MovieChat Forums > All in the Family (1971) Discussion > Was this show a parody of conservatives/...

Was this show a parody of conservatives/republicans?


Were the creators of this show progressives trying to lampoon the American right?

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Yes. It was ripe for the pickins. Just like today, some people are so hopelessly behind the zeitgeist, it's almost funny.
Problem is, the hopelessly behind folks have weaponized their unhappiness, so honest people are getting hurt by the backward folks. It's terrible, and an abuse of our media and freedom.

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i think you are only seeing one side of this show, if you look back and michael stivic, he was not such a great guy. he married gloria, took advantage of archie to get through school, had a kid with gloria, and then they broke up and divorced. being close to the meathead in age at the time, though significantly younger, and who also wore an army jacket back in the day from the surplus store, i wanted to like michael and see him win, which in a preachy way he did, and he was right a lot about archie, but sum up what they both did and it was archie who was the backbone of the family, and of course edith, though edith like most women of her day was kept in a cage of cluelessness.

it was a great show, and not so simple to classify.

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Of course. They still do this today.

Hollywood is the communist left. Ignorant and close minded, they know nothing else.

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It lampooned both sides, that's why it was so popular.

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It was a lot of leftist writers lampooning conservatives by trying to make Bunker look like a buffoon every week. But it was his son-in-law, the meathead, who usually came off looking like a self-righteous idiot.

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I think it also does the same for the American left.

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Was the world conservative ever used on AITF? They were a minority in the Republican Party back then.

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It was pretty much a parody of both sides, though ironically Archie, the mindless, closed minded, and sometimes mean, but learning, Republican was the center of the show and the patriarch that paid for everything. So, I would actually say actually NOT. He was racist, but in almost all cases out of habit not venality.

Watching it as it come out at the time, people portrayed Archie as the lovable bigot, but his straw-existence was the object of a lot of discussion. I think it was this hidden complexity that made this such a great show, and also that this was the tail end of TV that showed lessons on morality before most shows became dark and about crime or immorality or just mindless action.

It is interesting to think about the parallels to today where Republicans really hate being called racist, though their party's actions have that effect, most Republicans are not malicious and would be fair to minorities. Most Americans have a heart and a sense of frontier justice and are a little bit racist from habit and the people they see personally in their lives. The problem is that this attitude and America's history tends to have a strong but not always visible effect on people who see them as racist, but who don't really understand or perceive how their actions can oppress those who have been treated badly by the system since the beginning of the nation.

All In The Family was a really great show hidden behind a mindless sitcom. Brilliant.

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Archie was boorish and coarse, but he was right much of the time. Mike was a hypocritical imbecile, an early woketard.

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