YMMV / All in the Family

• Adaptation Displacement: Because the show is so iconic in the United States and seen as being brave for focusing on American social and political issues of the day, Till Death Us Do Part is often unknown outside Britain.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: ABC considered extremely risky the very thought of a sitcom about a bigot and his hippie daughter and son-in-law in such turbulent times, even if it was based on a formula that had been proven in Britain. CBS had its own doubts when it picked the show up, not guaranteeing that it would ever see the light of day. Even star Carroll O'Connor thought it would be driven off the air by audience complaints. The series became the #1 show on TV for five seasons.
• Complete Monster: Lambert, from "Edith's 50th Birthday", is a Serial Rapist who intends to make Edith his latest victim. Charming his way into the Bunker house by posing as a detective, Lambert attempts to force himself onto Edith while holding her at gunpoint. When Archie unexpectedly shows up, Lambert hides in the closet after instructing Edith to get rid of him, threatening to kill the both of them if she alerts Archie to his presence. Edith tries to get help by screaming, but Lambert taunts her by implying that screaming hadn't helped his past victims. While Edith escapes the encounter unharmed, the usually happy-go-lucky Edith is left traumatized and terrified of everything for weeks after, and her unwillingness to go to the police out of fear allows Lambert to rape yet another woman.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Quite a few Conservatives latched on to Archie's conservative, bigoted views as an ideal, missing (or ignoring) Lear and O'Connor's desired point that Archie grew out of his bigoted views.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • Fans typically reject the 9th season without Mike and Gloria.
  • Many fans don't accept the revelation from Archie Bunker's Place that Mike abandoned his wife and son, since this was incredibly out of character for Mike and was obviously done solely to set up Gloria's spinoff series.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Archie's prank on Pinky Peterson in "Beverly Rides Again" involved Pinky's girlfriend breaking up with him. At the time it seemed pretty cruel but not outside of Archie's wheelhouse. Then in "The Draft Dodger" it's revealed that Pinky's only son was recently KIA in Vietnam. This pushes the prank into almost Moral Event Horizon territory.
  • When Archie learned that Gloria had been sexually assaulted and Edith tried to stop him calling the police in "Gloria the Victim", Archie argues that the perp might go after her (Edith) or anyone. It's much harder to watch that episode with "Edith's 50th Birthday" where Edith had narrowly escaped being raped in her own home.
  • In "Edith's Final Respects", Edith attends the funeral of her Aunt Rose, but was the only mourner, as most of Rose's friends died before her. Afterwards, she confides in Archie that she worries her funeral will be the same. He reassures her that she would have an abundance of mourners, and that "I'm gonna be there, ain't I?" Not long after, he was proven right when Edith died before the events of the Archie Bunker's Place episode "Archie Alone".
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In one late '70s episode Archie calls after Mike, "And you're gonna get Reagan in '80, too!"
  • In the episode "Writing the President", Archie and Mike argue over whether to watch a TV show about pollution which culminates in them both writing letters to President Nixon. Archie, predictably, takes the right-wing viewpoint which says pollution is no big deal. Nixon actually created the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • Another Norman Lear show would later be remade by a pair of producers named Mike and Gloria.
  • In "Archie and the KKK", Mike claims there's no jobs, to which Archie claims there are jobs if people are willing to work them. As of April 2018, there are more jobs than available workers.
• Hollywood Pudgy: In the episode "Archie's Weighty Problem", Archie is treated and talked to as if he is morbidly obese and will drop dead if he doesn't start seriously dieting immediately. He really only appears to be slightly overweight, with more of a stocky-framed, muscular build.
• Informed Wrongness: Archie may have been an idiot for not catching on to Gordie sooner in "Archie and the KKK," but he was properly repulsed by the group the minute he realized who they were. While Mike dressed him down as an evil racist who supported the actions of the KKK, this certainly wasn't the case.
• Memetic Mutation: "Shut up, Meathead!".
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Those viewers who enthusiastically supported Archie's views. Inversely, this show gained a Misaimed Hatedom from people who judged it solely on Archie's character, assuming he was supposed to be supported.
  • Tim Allen went so far as to compare his character on Last Man Standing to Archie Bunker, claiming that both are "likeable conservative characters." The only difference is that All in the Family was clearly aimed at a liberal audience, so Archie's conservative views (particularly on race) were something to be laughed at, while Last Man is aimed at a conservative audience, so the audience is supposed to laugh with Allen's character in response to his conservative views (particularly feminism).
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Norman Lear had no involvement in the ninth season, which is widely considered to be a step-down in terms in quality.
• Popularity Polynomial: Despite its tremendous success in The '70s, the show initially didn't do very well in syndication and seemed to be too much a product of its time to remain popular. Since the Turn of the Millennium, its popularity and influence have rebounded thanks to the continued Values Resonance of the issues it dealt with.
• Seasonal Rot: The series ended its eighth season with Norman Lear departing as executive producer and the Stivics being Put on a Bus to California which resolved the core premise for the series and provided an emotional Tear Jerker of a finale. However, Carroll O'Connor accepted a huge salary increase that led to the show limping on another year that saw the introduction of Edith's young niece who was abandoned by her alcoholic father that the Bunkers took in. This failed to replace the tension that Archie had with Meathead in the first eight seasons, and while there were still some funny episodes, Lear's creative guidance was sorely missed. After this, CBS ended the show... and then immediately gave it an After Show (effectively retooling it) as Archie Bunker's Place which limped on for 97 more episodes that saw the series shift from Dom Com to Work Com, the death of Edith and Archie growing into a kinder, less ignorant person with an ethnically diverse social circle, which effectively killed his effectiveness as an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist (though the episode that dealt with Edith's death, "Archie Alone", was considered the high point of that series).
• Strawman Has a Point: Archie, who is supposed to be laughably ignorant next to Mike, but actually makes more sense on a number of occasions.
  • In part one of "Archie and the KKK", there's a power failure and Archie talks about how people were looting during the last one...
    Mike: Arch, poor people steal, hungry people steal!
    Archie: Oh yeah? That's why in that July blackout there they drove fifty cars out of the showrooms on account of they had a craving to eat a Pontiac.
    Mike: Yes they have a craving, because the media advertisers create that craving! They tell the people what they should want, and they tell them that they're nothing unless they run right out and get it! Well what the hell are they supposed to do?
    Archie: They're supposed to go out and work for a buck!
    • Mike then claims there are no jobs available. Archie points out that, while not glamorous, there are jobs available for anyone willing to do a hard day's work for an honest paycheck.
  • In another episode, Archie makes surprisingly salient points about how big corporations encouraged everyone to buy electronic products, and even made life difficult without them, only to, once they'd made their "billions and billions of dollars," turn around and start demanding that people save energy and go without. This lines up with the modern environmental movement, which seeks to hold large institutions like corporations responsible for environmental problems rather than individuals, and thus pushes for systemic reforms rather than changes to people's behavior.
  • Archie is made to be a racist idiot just because he doesn't want to eat his Chinese food with chopsticks in "Mike Meets Archie." The fact is that most Westerners simply don't know how to use chopsticks correctly. All Archie wanted was a fork to eat the food that he probably paid for, and he was still given a bunch of crap.
  • Archie twice shows surprisingly progressive opinions on the fur trade, which is in deep contrast to the rest of his family, who in one early episode can't stop admiring Edith's mink coat.
    Gloria: They bred those animals, daddy.
    Mike: That's right, Arch. Mink is not an endangered species.
    Archie: Oh, geez. Them minks hangin' around your mother-in-law's neck out there, they'll be glad to hear that, that they ain't endangered, just murdered.
  • Archie is supposed to be in the wrong for laying into David for being a draft dodger, but he has a right to be angry because David is technically a fugitive from justice and everyone hid this from him while the guy was eating Christmas dinner at his house. He also makes the more or less valid point that there are plenty of people who are afraid to go off to war, believe killing is wrong, or just plain don't believe in it, but go off to fight it, anyways (or get a non-combat posting, or even do some other form of government service). It's hard to see why David should get a free pass just because he has 'convictions.' Mike tries to counter that the war is morally wrong, but Archie tells him that that is irrelevant. This might be harder to understand for modern viewers who were born after the draft was removed.
    • Archie's view is even more understandable when you remember not only did he serve in World War II, but he was drafted as well.
• Unintentional Period Piece: With its storylines almost always centered around the current events and culture of the time, it's a pretty insightful look into the things going on in The '70s.
• Values Dissonance:
  • This show was made towards the end of the time where being Slavic-American was still somewhat perceived as "ethnic" and a bit apart from the "average white". Of course, the show appeared to realize this as the othering of Poles is treated as arbitrary, even though modern audiences wouldn't be able to buy the idea that Slavic Americans are anything other than white.
  • It would be very difficult to pitch a show around an outspoken racist, misogynist, homophobic bigot today, particularly one that was ultimately intended to be likable despite his prejudices. Some viewers say the show softened Archie too much and made his character too audience-friendly, which had the effect of making his ignorant views seem milder and less toxic than they really are.
• Values Resonance: The debates on political issues of the day between Archie and "Meathead" still seemed appropriate in the 2000s Nick at Nite reruns.
  • Even in the 2010s: the discussion listed in Strawman Has a Point above eerily echoes debates held during the 2011 London Riots.
  • The entire character arc of Beverly, one of the earlier examples of Bury Your Gays, still holds up because of Edith's resulting Crisis of Faith, as she couldn't conceive how God could have let Beverly die to a hate crime. Edith's entire interaction with Beverly also counts, as they considered each other as close as family. Beverly's character also works because he shows up in a few episodes as a recurring character, and thus averts Bury Your Gays for a while.
  • Speaking of homosexual characters, a first-season episode has Archie assuming that an effete friend of Mike's must be gay—but the guy is actually Camp Straight, while one of Archie's buddies, a beer-drinking ex-football player, turns out to be a Straight Gay. Seeing gay people defying stereotypes remains an important topic of debate in media.

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