There’s a fine art to end a great TV series. Agonizing as it was when “The Good Place” and “Succession” recently packed it in after four seasons, it allowed them to go out with an emotional wallop rather than coasting on fumes past their expiration date. Admittedly, with less story-driven shows, it gets trickier. At what point should a specifically episodic sitcom call it a day? It often comes down to the people involved in making it.
With “All in the Family,” the writing was clearly on the wall at the end of season 8. With yet another impressive batch of episodes in the bag (including all-timers like the emotionally explosive “Edith’s 50th Birthday”), creator Norman Lear and his team were ready to wind things down. The last two episodes of the season, “The Dinner Guest” and “The Stivics Go West,” saw lifelong East Coasters Archie (Carroll O’Connor) and his wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) bid farewell to their daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and her “meathead” husband Mike (Rob Reiner) as the young couple prepare to make the trip out west to California. It felt like the perfect spot to part ways with the Bunkers and a final reminder to Archie that the world will only continue to spin into the future, whether he likes it or not.
Except, that’s not what happened. “Well, that came out of a lot of storm. We — when I said we, I’m talking about Jean Stapleton, Rob, Sally, and I — wanted to wrap this show up,” as the late Lear explained to Vox in 2015. But as eager as they were to (in his words) “put a ribbon around it,” O’Connor felt otherwise and won out in the end, which ultimately led to much more than “All in the Family” season 9.
Those were the days
It would be a stretch to call season 9 directionless, given that “All in the Family” was always much more character-oriented than plot-focused. Be that as it may, its central thrust — which had Archie and Edith, now in full-blown empty nester mode, becoming de facto parents to Edith’s young niece Stephanie (Danielle Brisebois) — mostly played as an excuse to keep the show going, as opposed to a more organic continuation or even a logical epilogue to the series. Lear acknowledged as much to Vox, stating, “The extra year came out of all of the discussion about not letting it go, and Carroll winning that round.” It seems O’Connor won the next battle too. As Lear put it:
“Then came the next round, which was he wanted to do [the spinoff] ‘Archie Bunker’s Place’ and the commitment was just to finish out that last year [the ninth and final season of ‘All in the Family’]. I didn ‘t wanted that to happen and finally gave in when my attorney handed me a list of the people who might be out of work if the show didn’t go on air had no part of it.”
That’s the quandary with ending a TV show — it also means putting a lot of hard-working people out of work. The best showrunners know to give their employees a heads-up, but that can be easier said than done, especially when your series is still a success and your lead actor is game to carry on. As such, the ballad of Archie Bunker continued past its prime, even as many of its core players moved on to greener pastures. Then again, I dunno; maybe that’s the ending Archie deserved anyway.
