When All in the Family made its television debut on January 12, 1971, it was preceded by the following disclaimer: “WARNING: The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show—in a mature fashion—just how absurd they are.” Intent aside, the very idea of the series proved controversial before it even made it to air.
Mickey Rooney turned down the role of Archie Bunker because he said it was “un-American.” Harrison Ford similarly passed on the opportunity to play Michael Stivic because of the pilot’s bigoted language. Critics echoed those sentiments after the show launched, with Life magazine calling it “a wretched program not worth reviewing.” And as far as The New York Times was concerned, the premiere episode was nothing but “vulgar and silly.”
One of the show’s more vocal detractors, interestingly enough, was sitcom pioneer Lucille Ball, who was starring in her third hit comedy series, Here’s Lucy, by the time All in the Family arrived on the same network. After watching the first episode, Ball told Los Angeles Times critic Cecil Smith that she thought it was “awful” that they would put something like that on TV, and on “her” station of all places. In the 1973 biography Lucy: The Bittersweet Life of Lucille Ball, she elaborated, saying that she felt it was a good thing to bring prejudice into the open because there are people who actually think like Archie Bunker. However, she didn’t see the need to glorify it.
When the subject came up during an interview with The Christian Science Monitor in 1984, Ball said she was shocked when she first saw All in the Family because the derogatory words Archie would use had been removed from our collective vocabulary. In just one night, Ball argued, they’d made a comeback thanks to the show’s popularity. A particular concern of hers was that kids were now using them. “Despite the success of the show,” she continued, “it has left a legacy of those awful words.”
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