Tonight, I finished watching my the Eighth Season of All in the Family. This is the final season with Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers, which in my opinion should have been the final season of All in the Family. The final episode of the season even plays like it could be a series finale.
All in the Family is one of my favorite series of all time. But there is definitely change in tone in the series around the Sixth Season. I believe this is when new show runners took over and this is also the season where Mike and Gloria are pregnant and they move into the Jefferson's house next door. The audience reactions aren't quite as loud and wild as they were in the first five seasons. Still loud but not the same. And there seems to be an increase in the level of slapstick in the series. i.e. Gloria and Archie giving each other the raspberries all the time, Mike and Archie always getting stuck in doorways, Gloria hitting Archie on the head, pulling on his chest hairs. The show still deals with major topics but they seem more universal and less of the time as they were in the early years.
Also in Season Six, the show was moved from its Saturday 8pm time slot because of the FCC's new Family Hour which meant the no shows with adult content could be shown before 9pm. That ruling was overturned due to law suits from producers like Norman Lear. But by then the damage had been done. For Season 7, All in the Family moved to Wednesday where it fell from 1 to 12 in the Nielsen Ratings. Midway through the season it was moved to Saturdays at 9 and then in Season 8 it moved to Sunday nights where it bounced back up to 4 and stayed in that time slot.
Now Season 8. What can I say. This particular season in my opinion is the best of the later seasons. In this season alone, Archie forges Edith's signature to mortgage the house and buy Kelsey's bar (the two-part season opener), they go to Cousin Liz's funeral and discover she was a lesbian and her roommate was her lover and wants the family heirloom tea set (Emmy best writing), the next episode, Edith almost gets raped on her 50th Birthday (Emmy for direction) and also a two-parter. There's a bunch of two-parters this season. Archie opens the bar and gets very little business so he gets hooked on pills (two-parter). Next up, he gets recruited by the local KKK who have targeted Mike to burn a cross on his lawn (even though he has no lawn!) also a two-parter, a nice flashback episode for Mike and Gloria and how they met (clearly a showcase for there soon departing Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers), then another two-parter where Beverly LaSalle is killed as the result of a hate crime and Edith loses her faith in God. Archie's Super Bowl party is held up at gunpoint. Archie and Mike get locked in the storeroom overnight and Archie reveals a great deal about his upbringing. And then the final three episodes leading up to Mike and Gloria leaving for Mike's new job in California. There are a few lighter episodes in there but Boy! A lot happened to this family in the course of six months! I'm glad this wasn't my family. Oy vey! (Sorry Archie)
As for that last episode, I can never sit through it without balling, I just watched it again for the umpteenth time and that last scene where they say their goodbyes...well let's just say I was sniffling and tears were streaming down my cheeks. That last shot of Archie and Edith sitting there in silence staring out as the camera slowly pulls back (what happened to the TV set that's usually in front of their chairs?) and the slow fade out..wow! just, wow!
Season Eight swept the Emmys in 1978 winning in all but one category, Supporting Actress for Sally Struthers. She won the next year for her guest appearance in the Ninth Season. Like I said its the best of the later seasons. Season Nine is a different show. No live studio audience, No Mike or Gloria and instead an adopted seven-year old girl, the daughter of a second cousin of Edith's. Not so great and not a fitting end to a great series.
Saturday nights on CBS were a family ritual in my house growing up. It's comfort food for me, watching all these old TV series and re-living my childhood and teen years.
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