By David J. Glenn
When “All in the Family” debuted on CBS in 1971, a warning was displayed before the episode began, telling viewers they might find some of the dialogue objectionable.
After a few episodes, the disclaimer was dropped. Even though Archie Bunker, the middle-aged loading-dock foreman living in Astoria, spewed the kind of bigotry that would be all but impossible to hear over today's PC-conscious airwaves, he became a lovable bigot. As the series progressed during its eight-year run, Archie Bunker could be seen to be a basically good-hearted human being whose prejudices stemmed more from his insecurities and tough life than any real hatred.
Archie, of course, would not have been possible without Carroll O'Connor, who died in a Los Angeles hospital last Thursday of a heart attack at age 76 with Nancy, his wife of 50 years, by his side. O'Connor – who grew up in Forest Hills – was an accomplished actor with other roles on his resume, including the open-minded Southern sheriff in the series “In the Heat of the Night,” but it was as Archie Bunker that he will always be remembered.
“The character had such an impact on how people saw Queens,” said David Schwartz, chief curator of film at the American Museum of the Moving Image in, fittingly enough, Astoria. “He showed Queens as a different world from Manhattan.”
It may not have been the kind of world that promoters of Queens may have liked, but it did show that Queens was more than just an “outer borough” of New York, with a great diversity of people whose struggles with family and money are universal.
The AMMI, in fact, has an edition of an Archie Bunker board game.
Schwartz recalled that in 1988, when the Wall Street Journal profiled the opening of the AMMI, it described the museum as a “cultural outpost in Archie Bunker land.”
“Archie Bunker became associated with Queens more than any other screen character,” Schwartz said. “Carroll O'Connor brought a depth to the character, making Archie more just a simple-minded bigot.”
Dorothy Brandow, 89, has a unique connection to O'Connor and “All in the Family,” even though she never met the man. She has lived at 89-70 Cooper Ave. in Rego Park since she was 12, the house that was pictured in the opening credits of the show as the home of Archie and Edith (Jean Stapleton) Bunker, their daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and their son-in-law, Mike Spivak (Rob Reiner), the ultra-liberal graduate student whom Archie always called “Meathead.”
“My friends would always tell me they saw me on TV,” Brandow told Qguide. Of course, it was the house, not her, on the show, but “they considered it like it was me on TV,” she said.
“I felt good” about the house being a part of O'Connor's show, Brandow said, describing the actor as “a nice man” even though she never knew him.
Those who did know him agree. As a testament to his acting prowess, his real personality was 180 degrees opposite to that of Archie Bunker. He was respected as a sophisticated, intelligent person deeply committed to acting.
O'Connor was known most recently for TV public service ads urging parents to talk to their kids about drug use, to prevent their children from sharing the fate of his adopted son, Hugh, who became addicted to cocaine and eventually committed suicide in 1995.
O'Connor won four Emmy awards for his role as Archie Bunker.
Reach Qguide Editor David Glenn by e-mail at glenn@timesledger.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 139.
