Is “The New Normal’s” Ellen Barkin a female Archie Bunker?

“Glee” creator Ryan Murphy’s “New Normal” just might be the edgiest show to tackle race since “All in the Family”

On Jan. December 12, 1971, Norman Lear premiered “All in the Family,” the sitcom that would launch an empire of shows soaked in the key social issues of the day — integration, feminism and patriotism — and establish Lear as the preeminent and emerging voice of the modern television era. Anchored in working-class Queens, Archie Bunker reigned as the racist and sexist patriarch spewing anti-Semitic, anti-Polish, anti-woman venom that sadly mirrored the misguided indoctrination of many white male Americans like himself.

And while we’ve enjoyed some great sitcoms over the last 40 years, it’s been a while since one regularly used our funny bones to engage our intellects. We’ve seen Jon Stewart do this rather well, and “Saturday Night Live” still has its moments, but the sitcom, even groundbreaking ones like “Will and Grace” and “Modern Family,” have only pushed so far. Ryan Murphy has gone retro with his freshman sitcom, “The New Normal,” channeling the ghosts of great television past to create what may well be the “All in the Family” of our time.

Just as Archie Bunker clashed with the newer ideals of his daughter Gloria’s husband, Mike, whom he called “Meathead,” gay couple Bryan (Andrew Rannells), a television producer, and David (Justin Bartha), a gynecologist, engaged in a perennial culture war with their resident Archie, Ellen Barkin’s Jane Forrest, who is the Ohio-bred, Mitt Romney-supporting grandmother of their surrogate, Goldie (Georgia King).

“All in the Family,” which was modeled on the edgy 1960s British series “Til Death Us Do Part,” debuted during an era of great social readjustment for the nation. The 1970s was a decade when the gains of the civil rights and feminist movements were being implemented and the Vietnam War was still being waged — half of the country supported it while many others actively protested it. Watergate was looming, Black Power was rising as the nation was literally in a state of transformation. And “All in the Family” submerged itself in this tumultuous time by pushing the envelope with shows that exposed racism and sexism as well as tackled abortion, rape and homosexuality. In its debut season, “All in the Family” allegedly sparked the first national conversation on homosexuality through television. In just its fifth, Archie was forced to consider that his manly, former football player friend Steve might not be the episode heteros bachelor he believed and that episode unknowingly laid a foundation for a show like “The New Normal” so many decades later.

Following the lead of his idol Norman Lear today, Murphy has infused “The New Normal” with the pressing issues of our time, especially as it relates to challenging homophobic attitudes. That’s crystal clear in episode three or “Baby Clothes” when Bryan and David leave their Rodeo Drive preferred shopping zone to accompany Goldie to an outlet mall to buy new clothes for her 9-year-old daughter, Shania (a brilliant Bebe Wood), where homophobia rears its ugly head. An innocent and loving display of public affection between Bryan and David becomes confrontational when a man, shopping with his wife and kid, challenges them. “Don’t do that in front of my daughter,” he roared. “This is a family store and I shouldn’t have to go home and explain that to my kid,” he said.

Taken aback, Bryan calls the man out for his bigotry and chastises him for continuing the cycle with his own daughter. As forceful as Bryan is, he is clearly shaken by the man’s labeling of him and David starting a family of their own as “disgusting.” At home later, Bryan’s “come-to-parenthood” moment resonates far beyond gay parents. “That guy is not the problem,” he told David. “We are the problem… We are bringing a baby into the world where idiot people feel free to say and do the things they say and do because we have been trained to ignore them,” he pouts. “But how are we supposed to protect our baby from hate?” he finally asks David.

It’s a question expecting Muslim American parents have undoubtedly asked themselves, especially since 9/11. And it’s definitely a question many expecting African-American parents must ask themselves in this Trayvon Martin/Barack Obama America. Therefore, Bryan and David’s “come-to-parenthood” moment resonates beyond a gay couple expecting their first child. Instead, it’s one that many marginalized groups have historically struggled with and continue to do so today in some form or another.

Personal politics isn’t the show’s only target. In step with the seeingsawing emotions that are abundant in this heated election year, “The New Normal” has also been taken on the crowded minefield of politics.