As the New York Times put it in January, “The message sounds like ‘hate thy neighbor.’” There was no guarantee that Norman Lear’s comedy would hang around for very long and CBS considered burying the show in a 10:30 timeslot. In any case, viewers still had no idea what to make of Archie Bunker (played by Carroll O’Connor), whose bigotry struck some critics as more inflammatory than satirical. In sometimes-graphic language, President Nixon reveals that he was not a fan. 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 on gay marriage this month). 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. 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.Īnd he turned out to be a former linebacker.
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