Rowan and Martin and Archie and Carroll
You’ve got the kids off to bed for a long winter’s nap.
You’re sat in your kerchief, or maybe your cap.
Santa falls down the chimney, his face is beet red.
He cried out “Don’t just sit there. Help me, Meathead!”
You’d think a fellow named Carroll would make a great addition to any Christmas, but O’Connor was famous for playing the Scrooge of all Scrooges, Archie Bunker. There’s not a fellow worse-suited for the red suit. The only thing Archie Bunker would be worse than being Santa Claus is paying honest respect to other cultures’ holiday traditions.
But, once upon a Christmas, Archie Bunker himself was Santa Claus on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. That’s right. The Queens curmudgeon played the holliest and jolliest on one of America’s favorite variety shows.
In 1971, Carroll O’Connor guest-starred on the Christmas episode of Laugh-In, where he partook in a Dickens parody. This contemporary “Christmas Story” saw Ebenezer M. Nixon and Spiro T. Cratchit lampooning the classic tale. Next, O’Connor starred as a Christmas tree salesman with only aluminum and plastic trees for sale.
Finally, as the episode crescendos, O’Connor as Archie Bunker delivers a Christmas speech to the audience. Obviously, it’s not the Christmas spirit some would suspect, as the speech stays true to Archie’s whole philosophy.
Would Carroll O’Connor like Archie Bunker if the two met?
More importantly, would you get along with them both?
When someone becomes famous for playing a particular character, we very naturally want to know how similar the two entities are. Is the actor similar to the role? Or are we deceived by the art of “acting?” Because we so easily identify these actors with their famous roles, it’s common that the two get conflated.
It’s a big surprise to find out that Caroll O’Connor was actually a well-mannered gentleman, far removed from his on-screen Archie Bunker persona. By all accounts, O’Connor was a good man, and certainly not the bigot he played on TV. Even more jarring: O’Connor didn’t have that brash New York accent in real life. He was a classically trained actor, and his intonation reflected that.
So, if the two aren’t actually that similar, what would Carroll O’Connor make of a man like Archie Bunker? What would happen if the universes collided, and the actor met the character in real life? Would they get along? Luckily for those of us curious about this kind of thing, O’Connor gave his thoughts to the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1974.
“Sure, I would like him if I met him,” said the former BBC actor. “I feel sorry for him. He’s a victim of his upbringing and his environment.”
By then, in 1974, Carroll O’Connor had grown a bit weary from being so readily recognized as Archie Bunker. Because Archie was a bigot and O’Connor was not, he grew tired of playing such a flawed character.
“I’ve become stereotyped now,” said O’Connor. Despite this, though, it was his ability to connect with and related to Archie Bunker that made All in the Family such an iconic series. Archie Bunker could’ve been a real villain. Instead, Carroll O’Connor was able to find the humanity in the character.
Carroll O’Connor and Archie Bunker hanging out? Now that’s a cookout we’d love to attend!
