All in the Family
Loudmouth Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor), an unrepentant bigot, was only really offensive to people who didn’t understand we were supposed to laugh at him, not with him.
But the show’s intentions were clear: All in the Family creator Norman Lear, who passed last year at 101, was one of Hollywood’s most outspoken liberals, and wanted Archie Bunker to speak freely to show how ignorant his closed-minded notions sounded. But All in the Family also had the grace to present him as vulnerable character, capable of change.
In one of its most famous episodes, 1972’s “Sammy’s Visit,” Archie gets to know Sammy Davis Jr., who, to Archie’s alarm, not only Black but Jewish. Davis highroads him by giving him a kiss on the cheek at the end of the episode, hilariously violating all kinds of bigoted taboos.
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