Archie Bunker, the slur-spewing outer-borough dad on the CBS sitcom All in the Family, was likely the most famous character created by Norman Lear, the TV writer/producer who died this week. Archie, portrayed by actor Carroll O’Connor, may have seemed reactionary, but he supported liberal lion Ted Kennedy for president.
Although strictly speaking, it was the actor Carroll O’Connor, not the character, who supported Kennedy. However, the creators of a 1980 Democratic primaries ad made every effort to suggest that Archie Bunker was speaking to voters. The clapperboard at the start of the video even says “Green Archie A,” not “Green Carroll A.”
Historian Rick Perlstein wrote about the Bunker pitch in his 2020 book Reaganland:
Dyed-in-the-wool All in the Family fans might be puzzled by those Hoover references, given that Archie used to open every episode by singing the line “Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.” But by 1980, All in the Family had become Archie Bunker’s Place, and those blue-collar Democrats that the ad aimed at would’ve backed Franklin Roosevelt over Hoover.
O’Connor also cut another Kennedy commercial (“Green Archie B”) that was slightly more explicit about the fact that this was an actor speaking. Another ad featured O’Connor/Bunker declaring that “Carter equals Reagan equals Hoover equals Depression.” Contrast those with the TV ad O’Connor cut for New York Mayor John Lindsay’s presidential campaign in 1972.
Regarding those “Archie for President” buttons: When the Democrats picked a vice-presidential nominee at their 1972 convention, one delegate did vote for Archie Bunker. Another one voted for Chairman Mao.
(For past installments of the Friday A/V Club, go here. For another edition involving a Norman Lear show—specifically Good Times—go here. Ron Jones wrote an essay that Lear’s company adapted into an after-school special called The Wave; to see Jones complain that Lear’s team turned his anarchist warning into a reassuring liberal fable, go here.)