Tear Jerker / All in the Family

All in the Family

"You had no right to leave me that way... without giving me just one more chance to say I love you."

• Gloria's miscarriage in "Gloria's Pregnancy". At first, everyone's stressed out when they find that she's pregnant, as Mike's between jobs and this pregnancy wasn't planned at all, but they decide to try to make the best of the situation, only for Gloria to then feel horribly sick. This episode is also the first time we see Archie's gentler side, as he's heartbroken that his potential grandchild has been lost to nothing else but a cruel twist of fate and he's clearly at a loss trying to console Gloria as he's hurting badly too. Both Edith and Mike are somewhat shaken up, too.
• The Season 8 finale "The Stivics Go West" was both a Very Special Episode and a tearjerker, in that it was the final time all four of the show's main stars – Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers – appeared together as regulars.^note Reiner and Struthers both would appear in two later episodes, reuniting the foursome.
  • Archie and Mike's final conversation, where Mike thanks Archie for all his support over the years, tells him he loves him, and awkwardly embraces him, is very touching. Shortly thereafter comes an emotional farewell. The final scene has a deeply saddened Archie watch the taxi – with his daughter, son-in-law and grandson, Joey, inside – drive away. Archie chokes back a sob, a few tears welling up. Edith, who had gone into the kitchen to get Archie a beer, returns to the living room, and sees Archie wiping his eyes. Quickly, she runs back into the kitchen so he doesn't know she's seen him crying, and announces she's bringing him a beer. Archie puts on a braver face when Edith walks in. Edith then sits next to Archie, and they sit, sadly, in the now-silent house.
  • According to one history of the series, this was a real-life tearjerker, as by the time of shooting 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 "Two's a Crowd" episode, where a drunken Archie talks to Mike about his father and reveals where he got his prejudiced views from.
  Mike: My ol' man used to call people the same things as your ol' man. But I always knew he was wrong. So was your ol' man.
  Archie: Don't tell me my father was wrong! Let me tell you somethin'. Your father who made you, wrong? Your father, the breadwinner of the house there, the man who goes out and busts his butt to keep a roof over your head and clothes on your back? You call your father wrong? Hey, hey, your father... Your father, that's the man that comes home bringin' you candy. Your father's the first guy to throw a baseball to you. And take you for walks in the park. Hold you by the hand. My father held me by the hand, oh, he had a hand on him, I tell you. He busted that hand once, and he busted it on me. To teach me to do good. And my father, he'd shove me in the closet for seven hours to teach me to do good, 'cause he loved me. He loved me. Don't be lookin' at me!... Let me tell you somethin'. You're supposed to love your father. Because your father loves you. And how can any man that loves you tell you anything that's wrong?
• Any episode involving Stephanie worried about having to leave was this. Especially when she tried to come up with excuses as to why she can't go back home to her terrible father yet.
• Although in "The Draft Dodger" the audience is supposed to see Archie as being 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.
  Mike: When the Hell are you going to admit that the war was wrong?
  Archie: I ain't talkin' about that war! Goddammit, I don't want to talk about that goddamn war no more! I'm talkin' about somethin' else! And what he done was wrong! Sayin' he won't go! Whaddya think, all the people of this country can say whether or not they wanna go to war? You couldn't get a decent war off the ground that way! All the young people would say no - sure they would! Cause they don't wanna get killed! And that's why we leave it to the Congress, cause them old quacks ain't gonna get killed! And they're gonna do the right thing, and get behind the president and vote yes!
• Edith alone in the house with a rapist in "Edith's 50th Birthday". Archie ends up interrupting them, so the rapist hides in the closet with a gun, telling her that if Edith says anything, he'll shoot the both of them. Watching Edith looking so desperate while Archie prattles on about needing a punchbowl, then when he leaves, she cries for him not to go. Doubles as Nightmare Fuel.
  • At the end of the same scene, Edith, who feels like there is no longer anything she can do to escape, begs her rapist, "Couldn't we do this without kissing?" It seems like a ridiculous request, but the fear and utter despair in her voice is heart-wrenching.
  • At the end of part one, Edith manages to escape the rapist (a Moment of Awesome), and runs to the Stivics, where a surprise birthday party is waiting for her. As everyone cheerfully sings "Happy Birthday" and "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow," Edith rushes to Archie's arms and completely breaks down, and Archie, who's usually portrayed as totally oblivious, knows that something is horribly, horribly wrong. The episode ends with Edith sobbing and Archie looking genuinely concerned, all set to the irony of the partygoers singing happily.
  • The second part of the episode is similarly depressing, but in a different way. Edith goes through a period of post-traumatic stress, which 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 – eventually becoming so frustrated and overwhelmed by Edith's refusal to cope that she screams "You're not my mother anymore!" – is extremely painful.
    • Remember that in the earlier episode "Gloria the Victim", Gloria had tried to do everything she could to bring her own would-be 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.
  • At the beginning of the second part, Edith has to tell Archie what happened, and the pain as she struggles to even say the words is palpable. Later, when Gloria and Mike enter and hear about what happened, it becomes a horrible case of Truth in Television: Gloria wants to call the police and report the attack, as she did when she was almost raped (an event that happened a few seasons earlier). Archie points out that if the case did go to court, the lawyers for the defense would twist the story to make it seem as though Edith was coming on to her rapist, a sadly common tactic in actual rape cases.
  • It's even worse when you remember that this is the second time in her life that Edith has suffered an attempted rape. The first time, she was a young woman lured by a date under a boardwalk. This time, she's turning fifty and in the assumed safety of her own home.
• 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 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.
  • When Gloria first gets home, she acts standoffish and demands to speak to Edith, but when it comes time to actually talk about what happened, she can't get the words out. Watching her struggling to speak while Edith tries to cheerfully change the subject is heartbreaking. Then, when Gloria finally does start describing the incident, Edith gets a look of horror on her face and begins desperately talking about a new neighbor's couch instead, trying to keep from having to think about what happened to her daughter. Eventually Gloria breaks down sobbing, and Edith can only hold her as she cries.
  • What makes Gloria decide to press charges is also heartbreaking. While Archie, Mike, and the detective talk, Gloria goes to Edith for comfort in the kitchen, and her mother remarks that she's been thinking all day about a time when she was a teenager at the boardwalk on a blind double date. Edith explains that her date lured her under the boardwalk and tried to assault her as well; thankfully, her father had taught her how to defend herself, so she was able to escape. But then she remarks that the incident has haunted her all her life:
    Edith: Gloria, I never told no one about this before, because in my time we was too scared to talk open—but what I'm sayin' is maybe we should have, 'cause over the years, I've often wondered how many other girls that man got under the boardwalk...and how many didn't get away...
• As the family stays up all night waiting to hear if Archie will be laid off, he remembers how his father was devastated by the Great Depression. "He just kept asking why, and no one could tell him."
• "Archie's Bitter Pill". It starts with Archie being frustrated that the bar he forged Edith's signature and mortgaged their house for is going nowhere. Then he takes pills from a friend and starts bursting with energy and enthusiasm, even as he starts to mix them with booze and the concern from those around him grows. The family comes to visit him at his empty bar, watching in quiet horror as he rambles incomprehensibly. But as his 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..."
• During the show's run, Edith ends up befriending Beverly LaSalle, a cross-dresser who performs as a female impersonator (he's implied to be gay, but not transgender). In "Edith's Crisis of Faith," Beverly and Mike are mugged (off-screen) by a group of teenagers; Beverly protects Mike from being bludgeoned with a metal pipe, but the incensed teens bludgeon Beverly instead (Mike implies that they sensed his being gay), and, while Mike survives the ordeal with only minor injuries, Beverly dies from his injuries. The look on Edith's face when the doctor at the hospital tells her is utterly heartbreaking; even the studio audience reacts. It escalates from there as Edith even starts questioning her religious faith, much to Archie's dismay.
  • This all overlaps with a moment of heartwarming as Archie and Gloria talk about Beverly, and Archie himself remarks that he/she was a decent person who was a good friend to Edith.
  • In the first part of the episode, when Barney comes rushing up to the house to tell Archie about what's happened, Gloria starts desperately screaming Mike's name, which is chilling and sad.
  • A moment earlier in the episode becomes all the more depressing by what follows (and especially on repeat viewings, when you know what's going to happen). Beverly has just been told that he's going to get to do his drag show at Carnegie Hall, and to celebrate, Edith gives him an early Christmas present: a scrapbook full of every newspaper item that mentions him and his act (Edith explains that she's put it together all year). But what clinches the moment as heartbreaking is when Edith tells Beverly that he's "like family" to her. Beverly is normally a jovial man who doesn't take much seriously, but when Edith tells him that, a look of pure joy comes over his face, and his voice breaks as he says "I love you, Edith." Fridge Horror kicks in when you realize that Beverly either doesn't have a family, or, even worse, was disowned when he came out as gay and started cross-dressing. He considered Edith his sister and the Bunkers as a second family...and an hour later, he's gone. Even Archie, who still is quite uncomfortable around Beverly but at least has accepted that he is now "part of the family" to the point where he is cordial around him, is deeply stunned and emotional, as it is clear even he wouldn't have wished this brutal fate on him.
• "The Bunkers and the Swingers" is largely a comic episode—Edith inadvertently answers an ad in an erotic magazine (as The Ditz, she doesn't notice the content) for wife-swapping. When Curtis and Ruth, the swinger couple, comes to the Bunkers' home, a lot of errors in communication, plus Louise Jefferson having to tell Edith the truth of the situation, leads to laughter. But at the end of the episode, Ruth delivers a short monologue about how swinging has saved her marriage; her voice trembles as she does so, hinting that she and her husband have likely been constantly judged or ostracized for their choices, and that it's hurt her deeply. What really hurts is that when Ruth says that "we were drowning," and that wife-swapping saved her marriage, Edith replies (rather confusedly, rather than maliciously) that she'd rather have drowned. That gets a laugh, but consider the situation from Ruth's perspective: what would it be like to be told that your lifestyle—something that you, as two consenting adults, freely chose— was so awful to some people that death is considered a better option?
• Season 1's "The Success Story" sees Archie's old Army buddy Eddie Frazier visiting New York after making millions as a car dealer in Los Angeles, and Archie organises a reunion of some of his other fellow soldiers with Eddie as the guest of honour. During the party, Eddie excuses himself to make a phone call, and Archie orders Mike to get drinks and ice for his friends. However, as Mike passes the phone, he overhears Eddie's conversation and learns the real reason he is in New York: he is hoping for a reconciliation with his estranged son, Greg. Mike passes Eddie twice on the way to and from the kitchen, and each time the conversation has deteriorated further; knowing no other way to get through to his son, Eddie is reduced to begging and trying to bribe him with $500 for a five-minute meeting, but Greg finally loses patience and hangs up. Eddie forces a smile and tells Mike his son can have anything he wants from him, but when Mike, having overheard enough to know something's up, asks, "What does he want from you?", he is forced to admit that Greg wants him "to stay the hell away from him." He returns to the party, being cheerful and making jokes, but as Archie and the other veterans serenade him with a chorus of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", Eddie sees Mike looking at him with sorrow, as if to say, "All that money hasn't brought you happiness, has it?", and Eddie lowers his head in grief and embarrassment. The looks on both their faces is pretty depressing to watch. Eddie eventually starts crying, but tries to hide it through laughter. In The Stinger, Archie and Mike are alone in the living room, and a drunk Archie tells Mike it was a night to remember; Mike, clearly thinking better of shattering Archie's gilded image of Eddie, says he'll never forget it. A possibility that makes it even sadder, is that if Greg has children, then Eddie would have grandchildren that he'll never get to see or know, because of the estrangement.
• 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 Crowning Moment of Heartwarming 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. It's Slack's performance in these two episodes that really sells it, knocking the characterization out of the park and making the character as pitiable as he is contemptible. Floyd's previous actor, Marty Brill, played him as a slick conman, but Slack 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.
• "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 — to the studio audience's audible horror — 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, 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.
• "Edith Breaks Out." Edith comes home late, absolutely over the moon about her recent volunteer work at The Sunshine Home, while Archie argues that her place is at home, caring for her husband. She tries to explain that she gets bored around the house with Archie at work and Mike and Gloria living on their own, but Archie insists - in between demands for beer and dinner - that the life of a housewife should be enough to feel fulfilled. It escalates to the point where he says her work is worth nothing, because if it were worth something she'd be paid for it, and you can tell how utterly crushed she is. Then he threatens to have her volunteer job taken away, and while it turns into a crowning moment of awesome, her pleas for him not to hard to listen to.

  Archie: Get on the blower here and I'm gonna call that Reverend Fletcher, and I'm gonna tell him that night just fell on one of his Sunshine Girls.

  Edith, sobbing: Oh, no, no, please don't do that...

  Archie: Oh, you don't want me to talk to him? Now, you talk to him yourself.

  Edith: No, I won't.

  Archie: Edith, Edith, that was an order.

  Edith: I ain't takin' no orders.

  Archie: You ain't what?

  Edith: I ain't takin' no orders. I can be a Sunshine Lady if I wanna be. (sobbing) And I wanna be! And I am! (Yanks the phone away and slams it down)

• In the sixth-season episode "Archie Finds a Friend", the show employs one of its rare somber endings when the titular friend, Archie's coworker Mr. Bernstein, dies on his and Edith's couch whilst he's visiting them. The episode ends with Archie and Edith standing on their porch, reflecting on how Bernstein was never able to perfect the invention he was visiting them to show off.

Archie Bunker's Place

• The Season 2 opener "Archie Alone" sees Archie in deep denial over Edith's offscreen death (after series star Jean Stapleton decided to leave the show). Eventually frustrated that everyone is talking about it, Archie shouts at the world to go away. He then goes upstairs and sees one of Edith's slippers, before he has his emotional breakdown.
  Archie: It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was supposed to be the first one to go. I always used to kid you about you going first. You know I never meant none of that and that morning when yous was laying there. I was shaking you and yelling at you to go down and fix my breakfast. I didn't know. You had no right to leave me that way, Edith... (Holding the slipper to his face, Archie starts to cry) without giving me just one more chance to say I love you.