Carroll O'Connor's character Archie Bunker in the show All in the Family is without a doubt one of the most controversial TV characters of all time, and in my opinion he's one of the greatest characters too. Archie’s recliner is in the Nation Museum of American History, so I’m not the only one who thinks he’s a great character. Bunker is a classic example of an American. He’s a hard working, middle class, white male; which is what made him so popular amongst viewers.
The show focused around the Bunker family and the majority of the humor came from Archie's bigotry. In fact, before the first episode CBS ran a disclaimer that said, "The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are.” Just as the article theorized All in the Family was meant to be a satire.
In the episode we watched in class, “Sammy’s Visit”, the Bunkers receive a visit from Sammy Davis Jr. During Davis’ time in the Bunker’s home, Archie has some racist (but funny) remarks towards Davis such as “You being colored, I know you had no choice in that. But what ever made you turn Jew?” viewers can tell that he’s ignorant to the things he says by the way Davis reacts to Archie’s comments. Davis pretty much just ignores Archie’s bigotry during the episode. Of the show Davis said; "[It] has turned the heads of the nation. It is exposing some of the ills of today's society and doing it in good taste via humor and entertainment. I just want to be part of it all."
Even though Carroll O’Conner passed away in 2001, his character’s legacy lives on. All in the Family reruns are still played on TV Land. But Archie’s spirit lives on through Eric Cartman on South Park. In an interview between Ken Paulson and the creators of South Park Trey Parker said; “We saw syndicated runs of All in the Family. And we were, you know, really, like, ‘Wow, this, this was — what happened to this stuff?’ 'Cause it just went away when everything got so PC in the '80s. And, you know, you could never have had an Archie Bunker again. It was — really, when we started talking about, ‘How could you bring an Archie Bunker back? What if you made him a little eight-year-old fat kid?’ That, that really influenced one of our characters, Cartman, in the show. It was based on Archie Bunker.” I was really surprised that I had never made the connection between Cartman and Archie. Cartman is one of my favorite characters on South Park because he says whatever’s on his mind, just like Archie.
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