"All in the Family" is about a family who lives during the early 1970s in the suburbs of Queens, New York City. The sitcom's main character is a World War II veteran and blue-collar worker Archie Bunker. Archie Bunker is old, a bigot, and is not very smart. He gets mad at the changes he sees in the world and wants to go back to when life was more easier. Archie does not like the Democratic Party and is a Republican. He stereotypes every person he meets. His wife, Edith Bunker is a nice woman but she is not very smart. She has a very big family but her family does not like Archie Bunker. Archie and Edith have one child. They have a daughter named Gloria Stivic who is a feminist. Archie calls Gloria "little girl". Gloria is married to Michael Stivic who is unemployed and is of Polish descent. Archie calls Michael the "Meathead" because Michael has different ideas about politics then Archie. Michael and Gloria have a son together. Archie thinks that Michael is dead from his neck to his head. Archie does not like the Jeffersons who are the African American family that live next door to them. Archie argues with George Jefferson many times but George's wife is a friends with Edith. Her name is Louise Jefferson. George and Louise have a son named Lionel Jefferson who helps out Archie. The Jeffersons move away and into the city. Edith also has a cousin named Maude Findlay who takes care of the Bunkers when they get sick. Archie argues with Maude many times because they do not have the same opinions about politics. The characters who live around Archie and his family are meant to show the changing demographics in the world, which Archie does not like.
During the show the family goes through different situations. Many of the most funny moments of the show are in the first season. Early in the show, Michael wrote an angry letter to President Richard Nixon and Archie wrote a letter to Richard Nixon about why he liked him. Archie and the Jeffersons argue over the color of God's skin because he does not think God is black. But Archie gets drunk and is locked in the basement and he thinks that God came to rescue him but it was just one of the Jeffersons. He is surprised that God is black and bows down to him. In many of the episodes Michael and Archie argue. One time Archie was nearly arrested for owning tear gas and another time he went missing. Archie and the people he works with go on strike and Archie does not have a job. But Edith gets a job instead because the family needs money. This makes Archie mad because he thinks that the husband should be working. There are also some flashback episodes. The first one is about the first time Archie and Michael meet. It is a very famous episode and Michael got the name "meathead" in it. In the third season the episode,"The Bunkers and the Swingers" won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. The episode was about Edith an Archie not knowing that they agreed to change husbands and wives for a night with other people who do it as a job.
Later on, Archie is in a broken elevator with a woman who Archie thought was crazy, an African American businessman and a Puerto Rican man and women who is about to give birth. In season eight of the show Gloria and Michael move out of the house and move into their own house to raise their son but the house is very close to Archie and Edith's house. Michael and Gloria start to argue many times and they think they might get divorced. Michael looks to Archie for help but it does not work very much. They do stayed married for the rest of the show. Archie's ideas about transgender people are put to test when he saved a transgender person's life not knowing that they were transgender. Many important and controversial things happen in season eight of the show. During the episode "Edith's 50th Birthday" a man who is dressed up as a police officer tried to rape Edith. Edith fights him off but has a very hard time telling Archie about it. Another time Archie and Michael are locked in Kelsey's Bar together and they argue but become very close and Archie finally tells Michael that he loves him. Later in the show Archie and Edith raise a young girl named Stephanie Mills who was abandoned by her father and her mother (Edith's cousin). Archie buys a bar with a friend and they own it. The story of "All in the Family" continued in "Archie Bunker's Place" and the house is the main place with a new family named the "Cumberbatches" in the spin-off show "704 Hauser" but the show was cancelled less then a month after it started.
"All in the Family" is based on the 1960s British sitcom television show "Till Death Us Do Part". Norman Lear said he read about the show in a "Variety" magazine. He thought the show was like the relationship that he had with his father. Norman Lear bought the rights to use "Til Death Us Do Part" and used the ideas of the show in "All in the Family". Norman Lear is the creator of "All in the Family". He would also add some of the things his father did into the show. CBS wanted to have the show but the show was going to be on ABC. There was two pilot episodes made. One was made on September 3, 1968 and called "And Justice For All". The pilot episodes had different actors and actresss for Michael (Tim McIntire) and Gloria Stivic (Kelly Jean Peters) and the house they lived in looked different. Archie and Edith were named "Archie Justice" and "Edith Justice" instead of Archie Bunker and Edith Bunker. Micheal was named “Dickie” for the first pilot. Lionel Jefferson was played by D'Urville Martin instead of Mike Evans. For the start of the episode, Archie and Edith were singing, "Those were the Days" but the song was longer and shots of where they lived were shown but not them. Also Edith played the piano faster in this pilot episode then the rest of the show. The camera showed the door mat which said "Justice" before the episode started. The pilot was taped with three cameras so the people watching could see the characters feelings about things. This would be used for the entire show. Most other sitcoms used one camera but "All in the Family" was the first and more sitcoms used three cameras after. The pilot talked about many important issues instead of just one. The characters talked about race, welfare, antisemitism, and even different types of sausage. The ending credits of the pilot episode is the kitchen room with the party decorations up. Edith and Archie are singing the same song from the beginning as the credits roll.
ABC did not like the first pilot because they did not think Archie and Edith were good together but ABC gave Lear the money to make a second pilot. The episode was made on February 10, 1969 in Los Angeles and it was called "Those were Days". The second pilot episode was almost the same as the first pilot episode but in this pilot Gloria was played by Candice Azzara and Chip Oliver played Richard. Richard was the name of Michael Stivic's character and was named "Dickie" in the first pilot episode. D'Urville Martin played Lionel Jefferson again. Another difference from the pilot episodes and the rest of the show is that Edith can be rude to Archie at times and calls Archie,"Mr. Religion." For the start of this pilot episode, Edith and Archie are singing "Those were the Days" the same way it would be for the rest of the show. After Edith and Archie start to sing, shots of the neighborhood that they live in are shown but not Manhattan. The ending credits are Archie and Edith singing the same song but they are not shown. Instead the same shots from the opening song is shown but backwards. This was used for the rest of the show.