Recap / All In The Family S 4 E 17 Archie Feels Left Out

It's Archie's birthday and we see Edith planning his surprise party. However that will not turn out as good as she expected...

This episode contains examples of the following tropes:

• Birthday Episode: For Archie, who stubbornly states he's 49 but is actually 50 years old. Mr. Quigley, who was invited to Archie's party, has his own birthday (83 years old) the day after Archie's.
• Birthday Hater: It turns out Archie was afraid of being old, so he didn't want another reminder of that fact. He was especially afraid of not being able to do stuff he wanted to do, like not riding a horse, his face not showing in the newspaper, and not eating "earsters (sic) Rockefeller" (although he already went to Disneyworld). His fears decline after Mr. Quigley points to him he still looks forward for his birthdays, rode a horse at 63 and was going to receive a set of discs containing French lessons for his birthday (learning French being a long-time dream of his).
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?:
  Kelsey: Hey, hello there, Mrs. Bunker!
  Archie: Oh, geez! Oh!
  Edith: Hello, Mr. Kelsey!
  Kelsey: What brings you here?
  Edith: Well, it was your phone call (the one Kelsey had done in a previous scene that took him so long he had to delay serving a beer to Archie). (Kelsey waves his heads in discontent, while Edith opens her mouth in the form of an "O" as if to say "I blew it".)
  Archie: Oh, oh. So, it's her who you was (sic) talking on the phone. Is nothing sacred no more? Whatever happened to "a man's bar (sic) is his castle"?
  Edith: Archie, don't blame Mr. Kelsey. Mike called him and asked him to phone if you came here.
  Archie: Oh, the Meathead done (sic) that? You suppose that makes it all right.
• Filth: Archie feels that way about Last Tango in Paris. He distinguishes between that and "sexy pictures".
  Kelsey: Hey, listen, what are gonna do to celebrate?
  Archie: Nothing, I've been to the movies.
  Kelsey: What did you see?
  Archie: Heheheh... The Last Tango on Paris (sic).
  Kelsey: Hey, Arch, I hear that's kinda sexy, huh?
  Archie: You know, I went there they was (sic) bringing back one of 'em (sic) nice old movies. You know, Gene Kelly dancing around the Eiffel Tower in a sailor's suit. All I've seen was pure pornogra-phy (sic).
  Kelsey: Ain't (sic) that sexy?
  Archie: No, it ain't (sic) sexy. The last time they made a sexy picture was with Gloria DeHaven.
  Kelsey: Gloria DeHaven made sexy movies?!
  Archie: Yeah, she made sexy movies. And I tell you another one, too: Betty Grable. And she was sexy! But you see her (sic), she never showed you no sex (sic), you know.
  Kelsey: What do you mean?
  Archie: What do I mean? She left it all in the... what do you call?... imagination, see, she left it in your mind, that's where sex outta (sic) be.
  Kelsey: (Nodding his head in a disapproving fashion and laughing) Not for me, Arch, no.
  Archie: Not for you. I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about the movies. Did you know they once insured Betty Grable's legs for one million dollars?
  Kelsey: No!
  Archie: Heheh. (Small smile) I wouldn't give you two bits for Marlon Brando's legs. Or, any other parts of him I've just seen featured.
  Kelsey: I get the feeling you didn't like that picture.
  Archie: It was so filthy, I nearly walked out of it.
• Happy Birthday to You!: They sing the standard tune to Archie twice (except, in the latter time, Mike sings the non-standard "happy 50th birthday to you" just to annoy Archie).
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Archie stating he's 49, not 50 (even though he is, indeed, 50 years old). Edith (due to her writing "happy 50th birthday" on the cake), Mike (due to insisting on him being 50) and Kelsey (for the latter asking whether he was 55 or 56, because he looked that old to the latter) all rub him wrong.
  • It's not "Mrs. Quigley" (because she's not married to nor she will marry with Mr. Quigley) and it's not "Miss Nelson". It's Ms. Nelson.
    Ms. Nelson: (After Edith called her "Miss Nelson") No, it's Ms.. Ms.. Ms..
  • "Pure pornogra-phy (sic)" vs. "sexy pictures", for Archie, as seen above.
• Missing Your Own Party: He abandoned Edith's surprise party and went to Kelsey's bar.
  Ms. Nelson: I still don't understand, why didn't Archie stay? I thought it was his birthday.
  Edith: I think the surprise was too much for him. I guess he's just taking a walk around the block.
  Irene: For two hours? (According to a later scene, he went to the movie theater.)
  Mr. Quigley: Maybe he's forgotten his way home. I found that a lot of youngsters have poor memories nowadays.
  Edith: But he'll be here. Let's all have a good time.
  (Cue Archie moping at Kelsey's Bar.)
  • In a later scene at the party, they are indeed shown having a good time with Gloria and Mr. Quigley happily singing "South of Your Border".
  • After Edith goes there, talks with him for a while and hands him his gift, she goes home and tells the guests the party is off.
• Mock Surprise Reaction: Twice for Archie, one at work and one at home, as explained below. He uses the following catchprase both times:
  What? Who? Me?
• My New Gift Is Lame: Edith offers Archie a ukulele "just like Arthur Godfrey's". He actually likes it, but it is useless since he doesn't know how to play it.
• Surprise Party: Archie actually blows two of these:
  • The first one, at work, because he saw Stretch Cunningham putting a candle on a Twinkie, so he had to act surprised.
  • For the second one, at home, planned by Edith, because he arrives 20 minutes earlier than she had asked him to, due to a power shortage at his workplace. He ends having to act surprised again and leave by the back door to reenter again, since Mike points out the "surprise" part of the party is as psychologically important to the guests as it is to the birthday boy. Later he abandons the party.
  • The guests of the latter, however, have an impromptu surprise party at Kelsey's, and that one goes well (other than Mike upsetting Archie by singing "happy 50th birthday to you" by the end of the birthday song).
• When I Was Your Age...:
  • The first was when Mr. Quigley says, relating to Archie not coming back:
    I found that a lot of youngsters have poor memories nowadays. (Archie was having his 50th birthday party.)
  • The second was when Archie talks about Last Tango in Paris, as mentioned above.
  • The third was when Mr. Quigley pulls this on Archie and Kelsey while talking about playing the ukulele:
    (Mr. Quigley had been asked by Archie if he rode a horse, to which the former said yes.)
    Archie: What about (playing, of course) a ukulele?
    Mr. Quigley: I don't think you can ride a ukulele.
    Archie: I didn't mean that. I mean... me, I was thinking maybe I'd learn how play well.
    Mr. Quigley: Oh, yeah?
    Archie: Yeah. You know, play some of 'em (sic) nice songs, like, huh, "Home on the Range", "South of Your Border" (which Gloria and Mr. Quigley had actually been singing in a previous scene), "Red Sails in the Sunset"...
    Mr. Quigley: Oh, yeah, modern stuff! You outta heard (sic) I was brought up with. You, young sprigs, have missed out on a lot of good tunes.
    Archie: (To Kelsey.) You hear what he's calling us here? You, me, "young sprigs"? Ha, ha, ha. Well, maybe to him (points to Mr. Quigley) we are "young sprigs", huh, Kelsey? And, after all, maybe we are. Sure. You know what I'm just thinking of now (sic)? The best thing to do is not to look back at the past at all, just get up and move with the times.
    Mr. Quigley: Mmm, I'll try to remember that.