Trivia for
"All in the Family" (1971) More at IMDbPro »

• The US version of Johnny Speight's hit UK TV series, "Till Death Us Do Part" (1965).
  
  
• Notoriously, the first toilet flush in prime time television was heard on this show.
  
  
• Archie and Edith's easy-chairs are now on display at the Smithsonian.
  
  
• With all of its spin-offs included, save "704 Hauser" (1994), "All in the Family" (1971) ran for 15 straight years: "All in the Family" (1971), "Maude" (1972), "Good Times" (1974), "The Jeffersons" (1975), "Archie Bunker's Place" (1979), "Checking In" (1981), "Gloria" (1982).
  
  
• During a contract hold out, Carroll O'Connor missed the taping of four episodes. Three episodes were filmed about Archie failing to return from a convention. The producers gave O'Connor an ultimatum, that the story arc could conclude with Edith finding out that Archie had been murdered. A fourth episode filmed during O'Connor's hold out has no mention of Archie at all, which can be viewed as a pilot of an Archie-less version of the show. This episode was not broadcast in sequence, but was held back and shown months later.
  
  
• Sally Struthers sued to get out of her contract in 1974.
  
  
• Three pilots were shot, the first under the title "Justice for All", the second under the title "Those Were the Days", and the third as "All in the Family". Different actors played the roles of Mike, Gloria, and Lionel in the first two. The family name was Justice, not Bunker. Meathead was called Dickie, not Michael, and he was originally Irish-American, not Polish-American.
  
  
• Producer Norman Lear's original choice for Archie was Mickey Rooney.
  
  
• The New York City home whose exterior (only) was a stand-in for the Bunkers's TV house stands on Cooper Ave. near 89th St. in the Glendale section of the borough of Queens.
  
  
• In 1979, the series was reformatted as "Archie Bunker's Place" (1979).
  
  
• During the end credits, the line of "All in the Family was recorded on tape before a live audience" was spoken by: Bud Yorkin (1971), Rob Reiner (1972-1978), and Carroll O'Connor (1979).
  
  
• The role of Mike Stivic was offered to Harrison Ford who turned down the part because he felt Archie Bunker's bigotry was too offensive.
  
  
• In the original pilot, the title of the show was "Those Were The Days". At the same time a song with the same name by Mary Hopkin was a big hit. When a new pilot was developed, CBS decided to change the title yet kept the theme song titled "Those Were The Days".
  
  
• In one episode, Archie Bunker, without knowing it, issued what turned out to be a correct prophecy: During an argument with the "Meathead" in Kelsey's Bar, the latter walks out at the end, with Archie yelling out the door after him: "You're gonna get Ree-gan in 1980, wise guy!"
  
  
• Scott Brady was offered the part of Archie Bunker and even though he turned it down, he later appeared as a different character.
  
  
• Mike was originally from Chicago.
  
  
• When the characters of George and Louise Jefferson were first introduced during the first season, only Louise was seen at first and George was only talked about. Sherman Hemsley, who was Norman Lear's first choice to play George, was performing in the Broadway musical "Purlie" and didn't want to break his commitment to that show. However, Norman Lear kept the role waiting for him until he was finished appearing in the musical.
  
  
• The name of George Jefferson's brother, who was living with George and Louise, was Henry. In fact Henry once posed as George because George, who was as big a bigot as Archie, didn't want to set foot in the Bunker's house.
  
  
• Series producer Norman Lear wanted the show to be shot in black and white, but CBS refused to allow this.
  
  
• Jean Stapleton decided to do the series over starring in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). She would have played Mrs. Teevee.
  
  
• Rob Reiner was already losing his hair so rapidly when the show debuted that he started wearing a hairpiece halfway through the show's first season.
  
  
• For each episode, two performances were taped and the broadcast version combined the best takes from the two, which is how almost all comedy series are shot today. This was also the first comedy series shot on videotape rather than film.
  
  
• The character Archie Bunker was ranked #24 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" (20 June 2004 issue).
  
  
• When the initial furor after the premiere died down, ratings were so low that the show was about to be cancelled. Then, to the genuine surprise of many connected with the show, it started building a substantial audience during the 1971 summer re-run season. In August of that year, less than a month before the 1971-72 season was scheduled to begin, CBS announced that the series would be renewed.
  
  
• When the show was ending its run, Norman Lear spoke with Jean Stapleton (who was growing weary of playing Edith Bunker) about how they would respectfully have Edith die. She said, "Just have her die off, she's only fiction." Lear paused, then said, "Not to me, she isn't."
  
  
• In one episode Jean Stapleton played not only Edith Bunker but the dour, grumpy girlfriend of a local butcher who was in love with Edith, and found a girlfriend who looked exactly like Edith but was completely the opposite of her personality-wise.
  
  
• Archie's nickname for Edith was "Dingbat". He pronounced Edith's real name as "Ee-dit".
  
  
• This was the first television program to earn Emmys for all of its principal cast members.
  
  
• Originally the theme tune was going to be performed by an orchestra. However, due to budgetary concerns it was decided that series stars Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton perform the song seated at the piano. The two stars updated their rendition each year.
  
  
• Archie's line "Stifle, Edith!" was ranked #12 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 20 Top Catchphrases" (21-27 August 2005 issue).
  
  
• When CBS started rerunning the show during the day in 1975, it was edited by three minutes to allow more commercial time. Norman Lear was unhappy with the editing and offered to pay for the commercial time that would have been lost by showing it uncut, but CBS declined his offer.
  
  
• At one point, during the opening credits, when "Edith" hits the (very) off notes on "And you knew where you were then", there was a laugh track that followed.
  
  
• When the show's first pilot was done in New York in 1968 it became the first time a sitcom in the United States used videotape as a recording device. Before that all sitcoms had been recorded on film or kinescoped. However, several variety shows and news shows had already used video taped.
  
  
• Archie's favorite baseball team was the NY Mets.
  
  
• Norman Lear's father used to call him Meathead when he was a child, and Lear gave that "nickname" to Mike Stivic.
  
  
• The penultimate line of the theme song is "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great." Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton slurred the line some, and the LaSalle - a lower-priced version of the Cadillac that was made by General Motors in the 1930s - was not much remembered, so few people could make sense of this line. In later seasons the opening theme was re-shot and Stapleton pronounced the line phonetically "Gee..our..old..La Salle..ran..great" so that people could understand it easier.
  
  
• Vincent Gardenia appeared in a couple of episodes before he assumed the role of Frank Lorenzo. His first appearance was as the neighbor who sold his house to the Jeffersons. The second one was when he played the husband of a swinging couple (Rue McClanahan played his wife), accidentally contacted by a naive Edith for friendship.
  
  
• According to actress Danielle Brisebois, during the series run from 1970-1978 it was taped in front of a live studio audience. However, when the show entered its ninth season, 1978-1979, the producers abandoned the studio audience and began taping the show without them. However, after each episode was taped it would be shown to a studio audience and their laughter would be recorded. After the taping of Norman Lear's "One Day at a Time" (1975), Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton would appear and play "Those Were The Days" live, followed by showing an episode of "All In The Family" played for live audience response.
  
  
• Had Archie's character been killed off as a result of Carroll O'Connor's contract dispute, the show would have been centered around Archie's best friend, Stretch Cunningham, played by James Cromwell. Stretch would have moved in with the Bunkers to look after his best friend's family following his death. However, once O'Connor's contract dispute was resolved, the Stretch Cunningham character was killed off.
  
  
• Tom Bosley, Jack Warden and Jackie Gleason were all considered for the role of Archie Bunker. In fact, CBS wanted to buy the rights to the original British show and retool it specifically for Gleason, who was under contract to them, but producer Norman Lear beat out CBS for the rights and offered the show to ABC.
  
  
• The original pilot was titled "Justice for All" and was developed for ABC. Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton played Archie and Edith Justice. Kelly Jean Peters played Gloria and Tim McIntire played her husband, Richard. It was taped in October 1968 in New York City. After screening the first pilot, ABC gave the producers more money to shoot a second pilot titled "Those Were the Days". It was taped in February 1969 in Hollywood. Candice Azzara played Gloria and Chip Oliver played Richard. D'Urville Martin played Lionel Jefferson in both pilots. After ABC turned down the second pilot, CBS developed the third pilot titled "All in the Family". This pilot had the final cast and was the series' first episode.
  
  
• For the second season, Norman Lear advised Carroll O'Connor that his name would appear first in the credit scroll before the title of the show. O'Connor insisted that Jean Stapleton's name also be put before the credits and pressed Lear on it, who finally agreed, thereby giving both stars top billing.
  
  
• According to the book "Archie and Edith, Mike and Gloria: The tumultuous history of All In The Family", the _"All In The Family" (1971)_ episode titled "Edith's 50th Birthday", where Edith was held prisoner in her home and tormented by a would-be rapist, was originally intended to be an episode of "One Day at a Time" (1975), with Ann Romano as the victim.
  
  
• In 1972 Jean Stapleton appeared on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" (1967) and took part in a parody of All in the Family. Although she played the Edith Bunker role in the parody, she refused to speak in the distinctive voice she used on All in the Family. Stapleton instead used her normal speaking voice, which sounded nothing like Edith Bunker.
  
  
• Mike Evans had never acted before when he auditioned for the role of Lionel Jefferson. According to director John Rich, Evans' acting in the audition was poor but he still felt that Evans would be great in the role.
  
  
• Gloria worked at the cosmetics counter at Kressler's department store.
  
  

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