I’m sure you’ve heard of All in the Family, the groundbreaking 1970’s sitcom that turned television on its ear. For several years, it was the #1 show on TV, it was destination watching on Saturday nights on CBS, and it generated an entire universe of various sitcoms – an Archie Bunker-Verse, if you like.
Some of the sitcoms lasted for several seasons – Archie Bunker’s neighbors, George and Louise Jefferson, landed their own show (The Jeffersons), which ran for 15 years. Edith’s liberal cousin Maude Findlay received her own show (Maude), which in turn spun off its own long-running sitcom (Good Times). Oh, and All In The Family also had its own spinoff, Archie Bunker’s Place, where Archie takes over a local tavern and runs it for a few seasons.
There were several other spinoffs that – well – didn’t get as much coverage as one might expect. A Jeffersons spinoff starring their maid Florence, a show called Checking In, lasted four episodes. An All In The Family spinoff featuring Archie’s daughter Gloria – now working at a veterinary clinic – lasted one season.
But this show I’ve got lined up on the screen is the weirdest All In The Family spinoff of the batch.
Meet 704 Hauser.
704 Hauser was the address of Archie Bunker’s home. In 1994, this show – based on the new tenants in the house, a black family named Cumberbatch – lasted maybe five episodes at best.
Yeah. Archie’s house received a spinoff.
Now the pilot does have a very tiny connection to the original series, as a grown-up Joey Stivic – Archie’s grandson – appears and talks with the current owners. But that’s essentially it.
Here’s the pilot of the show. And if you recognize anyone in it – the new head of household is John Amos, who appeared for several years in one of the Archie Bunker-Verse shows, Good Times. Oh, and Maura Tierney is also in this, you might remember her from NewsRadio and ER.
Hey, trust me, they’ll find a way to make a spinoff out of anything out there.
Believe me, 10 years from now there will probably be a spinoff of Law & Order that focuses completely on the interstitial “dong-dong” sound. Don’t laugh, you know showrunner Dick Wolf would create it if he could. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
I actually watched 704 Hauser at the time, which is the first time I remember seeing Maura Tierney.
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I caught the first episode. Great Saturday night: All in the Family, MASH, MTM Bob Newhart, and Burnet. Over the years I picked up all these series on DVD and a lot of Burnet as well..
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The Jeffersons ran for 11 seasons, not 15. It bowed as a mid-season replacement in 1975, and ended 10 years later, at the end of the 1984-85 season.
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As an aside stay tuned, your anti conservative rant in Leave the money in the tip jar, A SanFran judge on Pelosi break in hammer story, has ordered the public news media release of body cans from police and tv footage, aftertheprosecution showed last week in court, and they still tried to suppress and you will see Paul Pelosi In all his glory, and maybe find out where they banished reporte Almaguer, it’s funny because network squashed their foot but local SanFran Affiliate had it up for a few days. So fiction according to you will now be fact.
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What the hell does that have to do with All in the Family? The video shows a mentally unstable Right-Wing terrorist attacking the husband of the then Speaker of the House. The defense and the prosecution both protested the release of the video, not just the prosecution.
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The video nudged me to the Internet, to confirm that I wasn’t watching Jenna Fischer in an episode of The Office.
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