Show HEY CULLIGAN MAN DEAR CULLIGAN MAN The other day I was in the cafeteria with a group of students and faculty rapping or chewing the fat as my generation used to call it Some of my best ideas are born in such rap sessions The subject was Archie Bunker or more precisely the television series called All AIl in the Family It was the opinion of the group that this was a very funny show Everyone seemed to like it and the reasons given were quite varied We couldn't agree however on the nature of the almost universal appeal appeal appeal ap ap- ap- ap peal that this show has Some very interesting questions were raised but not answered before we were sent away on our different paths by bythe bythe bythe the demanding hands of the clock Since that time I have given it some thought and I feel that there are answers to the questions raised at that session Question number one oneDo oneDo oneDo Do people like the idea that the bigot is always being put down Not entirely this would limit the audience to people who do not hold the same opinions as Archie and the audience ratings show that this is not the case Archie does not win many arguments in this series but in losing he states ideas which many Americans can agree with because of their own racial and ethnic biases These people may think of Archie as the last angry man defending good old American virtues against soft headed misguided misguided mis mis- guided and seditious clods Question number two Is this series attempting to make lovable Many critics have clamed that this is so Archie is certainly not shown without some redeeming qualities To show him as an out and out hate monger foaming at atthe atthe atthe the mouth with vitriolic rage would certainly defeat the purpose of the show which is to present a comedy situation It is much funnier funnier funnier fun fun- nier to hear Archie complain President Roosevelt sold out this country at Gibraltar than it would be if he had more accurately named the site as Yalta and really lashed out with a discussion of the politics of that time What the writers are demonstrating demonstrating demonstrating demon demon- is that ignorance is the foundation of all bigotry We can recognize in Archie a need to be right even if it is not coupled with a need to be accurate Question number three Do people watch the show for shock effect when Archie uses some previously forbidden racial religious ous or political epithets Hardly likely Most of us hear these terms every day it is only the network censors who prevented their use previously in fear of the torrent of criticism which they felt would fall on the networks if they should allow such talk The censors had missed the essential truth The people who are the targets of bigoted language do not like it but they that such language is much more of a reflection of the bigot than the object of his bigotry The sting is taken out of Archies epithets by the obvious mindless devotion to the stock characterizations which they sent When Archie characterizes all blacks as watermelon eaters all nuns as gold-candlestick gold buyers and andall andall andall all jews as of law and finance it is hard to take offense especially far for black gourmets teaching nuns and bankrupt Jewish businessmen Archie Bunker makes good television television television tele tele- vision because he represents a person person person per per- son that all of us know A person who is steadfastly unchangeably and gloriously wrong When we see Archie spouting ideas which we know in our secret hearts we share and are ashamed to voice we can tell ourselves Well Im not as bad as Archie Bunker When we laugh at Archie Bunker we are laughing at the little but of ignorance in ourselves and it helps a little |