Norman Lear’s groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family, which ran on CBS for nine seasons between 1971 and 1979, almost didn’t make it on the air. Two pilots were shot and rejected by ABC before CBS stepped in and asked Lear to shoot a third one. Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton played the lead roles in all three versions, but the roles of their daughter, Gloria, and her husband (initially named Richard) were played by different actors in each. Lear was insistent on using the same storyline across all versions, with only minor variations.
The first pilot, titled Justice for All, was taped in 1968. O’Connor and Stapleton played Archie and Edith Justice in this version. It didn’t test well with audiences, so Lear reshot it in 1969 under the title Those Were the Days, with the characters retaining the Justice last name. ABC passed on it once again.
Robert Wood, who was the president of CBS at the time, thought the pilot was hilarious and agreed to let them rework it a bit. From there, the Justices became the Bunkers, and the parts of Gloria and Mike (formerly known as Richard) were given to Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner. All in the Family, as we know it today, first hit the airwaves on January 12, 1971, and was a huge success. It was number one in the Nielsen ratings for five out of its nine seasons, and each of the four main cast members would go on to win an Emmy.
What’s weird about that is that Reiner was actually rejected when he first auditioned for his part. As Lear recalled in his 2014 memoir, Even This I Get to Experience, Reiner wanted the role of Archie’s son-in-law as far back as when they were working on the 1968 pilot. But, Lear thought he was too young then, “emotionally if not chronologically.” The second time around, Reiner “walked into the audition and out with the role within minutes.”
In an interview with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, Reiner said that one of the reasons he was hired was because Lear had seen him in an episode of Andy Griffith’s 1970 show Headmaster, in which Reiner played a teacher who had an affair with a student. Evidently, Lear thought Reiner had matured enough as an actor at the ripe old age of 23 and finally gave him the part.
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