Norman Lear’s Archie Bunker was a great American character and a good person

With Norman Lear’s passing, it’s worthwhile contemplating his most famous creation or, given that he borrowed from a British show, recreation: Archie Bunker. He was created to be hated but ended up being beloved.

Archie is a bigot, liar, thief, bully, misogynist, cigar smoker, drinker, gambler, and illiterate grammar school dropout who somehow resonated with the public more than the college-educated, articulate liberal, social justice, pro-feminist atheist future professor son-in-law Mike “Meathead” Stivic. Michael consumed the New York Times in the Student Cafeteria at the University, sipping coffee between electives while Archie skimmed the New York Daily News headlines sitting in his favorite chair, winding down after another long day at the warehouse.

Mike is the erudite character who is always correct on every issue, and Archie is the ignoramus who is always, always wrong.

The show did offer quite a few of the episodes calling out Mike’s subtle prejudices and hypocrisies on some women’s and racial issues probably to provide at the time a sense of “fair and balanced” yet with few exceptions does Archie ever come out on top- even in these shows.

Mike schools everyone and narcissistically lets them know it; Archie earns his diploma between shifts and, once his blustering ends, is humbled by and self-conscious of his shortcomings.

All of this makes one wonder. If Archie is the stupid conservative Republican with unforgivable failures, prejudices, foibles, and weaknesses and Mike the smart, tolerant, fair, equity-for-all, progressive social justice warrior, Democrat, why is it Archie is the more likable, memorable character? And that’s not just one person’s or one list’s opinion. According to an essay at Conservapedia:

Despite the promotion of liberal values by All in the Family, however, the Politically Incorrect Guide to the 1960s mentioned that audiences looked up to Archie Bunker largely because of his stubborn rejection of the counterculture, and his chair was even included as one of the most famous exhibits in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

It’s true that, in literature, cinema, and television, many “bad” guys are audience favorites. Ebenezer Scrooge, Darth Vader, and Bart Simpson come to mind.

However, what television watchers and fans of All in the Family like about Archie isn’t his malevolence. Instead, what they recognize in Archie is that, despite the world being against him, whether it is his fault or just the reality that life ain’t fair, he continues to toil in a blue-collar job, to fight the fight, and to support his wife and daughter (with Mike as the additional mouth to feed, shelter and clothe).

Archie, who has no college degree or even a high school diploma, is able to muscle and hustle his way to secure second and even third jobs to make ends meet and provide for his family. In that way, he makes life a little bit easier and more comfortable for his loved ones.

His sweat and blood, given over to basically dead-end jobs, is met each night not with family discussion but derisive arguments provoked by his son-in-law, a professional student, who waits for Archie to grump another politically incorrect statement. Stivic pounces on every one of Archie’s bigoted remarks rather than let Archie vent in the privacy of his home. This venting is Archie’s way of fighting back, rather than engaging in violent conduct, against the perceived injustices towards him, just another working-class stiff.

Image: All In The Family cast. Public Domain.

Rarely is Mike ever sympathetic or nor does he perceive Archive as a genuine victim. Instead, Mike, who lives off of Archie’s largesse, usually derisively knocks Archie, denigrating him for his Cro-Magnon, uneducated, conservative stances on issues like abortion, economics, and religion. Mike is pure Alinsky: He intends to make Archie feel small and insignificant and to squash him like a bug.

Indeed, Mike never “converses” with Archie. Instead, his engagements with his father-in-law are intended to demonstrate his intellectual prowess, after which he can wave his hand dismissively and declare to Archie, “You’re wrong.” Using today’s language, Mike attacks Archie for being the “toxic” male, even as the emasculated Mike is utterly dependent on him. Kinda like Karl Marx was uselessly dependent on others.

Yet through it all, the undaunted Archie continues to plod, giving his best effort so Mike can go to college unfettered by any domestic or economic responsibilities that might interrupt his studies. Archie selflessly provides for Mike and his daughter Gloria (who is also working part-time, forfeiting her college years to support Mike) so they have the chance for a better life, and the opportunity that Archie never had to pursue his dreams.

Ironically, Archie, not Mike, is the tolerant one. Despite his deeply entrenched beliefs, prejudice, biases, fears, and preconceived notions about people unlike him, he nonetheless befriends them. Regardless of race, color, creed, or ethnicity, Archie embraced them all at 704 Houser Street, Queens, New York.  NY.

So, I’ll leave you with a question: If Archie really was the bad guy, why did Edith, an undoubtedly good woman, love him so much?

Barney Hefler is a pseudonym.