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Posts tagged as all in the family

RIP

'All in the Family' Star Jean Stapleton Dies at 90

by | June 3rd, 2013

Veteran actress Jean Stapleton, best known for portraying Archie's better half Edith Bunker on All in the Family, passed away Friday from natural causes at the age of 90. Stapleton won three Emmys and two Golden Globes for her career-defining performance as Edith, a character she portrayed for the influential show's entire nine-year run (and for an additional year on the continuation series Archie Bunker's Place). In addition to her role in All in the Family, Stapleton played supporting roles in movies like You've Got Mail, Michael, and Klute and guest starred on Everybody Loves Raymond, The Love Boat, and Murphy Brown. She was also an accomplished stage actress [...]

Unpopular Opinions

Laugh with, Not at, the Laugh Track

by | May 8th, 2012

Unpopular Opinions is a bi-weekly column in which a writer takes a stand against popular opinion, whether it's asserting the true merit of a supposedly guilty pleasure or dissenting against the universally lauded.

“Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience.” Those are welcoming words to people of a certain age. They make you think about a home cooked meal after soccer practice. Or a sack of McDonald’s you happily shoved down your throat while waiting for your mom and dad to come home from their weekly night out. Or the can of still beer you guzzled by yourself after stealing it from the front yard of a frat [...]

Important Lists

'Seinfeld,' 'All in the Family' Top the WGA's List of the '101 Best Written TV Series of All Time'

by | June 3rd, 2013

The Writers Guild of America this weekend released a list of the "101 Best Written TV Series of All Time," and several comedies ranked high on the list, which was determined by online voting by WGA members. While The Sopranos took the top spot, the list also included comedies like Seinfeld (#2), All in the Family (#4), M*A*S*H (#5), The Mary Tyler Moore Show (#6), Cheers (#8), and The Simpsons (#11).

Check out the full list, which also included Freaks and Geeks, Larry Sanders, and Louie, below:

Sitcoms

Think Twice, It's Alright: the Best Two-Part Sitcom Episodes

by | August 26th, 2011

It’s tough enough for TV writers to make viewers laugh for 22 minutes — to extend an episode’s length to 44 minutes, even spread over two weeks, that’s just downright crazy. But every so often, a sitcom plot will be spread over two episodes (with the occasional “To Be Continued” thrown in for good measure), oftentimes with mixed results. Below we choose twelve of the best two-part episodes, some season-ending cliffhangers, some series finales, and some that work as a two-part story arc. And don't worry: some Simpsons, too.

History

'All in the Family' and the First Gay Sitcom Character

by | May 30th, 2012

In February 1971, All in the Family became the first sitcom to bring a gay man into America’s wallpapered, shag-carpeted, plaid-couched living rooms.

And he turned out to be a former linebacker.

It was only the show’s fifth episode. The Gay Rights Movement was still getting off the ground in earnest — the first Pride Parades had taken place the previous summer — but I can’t find an earlier sitcom representation of an openly gay character. For some insight into how shocking the half-hour had been for some viewers, one need look no farther than the Oval Office (the same room from which President Obama announced his “evolved” position [...]

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