JANUARY 12

On this date in 1971, American television was changed forever.  The situation comedy All In The Family premiered on CBS.  The show ran for eight years and was followed by several spin-offs.

In short, it was a show about a family headed by Archie Bunker.  Archie was a middle-class working stiff, a bigot, a redneck, a homophobe (this word hadn't been invented at the time), a xenophobe (disliking or fearing all foreigners), an anti-faminist, . . . do you get the picture?  The show delved into topics that were heretofore never approached on the small screen.

Archie called his wife "Dingbat" and his 'Polack' son-in-law "Meathead".  Archie sat in his easy-chair in front of a small TV most of the time.  He had no tolerance for his black neighbor George Jefferson, his ultra-liberal sister-in-law Maud, his Jewish co-worker, his rich brother-in-law, a Catholic priest, anyone with long hair, . . . do you get the picture?  Nothing was sacred.  This was the beginning of reality TV - everything before was unreal.  The nation loved it.

Here are the lyrics to the show's theme song.

Boy the way Glen Miller played
Songs that made the Hit Parade,
Guys like us we had it made
Those were the days.

And you knew who you were then,
girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could us a man
like Herbert Hoover again.

Didn't need no welfare state
everybody pulled his weight,
Gee our old LaSalle ran great
those were the days.

o.o