The Jeffersons Character Review: George Jefferson

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series The Jeffersons. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well-written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations. The American dream is the ability to pull yourself and your family up by your bootstraps. But as we all know, that dream still does not apply to everyone. On The Jeffersons, the patriarch of the family, George Jefferson is not exactly humble.

Descending from sharecroppers, and growing in poverty during the Depression, George became a business owner. Opening a chain of dry cleaners, he was able to move his wife Louise (Isabel Sanford) and son Lionel (played by both Damon Evans and Mike Evans) from Harlem to Queens and then finally to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There are some in his shoes who would be unassuming and appreciative. But not George.

Like his former neighbor, Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor), George is arrogant, full of it, and has certain ideas about certain people. Though underneath it all he is a loving and supportive husband and father, that is not the impression one gets upon meeting him for the first time. He takes pleasure in riling up his neighbors, Tom and Helen Willis (Franklin Cover and Roxie Roker), and their maid Florence Johnston (Marla Gibbs). His schemes to bring in more money usually ended up in failure, to be replaced with a new idea.

To sum it up: George Jefferson should be proud of his success. In his time, what he was able to achieve is nothing to sneeze at. But there is a thin line between pride and arrogance. That being said, the reason that audiences have loved this character for nearly fifty years is the duality of being a good spouse and parent and having a large ego. Balancing both aspects, George appeals to the audience in a way that not only breaks boundaries but reveals the human side to what could easily be a dislikable man.

Which is why he is a memorable character.

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All in the Family Character Review: Maude Finley

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series All in the Family. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

Our families, as much as we love them, can drive us crazy. The same goes for the families that we marry into. In an ideal world, we would get along with our in-laws. But we don’t live in an ideal world.

On All in the Family, Maude Findlay (the late Bea Arthur) is Edith Bunker’s (the late Jean Stapleton) cousin. Maude arrives when Edith is sick, seeing that she is needed. She gets along great with Mike and Gloria (Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers). But there is one person who she does not get along with: Edith’s husband, Archie (the late Carroll O’Connor).

Maude is an out and proud liberal. Archie firmly believes in the ideals of the political right. They get along like oil and water, knowing exactly how to push each other’s buttons. Edith tries to keep the peace, but to no avail.

To sum it up: Every great character needs someone to challenge them. Maude challenges Archie at his level, matching biting remark for biting remark. Neither tops the other, though they do try.

Which is why she is a memorable character.

This will be my last All in the Family Character Review post. The next group of characters I will be reviewing is…come back next week and find out.

All in the Family Character Review: Gloria Stivic

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series All in the Family. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

Ideally, when we marry, the family we are born into and raised by will get along with our new spouse and their family. But that is not always the case. On All in the Family, Gloria Stivic (Sally Struthers) is the only child of Archie and Edith Bunker (the late Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton). Married to Michael “Meathead” Stivic (Rob Reiner), Gloria is the peace maker between her liberal husband and her conservative father who refers to her as “little girl”.

During the first few years of their marriage, Gloria supports her husband while he attends college. Working at a department store, she only has a high school education, which does not help during arguments with Mike. After Mike receives his degree, they move into the house next door to her parents and welcome their son into the world.

Unafraid to speak her mind, Gloria can verbally tussle with her father as no one else can. As a young woman in the 1970’s, she speaks for the feminists of that generation, who were just starting to ramp up the fight for equality.

After they move to California, Gloria and Mike’s marriage falls apart. She eventually returns to New York as a single mother, working in a veterinarians office.

To sum it up: It’s a tough place to be in, torn between between the person you married and the family who you have known your entire life. But Gloria is somehow able to figure out how to walk that very thin tightrope without ruining her relationship with her parents and her husband.

Which is why she is a memorable character.

All in the Family Character Review: Michael “Meathead” Stivic

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series All in the Family. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

Marriage, we are told is a compromise. It is also more than the coming together of two people making what will hopefully be a lifetime commitment. It is the coming together of two families. But whether or not these families learn to like or even love each other is another story.

Michael “Meathead” Stivic is the liberal son-in-law of Archie & Edith Bunker (the late Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton). Michael or Mike as he is called, initially lives with his wife, Gloria (Sally Struthers) and his in-laws while attending college. To say that Mike and Archie don’t get along is an understatement. Nicknamed “meathead” by Archie, their arguments can go from 0 to 60 in an instant.

But just because he leans politically to the left does not mean that he is perfect. He can be racist and chauvinistic at times, forcing a hard look in the mirror. He is also not the perfect husband. When his son was a baby, Mike got a job in California. This was unfortunately the beginning of the end of the marriage. More than a decade after Mike and Gloria married, their divorce was finalized.

To sum it up: Politics and familial relationships do not always make easy bedfellows. That being said, that does mean that just because you are related to someone on the other side of the political aisle, that you are all good and they are all bad. It is about trying to see the other side and finding some sort of common ground. Unfortunately, as admirable as some audience members might think Mike he is, he might be too much like his father-in-law for his own comfort.

Which is why he is a memorable character.

All in the Family Character Review: Edith Bunker

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series All in the Family. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

For an untold number of generations, women have been told that the only acceptable role is that of a wife. She is expected to cook, clean, stay home to take care of her child(ren), and ensure that her husband is happy. But what few realize is that this woman (especially in a traditional hetero-normative family), is that she is her family’s backbone. Without her endless support and work, their lives would not be the same.

On All in the Family, Edith Bunker (the late Jean Stapleton) is not the brightest bulb in the box. Which causes endless irritation for her less than understanding husband, Archie (the late Carroll O’Connor). His favorite nickname for her is “dingbat”.

But what she does not have in traditional academic intelligence, she makes up for with a huge heart. Her willingness to be open to those who Archie derides proves that having an open mind is just an important as being smart.

One of the other things about intellect is that it is not limited to one way of thinking. When Edith is nearly raped, she has enough presence of mind to distract her rapist and get away to safety. She also has the ability from time to time to knock her husband down a peg or two as only she can.

To sum it up: Though Edith comes off as a ditz, there is much more to her than meets the eye. She is warm, caring, understanding, and tolerates her husband’s less than endearing quirks.

Which is why she is a memorable character.

All in the Family Character Review: Archie Bunker

The new characters I will be reviewing are from…All in the Family.

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series All in the Family. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

From a writer’s perspective, it would be too easy to create a one note character that is entirely predictable. It is much harder to create a fully rounded character who the audience can relate to in-spite of that person’s flaws and imperfect humanity.

Archie Bunker (the late Carroll O’Connor) is very much an every man. A veteran of World War II and a blue collar worker, Archie lives in Queens with his wife Edith (the late Jean Stapleton), his daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers), and his son-in-law Mike “Meathead” Stivic (Rob Reiner).

The world around Archie is changing. When change happens, there are two ways to respond. You can either accept it or entirely reject it. Archie is not shy in admitting that he would prefer that life went back to the way it was. He also is not shy about using not so politically correct terms that some might refer to as racist or sexist.

Archie is a dyed in the wool supporter of the Republican Party and then President Richard Nixon. Which often leads to clashes with Mike and Gloria, who politics are on the more liberal spectrum. He also refers to Edith as “dingbat” and loves to sit in his favorite chair while sharing his opinions about the world around him.

But underneath that gruff and bravado is a man who loves his family and at the end of the day, would do anything for them.

To sum it up: No one is just all good or all bad. It is that in between of good and bad that makes us human. Though Archie Bunker may appear to be a racist and sexist hard-ass, he is in reality a man trying to process the transformation of everything that is in front of him.

That is why he is a memorable character.

If a Draft Dodger and a Gold Star Father Can Find Something in Common, So Can the Rest of Us

*-Spoiler alert. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the episode of All in the Family that aired last week.

Last week, Live in Front of a Studio Audience: ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Good Times’ aired on ABC.

I can’t comment about the Good Times episode because it’s just one of those shows that I never watched.

However, I knew the episode from All in the Family.

The focus on the episode was Christmas dinner. Pinky (Kevin Bacon) has been invited by Archie (Woody Harrelson) to join the Bunkers for Christmas Eve. A gold star father who lost his son in Vietnam, Pinky is still in mourning for his son. David (Jessie Eisenberg) is an old friend of Mike (Ike Barinholtz). He has nowhere else to go for the holiday and is extended an invitation by Mike.

Over the course of the episode, David reveals that he is a draft dodger. Archie, of course is enraged. The expectation is that verbal daggers will be thrown. Instead, the two men shake hands and peacefully sit down to dinner.

Our country is as divided as it was when this episode originally aired. The thing that struck me is that if these two men, with completely opposite viewpoints, can sit down and have Christmas dinner in peace, why can’t the rest of us?

Happy Monday.

Thoughts On the Live All in the Family and The Jeffersons

Last night, ABC aired two episodes of All in the Family and The Jeffersons live.

Stepping into the iconic shoes of Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor) and George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) were Woody Harrelson and Jamie Foxx. Airing as they did in 1973 and 1975 respectively, both episodes tackled two subjects that are as difficult to talk about today as they were in the 1970’s: racism and sexism.

What I think made the live episodes so potent and so in your face is that not only to they still induce deep belly laughs, but they also force us to ask questions that can only be described as uncomfortable.

If you missed it or you would like to watch it again, the episode is available on the ABC site.

I absolutely recommend it.

Throwback Thursday TV Edition- All In The Family

All In The Family is an undisputed classic.

The pilot aired on January 12th, 1971. It was nothing short of earth shattering.

Archie Bunker (the late Carroll O’Connor) is a middle aged, working class World War II veteran. He lives in Queens with his loyal but slightly ditzy wife, Edith (the late Jean Stapleton), his daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and his liberal son in law (Rob Reiner).

Archie has opinions today that would not be considered politically correct. He does not hesitate to share those opinions, especially about those who disagree with him or those who he doesn’t like. Archie represents the generation that came of age during the depression and World War II, the generation that was middle aged with growing or grown children during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Despite his beliefs, Archie is still a decent guy who is trying to adapt to the changing world.

Family sitcoms before All In The Family were lovey-dovey, ooey gooey, with a teachable moment and a story line that was wrapped up neatly within 30 minutes. All In The Family changed that. The characters were flawed and human, using language that had not been heard before on American television. It exposed the raw nerve that was the American culture in that period. After 40+ years, this show is still relevant and still funny.