The television legend marked his 100th birthday by offering thoughts on his bigoted but beloved character
Archie Bunker would have been on Team Trump.
Or so says Norman Lear, the creator of “All in the Family,” the landmark sitcom that made the bigoted but beloved family man Archie, played by Carroll O’Connor, a working-class American icon.
In a commentary in the New York Times to mark his 100th birthday on Wednesday, Lear wrote about his hit show of the ‘70s and its signature character. “He probably would have been a Trump voter,” Lear said of Archie.
At the same time, Lear said that the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — and the more recent House investigation into former President Donald Trump’s role in it — might have provoked certain strong reactions from a Trump-supporting Archie.
The “sight of the American flag being used to attack Capitol Police would have sickened him,” Lear wrote. “I hope that the resolve shown by Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and their commitment to exposing the truth, would have won his respect.”
Lear, who also created such shows as “Sanford and Son,” “Maude,” “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times,” has long been a liberal activist and supporter of progressive causes. He is a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts and was a Kennedy Center honoree.
Many boldface names, from Jimmy Kimmel to Mike Bloomberg, responded to Lear’s commentary by congratulating him on reaching the centennial mark and thanking him for continuing to speak out on various issues.
This isn’t the first time that Lear has talked about Archie Bunker in relation to Trump.
In 2017, he told the Daily Beast that “Trump is shrewd in a way Archie never was. Archie Bunker was far wiser of heart.”
In his New York Times commentary, Lear also said, “For all his faults, Archie loved his country and he loved his family, even when they called him out on his ignorance and bigotries.”
Beyond the subject of Archie, Lear said, “I often feel disheartened by the direction that our politics, courts and culture are taking. But I do not lose faith in our country or its future.”
And what about hitting the triple-digit mark? Lear offered the following: “Reaching this birthday with my health and wits mostly intact is a privilege. Approaching it with loving family, friends and creative collaborators to share my days has filled me with a gratitude I can hardly express.”
