Did conservatives embrace Archie Bunker, too?

[grasswire]

I can't remember.

[Lint Head]

1. Yes. I remember it well. I compare it to conservatives who think Colbert is a conservative.

[Blue_Tires]

2. Hell, they embrace him even now (see the comments)

[FatBuddy]

3. i think everyone did

[HappyMe]

4. I remember that show.

I have no idea if they took it seriously or not.

I don't think they could do such a parody kind of show these days.

[seabeckind]

5. Poe's law

It was a parody example of the ignorant racism.

Too many of those guilty never saw it as a parody. Only those who didn't suffer from the bias could recognise its true meaning.

[redqueen]

7. I read that the producers intentionally kept it vague enough

so that each group represented could feel that it was the other side being mocked.

[HappyMe]

9. I think so.

They were all cartoonish examples of a 'type' of real people.

[el_bryanto]

10. I don't think it was as cynical as that -

I think Norman Lear wanted people to think about what they are seeing.

"Maybe they continued to agree with Archie Bunker - as I said earlier, you can't change people's minds, but you can get them to think." - Norman Lear

Of course TV is a collaborative medium, so doubtless the network had some input as well.

Bryant

[redqueen]

13. Perhaps not. I heard it on a radio interview IIRC, on NPR.

Can't remember who it was but they were saying that the goal was more viewers, so they were careful not to alienate either side. He said aside from a few incidents, the writers had to ensure they didn't go too far or they'd risk losing viewers. I can't remember the incidents but he did mention a few issues where the writers wouldn't budge for moral reasons.

[hollowdweller]

6. We need a new All In the Family

That show exposed all the contradictions and racisim of the time.

We really need a new Tea Party Archie.

[napkinz]

8. Megyn Kelly must have watched "All In The Family" ... really!

At 22:20 in the video, Archie says, "But the FACT is Jesus was white and so was Santa Claus."

[bullwinkle428]

12. This is epic in its awesomeness, when also considering that the

"Fox & Friends" clown car got busted for essentially repeating Archie's talking points on gun control that he recited as part of a commentary for a local newscast. The specific comment they echoed involved how much safer air travel would be if everyone on the plane was armed, so they could all get up and blow away a potential hijacker!

[napkinz]

14. blue_tires posted that video above ...

see http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024199588#post2

[bullwinkle428]

20. DOH! Great minds think alike!

[napkinz]

11. Richard Nixon embraced him ...

[Catherine Vincent]

15. They probably did

Until they found out he was a liberal in real life.

[napkinz]

16. They loved the CHARACTER; they hated the ACTOR who played him

... based on the YouTube comments section.

If Carol O'Connor were still alive, he'd be posting here on DU, not Freep Republic.

[Uncle Joe]

17. "All in The Family" was the first T.V. program to delve in to racism but it downplayed

racism's ugly consequences.

Whether done so by design or not, Archie's character either due to the writing or O'Connor's charisma was in many respects more likeable than the liberals represented by Gloria and Meathead on that program.

Gloria was a whiner and Meathead a "freeloader" Archie was the "working man" while All in the Family broke new social boundaries, I don't believe it did liberals, progressives or the issue of racism any favors.

I view AITF more as corporate media propaganda setting the stage for identifying "working people" as conservative while were liberals not pulling their weight and relying on "hard working" taxpayers to subsdize their dreams of big government.

Thanks for the thread, grasswire.

[ryan_cats]

18. I think that what blows their minds is...

I think that what blows their minds is that Meathead (Rob Reiner) directed some great movies like The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men and Spinal Tap. I had a relative gushing over one of those movies and when I told him who directed it, he was shocked, even better is that the actress who portrayed Buttercup was Sean Pen's wife.

Wikipedia has a good writeup on this from Norman Lear's perspective.

[Gothmog]

19. The people who watched the show knew that it was satire

This show was from Norman Lear. The people watching it knew that Bunker was a parody of a type of person that Lear objected to and that the show was used to show why the beliefs and prejudices of these people were wrong.