Sally Struthers is speaking out about the live All in the Family reboot led by Jimmy Kimmel and legendary producer Norman Lear — and she isn’t holding back. Struthers, best known for her role as Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker, told the Delaware News Journal that she’s baffled by the idea behind ABC’s special Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons. The 90-minute event features Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei stepping into the roles originally made famous by Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton.
Struthers said she was stunned to learn that a live reenactment of an All in the Family script was happening more than 40 years after the original CBS series ended.
“Why? What is the point?” she asked. “It’s a classic. All in the Family came at a moment in time that turned out to be exactly right for something that ‘quote-unquote’ radical to be on TV, and we had the perfect cast and the perfect writers.”
She emphasized that recreating the show decades later is impossible — particularly without Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton, whose portrayals of Archie and Edith Bunker defined the series.
“Nobody is going to be Carroll O’Connor. Nobody but nobody is going to be another Jean Stapleton. And I honestly don’t see the point.”
Struthers also had a pointed message for her former boss.
“Norman Lear is in his 90s. I think he should just have fun and travel and stop trying to make another mark on TV. He’s made enough marks.”
While Struthers believes the original cast’s shoes can’t be filled, Norman Lear has made it clear that the goal of the special isn’t to recreate the original performances. He told Entertainment Weekly that he instructed the new cast to “make the characters their own” rather than trying to imitate Stapleton or O’Connor.
Her TV husband, Rob Reiner, however, has taken a different approach. Reiner, who played Mike “Meathead” Stivic, told Page Six that he actually shared ideas with Lear ahead of the special, including potential casting choices and episode suggestions.
Reiner revealed that he recommended revisiting the provocative 1972 gun-control episode “Archie and the Editorial.” In that storyline, Archie delivers a televised editorial opposing gun control — only to be robbed at gunpoint by viewers who saw his segment.
Reiner said he suggested it because the issue remains just as relevant today: “The issues are exactly the same and the arguments are the same.”
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons airs Wednesday, May 22, at 8 p.m. on ABC.
