All In The Family
- The Complete Sixth Season
Picture:
C+ Sound:
C+ Extras: D Episodes: A
No television
show has made me laugh harder, louder and more often than All in the Family, Norman Lear's incredibly
gutsy 1970s sitcom revolving around a surly, working-class, malapropism-prone bigot
named Archie Bunker (brilliantly portrayed by the late, great Carroll
O'Connor), whose old-school beliefs continually clashed
with a fast-changing modern world.
Add to
the mix Archie's cheerful, good-hearted "Dingbat" of
a wife, Edith (played with equal brilliance by Jean Stapleton), their
daughter, Gloria (Sally Struthers), and Gloria's husband, Mike
"Meathead" Stivic (Rob Reiner), a liberal who disagreed with the
ultra-conservative Archie on almost everything, and you have a TV classic that
is arguably the funniest sitcom ever.
By the
sixth season (1975-1976) of All
in the Family, the Jeffersons had moved on up to their own
show, and Frank Lorenzo (Vincent Gardenia) had suddenly disappeared without any
explanation, leaving Irene Lorenzo (Betty Garrett) to appear by herself in a
handful of episodes.
Mike and
Gloria finally moved out of the Bunker household at 704 Hauser Street, only to
move into what was formerly the Jefferson's residence next door. And a large
part of the sixth season is devoted to the anticipation and arrival of
Mike and Gloria's first child (Baby Joey), and Mike's battles with Archie
over how to raise the child.
Memorably
outrageous moments of the sixth season include Archie saving the life
of a "woman" who turns out to be a transvestite named Beverly LaSalle;
Archie arriving at the hospital for the birth of Gloria's baby in
blackface after having been hurriedly whisked away from a minstrel show in
which he was performing; and Archie taking his baby grandson to be baptized
without Mike and Gloria's permission.
The complete episode listing is as follows:
The Very Moving Day
Alone At Last
Archie, The Donor
Archie, The Hero
Mike's Pains
Chain Letter
Mike Faces Life
Edith Breaks Out
Grandpa Blues
Gloria Suspects Mike
The Little Atheist
Archie's Civil Rights
Gloria Is Nervous
The Baby (Two Parts)
New Year's Wedding
Archie, The Babysitter
Archie Finds A Friend
Mike's Move
Archie's Weighty Problem
Love By Appointment
Joey's Baptism
Gloria & Mike's House Guests
Edith’s Night Out
Few shows
have sustained this high level of hilarity into their sixth season, but All in the Family had a lot more
going for it than just jokes; it was about a quartet of very human
characters that many of us genuinely came to love -- I, for one,
never tire of watching most of the show's 212 episodes even though I've seen
most of them at least five times by now. And it's nice to once again see the episodes
on DVD in their entirety after often having moments edited out in reruns.
This also
marked the last of six consecutive seasons since its 1971 debut in
which All in the
Family ranked
as the No. 1 show on television -- it still remained very popular,
but slipped to No. 12, No. 4 and No. 9 in the Nielsen ratings in its subsequent
three seasons, respectively.
This is
the sixth of nine seasons of All in
the Family released on DVD to date by Sony -- the
first of four seasons of Archie
Bunker's Place is also currently available. Season Six
consists of 24 episodes (all presented in the original 1.33:1 full-frame
format) included on 3 discs, plus a booklet with a brief synopsis of each
episode. The 2” reel-to-reel NTSC
masters look decent in these tradedowns, if not perfect. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also good, with
very little variance from episode to episode in playback quality. Outside of that booklet, there are no extras.
- Chuck O'Leary
