Archie Bunker’s Place was a garbage show

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Once Mike and Gloria left in 1978 it was no longer All In The Family. Then the Edith character died and what did you have left- nothing except some dull characters at the bar.

The theme sounds like a long giant fart.

Carroll was still popular in the role and the ratings justified it staying on the air. Plus he had greater creative control over ABP, as opposed to AITF with Norman Lear running things. Not to mention the money he was pulling in.

All In The Family was truly great but it had run it's course. Carroll O'Connor was wrong to keep it going as a variant of the original. Archie Place was mediocre at best.

It coasted on the goodwill of All in the Family and a great time slot—right after 60 Minutes, which hit #1 in 1979-80 (the first year of ABP).

Danielle Brisbois was a charming kid actor--I liked her in ABP but you're right, OP, it was otherwise a garbage show.

Wasn’t Anne Meara roped in as a love interest?

Five years in the life of a spin-off is typical. It wrings the original show of all viewership loyalty and kills it off before the six year actors renegotiations.

Look for Chuck Lorre to do this to the new Cooper's spinoff if Young Sheldon. The same slow death as The Conners.

Anne Meara ruins everything she's in.

It was still rated pretty high when it got canned. It's ratings had slipped a bit because they moved it from the cush time slot. They moved it to get back at Carol for the acrimony caused by the spinoff Gloria. Gloria was the better of the two and actually quite funny

I had heard of this show but didn’t realize it lasted more than a couple seasons unlike most spinoffs.

It was visually very depressing.

It was just fucking horrible. The spent like $11.00 on the set. It makes the set of Alice look like a 1930s spectacular.

[quote] How did this trash last for five years

(1) We all had like 3 channels at the time

(2) It was pre remote control days and fat whores didn't want to get up off the chair

(3) Archie was a pretty popular character which gave the show some goodwill for a while.

They killed Edith for this shit.

*In Edith voice* “Arrrchie, I’ve been thinking long and hard about this and you know what? I’ve decided that it’s time to say goodbye.”

Jean Stapleton was done. She wanted to go.

Norman Lear didn't want it to happen.

"He went on to do Archie Bunker’s Place — I didn’t want that to happen, and I prevented it from happening for some months. My partners and the network, of course, wanted it,” Lear continued regarding the spinoff, which ran for four seasons on CBS until 1983. Unlike All in the Family, which took place largely in the Bunker family home, Archie Bunker’s Place was set primarily in the local tavern Archie owned, and was not filmed with a live studio audience.

"The only time I met Mr. [William] Paley, who owned the network, was when he called to ask me to lunch, nine years later, to talk about wanting Archie Bunker’s Place on air,” he noted. “The only way it got on was when [he] called me to his office and had four or five pages of names of people who would be out of work if the show didn’t go on. And so the show went on.”

ABP basically turned AITF into a show about old white men (O'Connor, Alan Melvin, Martin Ballslam, the blind guy) and a drunk with horrible comic timing (Anne Meara) and a random little girl. Oh and how many words can Archie mispronounce in an episode? All of them.

This was 50 years ago, OP. NOBODY GIVES A SHIT NOW. Move on; drop dead; whatever. Just leave the rest of us alone.

HI SALLY!

This sounds like a show about old white men drinking in an area that changed over 40 years ago.

No one could sing about the post office quite like Danielle Brisebois and her mother.

Pretty much r23

At least O'Connor got some of his wits back in time to go out on top with "In The Heat of the Night."

It wasn't a masterpiece, but it was far better than this shit.

With handsome Bubba.

"Here's Lucy" ran for six years.

"The Jeffersons" ran for ELEVEN years!

There's no accounting for the public's enjoyment of mediocrity once they've decided they like the characters, it seems.

The Jeffersons was pretty damn funny for several years. You're telling me Mother Jefferson didn't get so much as a smile out of you?

[quote]Martin Ballslam

Oh dear

[quote] The Jeffersons was pretty damn funny for several years. You're telling me Mother Jefferson didn't get so much as a smile out of you?

Zara Cully was dead three seasons into The Jeffersons and they went on another eight.

The Jeffersons would've been unwatchable if it hadn't been for Florence. The worst episodes were light on her and heavy on Harry or Tom.

Mother Jefferson is my spirit animal.

I love Mother Jefferson. The Jeffersons was great the first two years. Then all the characters loss their edge and became squishy. Louise went from a strong, post struggle black woman to Ms. Help Centah. The only one who remained consistently funny was Mr. Bentley. Don't get me started on the fakeLionel seasons.

Mrs. Brady. I've known Mr. Brady for years. There's no way he wrote those letters!

R19 While it was admirable that the network executive wanted the show to go on to continue to employ all the people employed by ABP, it would still have to end eventually.

Archie Bunker's Place had the grayest, dingiest set in the history of any sitcom ever shot in color. Even if HBO tried to make a depressing, kitchen sink-type sitcom they couldn't make it look any less appealing than this show.

The episode recounting Edith's death does contain some of O'Connor's best acting. But he wasn't nominated for an Emmy.

Anne Meara was nominated for two Emmys for this show.

Sheree North even recieved an Emmy nomination one year for Best Actress in Comedy, even though she only appeared in two episodes total. DL-Icons Linda Lavin and Bonnie Franklin appeared in hundreds of episodes and multiple seasons of their shows yet each got just a single, solitary Lead Actress nomination.

The set for ABP was Honeymooners bad level.

R38 it was ludicrous they had one or two episode actors competing against the shows stars. Obviously this was before the guest actor Emmys. Lavin herself lost to Ruth Gordon who did one episode of Taxi. And her husband at the time Ron Leibman won that year also. That must’ve stung.

Maybe, but I always payed attention to Sheree North whenever she was on TV. Another DAME type.

I enjoyed it, but missed Edith when her character died. I loved Carroll O'Connor.

Did ATF used to air on Saturday night?

The blind guy on ABF was Bob Newhart’s father-in-law IRL.

[quote] I always payed

Oh, dear.

R32, I always thought the worst episodes of “The Jeffersons” were the early ones about Lionel and Jenny and their endless engagement. For one thing, their engagement party was on “All in the Family” in Feb of 1974 and they didn’t get married for another several seasons -and by then it was Damon Evans. Episodes when they’d fight were dull. Episodes when they’d just be onscreen were dull.

ABP coasted on the good will felt for Carroll O Connor, but it was depressing. I could never figure out why Martin Balsam signed on unless it was a good paycheck. Lots of mugging burlesque old-timers. Not much else.

I’m guessing he signed on for the paycheck. The first season of APB was ok. It had an Oscar winner no less with Balsam in its cast, and Stapleton was still on every five episodes or so. Reportedly O’Connor and Balsam didn’t get along well, so he left after only one season. The show needed someone strong to challenge Archie, like Rob or Martin, but didn’t have that after the first season.

ABP I mean.