The character Archie Bunker in All In The Family was originally offered to Mickey Rooney, who declined. Carroll O’Connor lived in Europe, and accepted the role only because he thought the show would fail and he could go home, so much so that part of his contract with Norman Lear included a return plane ticket to Rome so that he could fly back when it failed
For those that are curious, the incomparable Matt Baume has some great videos on YouTube about the series and about Lear. I’m not American, I have no nostalgia for this series and have never seen it, and I still found it fascinating
edit2: format, spacing
I remember seeing the chair video(02:00) going around on the webs 1-2yrs back, nice!
All in the Family [1971–1979]
A working class man constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066626/
All In The Family | Archie’s Top 10 Funniest Moments [15:02 | Aug 02 2022 | The Norman Lear Effect]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCINzhzAWAo
In video description:
- 00:00 From Season 9, Episode 8 ‘Edith vs. the Bank’
- 00:52 From Season 7, Episode 6 ‘Archie’s Operation: Part 1’
- 02:00 From Season 1, Episode 5 ‘Judging Books by Covers’
- 03:13 From Season 3, Episode 11 ‘Mike’s Appendix’
- 04:24 From Season 2, Episode 3 ‘Archie and the Lock-up’
- 05:35 From Season 2, Episode 12 ‘Cousin Maude’s Visit’
- 06:41 From Season 5, Episode 22 ‘No Smoking’
- 08:22 From Season 4, Episode 24 ‘Mike’s Graduation’
- 10:04 From Season 4, Episode 10 ‘Archie in the Cellar’
- 11:47 From Season 3, Episode 5 ‘Lionel Steps Out’
- 13:24 From Season 1, Episode 13 ‘The First and Last Supper’
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=rCINzhzAWAo
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.