28, 2025

I never thought, when I first spotted this quote, that I would be using it so soon on this blog. It’s a tribute to Rob Reiner that he had such an ability to laugh at himself—and to help others do the same in the often insane world in which we live.

I’m not going to talk—at least not right now—about the President’s graceless social media post about the tragic murder of Reiner and his wife Michele at the hands of their son Nick, following their unrelenting but unsuccessful efforts to save him from drug addiction and depression. I’d rather discuss what Reiner’s TV and film work meant to me.

As a tween, I came to know Reiner through his role as Mike Stivic, the liberal "Meathead" foil to bigoted father-in-law Archie Bunker on Norman Lear’s taboo-breaking Seventies TV satire All in the Family. 

Nowadays, some on the right might tag him as a “nepo baby” as the son of The Dick Van Dyke creator Carl Reiner. What I did know was that he was brilliant, richly deserving of the Best Supporting Actor Emmy he won before departing the show.

I have so many favorite episodes involving him (and, indeed, as far as I’m concerned, it never recovered after he and Sally Struthers left), but I urge you to view two in particular: “Gloria Poses in the Nude” (Season 4), when Reiner uses a twitch in the eye to signal his jealousy of his being painted by a friend of his, and “Gloria Suspects Mike” (Season 6), in which Mike nervously tries to fend off an attractive economics student (played by Bernadette Peters) who is coming on to him.

Even while appearing in All in the Family, Reiner was looking to write and direct. He did so on several episodes in the show’s first few seasons, and helped conceive the short-lived summer replacement comedy The Super, starring Richard Castellano.

A decade later, he had become a force in film, pushing from strength to strength with The Sure Thing, This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, Misery, and A Few Good Men.

Dustin Hoffman joked that every actor has at least one Ishtar on his resume. The same applies to directors. I’m afraid that I was peripherally involved in what may well have been Reiner’s. 

In the early 1990s, while working in research at a nonprofit trade association, I was contacted by a staffer at Rob Reiner’s production company, Castle Rock Entertainment, for the names of some area enclosed malls that could be used for a scene in his next film, North. I provided a few names, and couldn’t wait to see the results.

In 1994, North finally appeared. It not only underperformed at the box office, but in the years since, it’s been listed among the worst movies ever made. Well, every decent film director is entitled to at least one misfire, I guess.

From what I can tell, however, no movie in Reiner’s considerable filmography as a director, producer, and writer was in bad taste. Quite simply, he respected the intelligence of audiences, like his father and Lear.

Rob Reiner grew up and flourished in a better time than the current moment. His life and work deserve celebration, not trolling by a barbarian and his all-too-easily-influenced horde.

Nearly 40 years after working with Reiner on Stand by Me, one of its child actors, Will Wheaton, now established in the industry, told CNN, upon hearing the news of the director’s death:

“The world knows Rob as a generational talent, a storyteller and humanitarian activist who made a difference with his art, his voice, and his influence. I knew that man, but I also knew a man who treated me with more kindness, care, and love than my own father ever did. And it is the loss of that man that is piercing my heart right now.”

(The image accompanying this post, of Rob Reiner at the German premiere of The Bucket List, was taken in Berlin on Jan. 21, 2008, by Franz Richter)

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Edith Recalls Archie’s Past Thanksgiving Heroism)

[Archie saves the life of a passenger in a cab he’s driving by administering “mouth-to-mouth restitution”—unaware that this “lady” is a female impersonator.]

Edith Bunker [played by Jean Stapleton]: “I ain't been so proud of you since Uncle Willie cut his finger carving the Thanksgiving turkey and you stopped the bleeding by tying it up with the string they used to tie up the turkey's you-know-what with.”

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “How can you do that all in one breath?”— All in the Family, Season 6, Episode 4, “Archie the Hero,” original air date Sept. 29, 1975, teleplay by Lou Derman, Bill Davenport, and Johnny Speight, directed by Paul Bogart

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ With a Difference of Opinion on Singing)

Cousin Maude [played by Bea Arthur] [after Maude sings loudly to wake everybody up]: “Are you waiting for a special invitation? I said breakfast is on the table.”

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “I heard ya. So did every moose up in Canada.”—All in the Family, Season 2, Episode 12, “Cousin Maude’s Visit,” original air date Dec. 11, 1971, teleplay by Phil Mishkin, Michael Ross, and Bernie West, directed by John Rich

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.

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ on a Difficult Problem for Archie)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “I’ve got a very serious problem here’s gonna take all of my thinking and all of my consecration.”—All in the Family, Season 2, Episode 10, “The Insurance Is Cancelled,” original air date Nov. 27, 1971, teleplay by Norman Lear, Lee Kalcheim, and directed by John Rich

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?)

 

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Archie Rushes a Wedding)

[Edith Bunker has invited residents from the Sunshine Home where she volunteers to 704 Houser Street, for an elderly couple’s wedding. Her husband Archie is rushing the ceremony so he can dash off on a weekend fishing trip with his friend Barney.]

Reverend Schaeffer [played by Will Mackenzie]: “Mr. Bunker, this is the form for the solemnization of marriage.”

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “We don’t want the long form. That’s only for young people who are strong enough to stand up for a half hour listening. This couple’s gonna have to take a nap in five minutes.”—All in the Family, Season 8, Episode 6, “Unequal Partners,” original air date Oct. 23, 1977, teleplay by Chuck Stewart and Ben Starr, directed by Paul Bogart

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ on the Supreme Court and Presidential Politics)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “What the Supreme Court says ain't got nothing to do with the law. They okayed busing too 'til President Nixon give 'em the old one-two.” —All in the Family, Season 3, Episode 1, “Archie and the Editorial,” original air date Sept. 16, 1972, teleplay by George Arthur Bloom and Don Nicholl, directed by Norman Campbell

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Just substitute an issue currently on the Supreme Court’s docket and the name “Trump” for “Nixon” and this line fits as well today as it did in 1972.

Or, as the great Irish-American satirist Finley Peter Dunne wrote in his “Mr. Dooley” column back in the early 20^th century: “No matter whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not, th' Supreme Court follows th' iliction returns.”

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ on ‘A Station Wagon Filled With Nuns')

[Involved in a minor, non-injury traffic accident, Archie, seized with visions of a sizable settlement, suddenly develops an aching back. Then, with the opposing attorneys in the case in his living room, matters take an unexpected turn.]

Clarence V. Marshall [played by Richard Stahl]: “Now, according to our witnesses...”

Solomon Rabinowitz [played by Salem Ludwig]: “Witnesses? You said nothing to me about witnesses, Mr. Bunker.”

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “Oh, the kids, the kids, y'know.”

Rabinowitz: “Oh, yes, the little children in the playground. Hardly admissible.”

Marshall: “Yes, but I'm referring to a station wagon filled with nuns.”

Rabinowitz: “Your witnesses?”

Marshall: “A station wagon filled with nuns.”

[Archie’s face collapses.]

Marshall: “Now, according to them, you were coming out of the parking lot when it happened. Now, do you recall in what direction you were traveling?”

Rabinowitz: “His vehicle was headed north, I believe.”

Marshall: “Yes, but he was traveling south.”

Archie: “Well, I was backing up. Now, what difference could that make?”

Marshall [smiling]: “Well, if you were backing up, you were going the wrong way in a one-way alley.”

Archie [looking helplessly up at Rabinowitz]: “Well, I must have been going forward.”

Marshall: “Not according to our witnesses.”

Rabinowitz [dourly]: “A station wagon filled with nuns.”

Marshall [reading from statement]: “Yes, Sister Maria Yolanda, Sister Catherine, Sister Jeremy, Sister Rosemary, Sister…”

Archie: “All right, all right, all right! Everybody knows they go around in a mob.” [Looks to door, where Rabinowitz is getting his coat.] “Hey, Mr. Rabinowitz, where you goin’? Hey, don’t leave, Mr. Rabinowitz. Listen, don’t be a-scared of this guy. I mean, alongside of you, he’s like a green kid. I mean, you’re a mensch! Get after him!”

Rabinowitz: “There’s an old, old rule of law, Mr. Bunker. They say it dates back before the turn of the century: In a court of law, you can’t beat a station wagon filled with nuns.” —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 

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Archie and Sammy Davis Jr. Discuss the Races and Slavery)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “Now, no prejudice intended, but, you know, I always check with the Bible on these here things. I think that, I mean if God had meant for us to be together, he'da put us together. But look what he done. He put you over in Africa, and put the rest of us in all the white countries.”

Sammy Davis Jr.: “Well, he must’ve told him where we were, 'cause somebody came and got us.”— All in the Family, Season 2, Episode 21, “Sammy’s Visit,” original air date Feb. 19, 1972, teleplay by Bill Dana, directed by John Rich

This is easily one of the most memorable episodes of this ground-breaking comedy.

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Archie Fears Age Discrimination)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “They just wanna get rid of us old guys over 50, that’s all, and put us out to pasture. Well I ain’t ready to be pasteurized!” —All in the Family, Season 6, Episode 9, “Grandpa Blues,” original air date Nov. 10, 1975, teleplay by Mel Tolkin and Larry Rhine, directed by Paul Bogart

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Archie Butchers the Mother Tongue Once Again)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “Now hear this, all of yous, and pass the word to the kitchen: I’ve got a very serious problem here’s gonna take all of my thinking and all of my consecration.” —All in the Family, Season 2, Episode 10, “The Insurance Is Canceled,” original air date Nov. 27, 1971, teleplay by Lee Kalcheim, directed by John Rich

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ With a Malapropism for Our Time)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O’Connor]: “You never believe nuttin’, Edith. You’re one of them septics.”— All in the Family, Season 3, Episode 6, “Edith Flips Her Wig,” original air date Oct. 21, 1972, teleplay by Sam Locke, Olga Vallance, and Don Nicholl, directed by Hal Cooper

TV Quote of the Day (‘All in the Family,’ As Archie Shows the Need to Brush Up on Shakespeare—and Geography)

Archie Bunker [played by Carroll O'Connor] (scowling): “Something is stinko in the city of Denmark.”— All in the Family, “Gloria Suspects Mike,” Season 6, Episode 10, original air date Nov. 17, 1975, teleplay by Lou Derman and Milt Josefsberg, directed by Paul Bogart