Great Old TV Episodes...from All in the Family

 

ARCHIE AND THE COMPUTER, from the breakthrough 1970s Norman Lear sitcom All in the Family, originally aired in October of 1973.  This episode, which contains one of my all-time favorite comedic lines, is all about how computers had pretty much taken over society and were royally screwing up everything...and that was nearly 48 years ago!  The Bunker family, in case you've been living in a cave all this time and never heard of the series, lives in their suburban house in Queens, New York.  Archie is the breadwinner, working as a foreman on a dock...and is also a raging bigot, with disparaging epithets for just about every group he encounters.  Edith is his loving, loyal, but very honest wife, while their daughter Gloria lives in their home with son-in-law (and staunch liberal) Michael while he's studying in grad school.  In this episode Edith reveals that the quarter for which she had sent a coupon to a prune company came in...and then more and more quarters kept coming: she's now got more than $47 due to this computer error.  Then Michael points out the computer-run electricity grid causing brown-outs and the subway system's malfunctions.  But Archie finally gets his own fill of computers when the Veteran's Administration mistakes him for another veteran who passed away...he's now dead as far as they are concerned and all the concerned businesses around target Edith in light of the "news".  Finally, toward the show's end a real estate agent trying to get Edith to sell their house calls on the phone and Archie grabs the receiver from her, saying "This is Archie Bunker talking to you from the grave...wish you was here!"  When creating this series, Lear wanted to expose prejudice for what it was.  Unfortunately, although All in the Family was a great success, Carroll O'Conner's compelling characterization of Archie gave him appeal to millions...and folks tend to emulate those they like.  Also, the series tended to identify being conservative with ignorance and bigotry...I guarantee that many on the left side of the political spectrum have problems in those two areas as well.  Still, the acting was tremendous and there were several very, very funny episodes, especially in the earlier seasons...