MovieChat Forums > Archie Bunker's Place (1979) Discussion > First Season is pretty good

First Season is pretty good

posted 13 years ago by bunkerforever
1 reply | jump to latest

I'm in the process of watching the First Season of Archie Bunker's Place on DVD. It's not the first time that I've seen the episodes but I haven't watched them in quite a while.

It's not on the same level as All in the Family but most of the episodes are still pretty good. The chemistry between Archie and Murray is pretty good and you still have Edith around for some of the episodes. Plus in this season you get to see the main cast of All in the Family together for one last time in the Thanksgiving episode.

I remember when TV Land aired Archie Bunker's Place several years ago, they showed the first season and part of the second season and then stopped airing it. From what I've read about the later shows, Murray's departure hurt the show. And I think some other characters left as well. Also Carroll O' Connor began to make Archie more mellow with each season, which probably was a mistake. I mean it would be natural for Archie to evolve and become somewhat more tolerant of others. But at the same time I think a guy like him would always be grouchy and a bigot to some degree.

[–] sjbradford 12 years ago

The first season was produced and written by most of the creative team from the last few seasons of "All in the Family": Mort Lachman, Milt Josefsberg, Paul Bogart, Larry Rhine, Mel Tolkin, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf, etc. But all of these people left after the first season, and the quality of the show suffered a bit.