History TearJerker / AllInTheFamily

''[[caption-width-right:350::"You had no right to leave me that way... without giving me just one more chance to say I love you."]]''

[[caption-width-right:350:"You had no right to leave me that way... without giving me just one more chance to say I love you."]]

* "Archie's Bitter Pill". It starts with Archie being frustrated that his bar is going nowhere. Then he takes pills from a friend, and starts roaming around town with enthusiasm on how he'll build a chain of bars. But as his [[MoodWhiplash energy dies down]], he starts breaking up over the imminent failure of his business. Edith comforts Archie as he comes down from his pill-daze, crying over and over again "I didnt mean no harm, Edith..."

* "Too Good Edith" sees Edith, stricken with painful phlebitis that could kill her if she doesn't stay off her feet, attempting to tell Archie about her condition and that she won't be able to cook for his big St. Patrick's Day party. He steamrolls her before she can stress the seriousness of it, and not wanting to let him down, spends two days cooking. Archie comes down dressed in green regalia to a kitchen full of pans and a completely exhausted Edith, and obliviously sends her upstairs to get dressed so they can go to the party, where he tells her that all she has to do is serve the food. The image of him cheerfully singing from the next room as Edith attempts small, agonized hobbles towards the stairs, finally collapsing, is excruciating. Needless to say, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Archie is horrified]] when he learns the truth and insists she let him know when something's wrong, so that he can take care of her.

** According to one history of the series, this was a real-life tearjerker, as by the final scene the cast -- knowing this was possibly their last time together -- were emotionally spent and nervous about doing that final scene. Reportedly, it took 20 takes for an acceptable take to be put in the can, and a frustrated (and himself emotional) Norman Lear was wearing sunglasses as the number of blown takes mounted.

* The episode "Gloria the Victim," which is mentioned above, is equally tragic. A construction worker attempts to rape Gloria, and while she escapes, she's torn between pressing charges and wanting to forget the whole incident, especially when a police detective shows up and warns that the rapist's defense team will dredge up every "questionable" thing Gloria has ever done (such as posing nude for an artist or wearing a miniskirt) to make it seem like the crime was her own fault. She eventually decides that she's going to press charges regardless--and Mike and Archie refuse to let her do it by shouting her down and essentially robbing her of agency ''again.'' The episode ends with a slow zoom on Gloria's face as she [[ThousandYardStare stares off into the distance]], her eyes wide with fear as she imagines the man who attacked her walking the city and looking for his next target.

* The episode "Gloria the Victim," which is mentioned above, is equally tragic. A construction worker attempts to rape Gloria, and though she escapes, she's torn between pressing charges and wanting to forget the whole incident, especially when a police detective shows up and explains that the rapist's defense team will dredge up every "questionable" thing Gloria has ever done (such as posing nude for an artist or wearing a mini-skirt) to make it seem like the crime was her fault. She eventually decides that she's going to press charges regardless--and Mike and Archie refuse to let her do it by shouting her down and essentially robbing her of agency ''again.'' The episode ends with a slow zoom on Gloria's face as she [[ThousandYardStare stares off into the distance]], her eyes wide with fear as she imagines the man who attacked her walking the city and looking for his next target.

** The second part of the episode is similarly depressing, but in a different way. Edith goes through a period of post-traumatic stress that paralyzes her to the point of being afraid to leave the house. Seeing the normally cheerful, oblivious Edith so broken by her experience that she can't do anything but obsessively iron pillowcases is horrible. Similarly, watching Gloria desperately try to get through to her--and eventually reach a point where she's so frustrated and overwhelmed by Edith's refusal to cope that she screams "''You're not my mother anymore!''"--is extremely painful.
*** Remember that Gloria wanted to do everything she could to bring her rapist to justice, only to be steamrolled by Mike and Archie. Remember that her decision was prompted by Edith sharing her story of a similar attack when she was a young woman and her regret over not speaking up and potentially stopping that man from hurting anyone else. Her anger at Edith refusing to help put away the rapist from this episode is hard to watch but fully understandable.

* Although in "The Draft Dodger" the audience is supposed to see Archie as judgmental and reactionary, the speech he gives is sad in a fridge way, when you remember Archie himself was drafted. This speech, coupled with Carroll O'Connor's masterful acting, strongly implied that Archie was afraid to go to war but he did his duty anyway.

* Stephanie's whole ''backstory'' counts as this. Before the poor kid was even nine years old, she had to go through her parents' troubled marriage, her mother leaving her because the new man in her life didn't want her around (and then getting killed in an accident), living with a drunken bum of a dad who dragged her from one fleapit boarding house or hotel to another, and even her father ''deliberately abandoning her in bus stations'' as part of a scam. (He needed someplace to leave her when he was looking for some kind of work, so he'd leave her in the station, she'd end up getting taken to a children's shelter, and after a while Floyd would come get her when he had someplace to live again. He resorted to this because he wasn't allowed to check her into the shelter himself.) Before their arrival at the Bunkers', Floyd apparently tried other relatives, and they told Stephanie ''to her face'' that they didn't want a kid around. A few episodes after she's introduced, she's found to be stealing small items from around the house and at school...because she figures that this won't be any more permanent than her other homes have been and she at least wants something to remember this place by. When you look at it this way, it's really a SugarWiki/CrowningMomentofHeartwarming that she got to live a good life with her aunt and uncle...the life of a normal kid, with school and friends and activities and a stable home with loving guardians.

* Stephanie's whole ''backstory'' counts as this. Before the poor kid was even nine years old, she had to go through her parents' troubled marriage, her mother leaving her because the new man in her life didn't want her around (and then getting killed in an accident), living with a drunken bum of a dad who dragged her from one fleapit boarding house or hotel to another, and even her father ''deliberately abandoning her in bus stations'' as part of a scam. (He needed someplace to leave her when he was looking for some kind of work, so he'd leave her in the station, she'd end up getting taken to a children's shelter, and after a while Floyd would come get her when he had someplace to live again. He resorted to this because he wasn't allowed to check her into the shelter himself.) Before their arrival at the Bunkers', Floyd apparently tried other relatives, and they told Stephanie ''to her face'' that they didn't want a kid around. A few episodes after she's introduced, she's found to be stealing small items from around the house and at school...because she figures that this won't last any more than her other homes have and she at least wants something to remember this place by. When you look at it this way, it's really a SugarWiki/CrowningMomentofHeartwarming that she got to live a good life with her aunt and uncle...the life of a normal kid, with school and friends and activities and a stable home with loving guardians.

** Floyd's appearances are rather sad, too, deadbeat that he is. In his second appearance in ''AITF'' and his one appearance in a two-parter in ''Archie Bunker's Place,'' he's played by actor Ben Slack. In the former, Floyd basically blackmails the Bunkers into paying him money to let Stephanie stay with them (and therefore in a decent home instead of a filthy flophouse), claiming he needs to go somewhere and "dry out" before he can get a decent job. In the latter, he shows up apparently to celebrate Stephanie's bat mitzvah, but ends up trying to steal the money tree Stephie got as her bat mitzvah gift. Slack really knocks his performance out of the park...he plays Floyd with both desperation and a touch of self-loathing. You get the feeling that Floyd hates what he's become and is ashamed of himself, but just can't manage to get past his addictions, his compulsions, or his selfishness.

** Floyd's appearances are rather sad, too, deadbeat that he is. In his second appearance in ''AITF'' and his one appearance in a two-parter in ''Archie Bunker's Place,'' he's played by actor Ben Slack. In the former, Floyd basically blackmails the Bunkers into paying him money to let Stephanie stay with them (and therefore in a decent home instead of a filthy flophouse), claiming he needs to go somewhere and "dry out" before he can get a decent job. In the latter, he shows up apparently to celebrate Stephanie's bat mitzvah, but ends up trying to steal the money tree Stephie got as her bat mitzvah gift. Slack really knocks his performance out of the park...he plays Floyd with both desperation and a touch of self-loathing. You get the feeling that Floyd hated what he'd become and was ashamed of himself, but couldn't keep his addictions, compulsions, or self-serving behavior under control.

** Floyd's appearances are rather sad, too, deadbeat that he is. In his second appearance in ''AITF'' and his one appearance in a two-parter in ''Archie Bunker's Place,'' he's played by actor Ben Slack. Slack really knocks his performance out of the park...he plays Floyd with both desperation and a touch of self-loathing. You get the feeling that Floyd hated what he'd become and was ashamed of himself, but couldn't keep his addictions, compulsions, or self-serving behavior under control.

* Stephanie's whole ''backstory'' counts as this. Before the poor kid was even nine years old, she had to go through her parents' troubled marriage, her mother leaving her because the new man in her life didn't want her around (and then getting killed in an accident), living with a drunken bum of a dad who dragged her from one fleapit boarding house or hotel to another, and even her father ''deliberately abandoning her in bus stations'' as part of a scam. (He needed someplace to leave her when he was looking for some kind of work, so he'd leave her in the station, she'd end up getting taken to a children's shelter, and after a while Floyd would come get her when he had someplace to live again. He resorted to this because he wasn't allowed to check her into the shelter himself.) Before she arrives at the Bunkers', Floyd apparently tried other relatives, and they told Stephanie ''to her face'' that they didn't want a kid around. A few episodes after she's introduced, she's found to be stealing small items from around the house and at school...because she figures that this won't last any more than her other homes have and she at least wants something to remember this place by. When you look at it this way, it's really a SugarWiki/CrowningMomentofHeartwarming that she got to live a good life with her aunt and uncle...the life of a normal kid, with school and friends and activities and a stable home with loving guardians.

* Stephanie's whole ''backstory'' counts as this. Before the poor kid was even nine years old, she had to go through her parents' troubled marriage, her mother leaving her because the new man in her life didn't want her around (and then getting killed in an accident), living with a drunken bum of a dad who dragged her from one fleapit boarding house or hotel to another, and even her father ''deliberately abandoning her in bus stations'' as part of a scam. (He needed someplace to leave her when he was looking for some kind of work, so he'd leave her in the station, she'd end up getting taken to a children's shelter, and after a while Floyd would come get her when he had someplace to live again. He resorted to this because he wasn't allowed to check her into the shelter himself.) When you look at it this way, it's really a SugarWiki/CrowningMomentofHeartwarming that she got to live a good life with her aunt and uncle...the life of a normal kid, with school and friends and activities and a stable home with loving guardians.

* Stephanie's whole ''backstory'' counts as this. Before the poor kid was even nine years old, she had to go through her parents' troubled marriage, her mother leaving her because the new man in her life didn't want her around (and then getting killed in an accident), living with a drunken bum of a dad who dragged her from one fleapit boarding house or hotel to another, and even her father ''deliberately abandoning her in bus stations'' as part of a scam. (He needed someplace to leave her when he was looking for some kind of work, so he'd leave her in the station, she'd end up getting taken to a children's shelter, and after a while Floyd would come get her when he had someplace to live again. He resorted to this because he wasn't allowed to check her into the shelter himself.) When you look at it this way, it's really a CrowningMomentofHeartwarming that she got to live a good life with her aunt and uncle...the life of a normal kid, with school and friends and activities and a stable home with loving guardians.