All In The Family is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time – heck, I’d even argue it’s one of the greatest scripted television shows of all time. The show broke so many taboos and boundaries and sitcom norms that, even today, you can watch episodes of this classic series and go, “How in the hell did they ever get away with talking about this on Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m.?”
Heck, at one point in time, CBS’ Saturday evening schedule was packed. PACKED. You could start at 8:00 with All In The Family, then have M*A*S*H* at 8:30, The Mary Tyler Moore Show at 9:00, The Bob Newhart Show at 9:30, and The Carol Burnett Show at 10:00 – and never leave your chair or change the channel during that entire three-hour block. I mean … could you imagine that today? It would be like HBO showing Game of Thrones at 8:00, followed by The Sopranos, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep in one single non-time-shiftable block.
Even today, as All In The Family has been syndicated and DVD-box-set-assembled for posterity, the show’s syndicators still have to make some tiny edits to the original broadcast – just based on language that, while you might get away with it in 1974, there’s no way you could say those words in 2024 without someone getting offended or someone getting upset.
This is not to say that the show is being edited for wokeness or political correctness … it’s just that some things the show COULD have gotten away with are not appropriate any more. It’s the same reason why we don’t have minstrel shows or tales of Little Black Sambo. We’ve evolved from those times.
But if you’ve never watched All In The Family – and trust me, there’s probably some YouTube or TikTok channel where teenagers react to seeing episodes of All In The Family for the first time – let me introduce you to one of the show’s most iconic and politically charged episodes. It’s the episode “Lionel’s Engagement,” which originally aired on February 9, 1974.
Let me set up the backstory. For the first few seasons, Archie Bunker and his family were neighbors with George and Louise Jefferson and their son Lionel. Lionel is announcing his engagement to his girlfriend Jenny, and the back-and-forth commentary between Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, and all the parties involved not only show the various levels of racism and bigotry that Archie has worked with in his life … but we also get a glimpse into the racism and bigotry that George Jefferson has worked with in HIS life.
This episode is also notable in that it helps set up All In The Family‘s successful spinoff show The Jeffersons, where George, Louise and Lionel (along with George’s mother) move to that dee-luxe apartment in the sky. I should note that the actors who played Jenny Willis and her parents were recast when their characters were added to the Jeffersons spinoff show.
Yeah. I just did a rewatch of this episode, and I’m STILL trying to get past several moments in the show. Archie referring to George’s mother with a derogatory term, while the N-word (and to an extent the H-word) gets shot in the air a time or two.
This episode aired in 1974. 50 years ago.
Damn, I’m old.
Chuck The Writer 
Arguably television was better then because there was less of it; as there are now hundreds of channel hours to fill the content must be mass produced as cheaply as possible, As a result quality suffers, as it does with any product under such pressure.
I’d also like to object to the editing. One of the key values of that show was to demonstrate that these people exist and show how wrong they were in their beliefs and attitudes. Blanking out the words doesn’t make the racist mindset go away, it just allows it to hide. If they can’t say “the ‘N’ word” they simply invent another, and for a while people won’t realize the kind of person they are dealing with.
Back in the 1960s people like George Carlin and Lenny Bruce fought for true freedom of speech with comedy. The lesson we should have learned is that some things are ugly and have to be recognized as such. Instead we’ve fallen victim to the false notion that a problem that isn’t explicitly discussed is one we no longer have, and that simply isn’t true.
Incidentally, Canada has fallen for this so hard that the clip you included isn’t available for viewing here. Obviously we have ended racism in my country. Unless you’re one of the many who still experience it and wonder why no one believes you do.
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