Norman Lear made his ”All in the Family” writers read newspapers to keep up with current events for the show

“It didn’t take a lot of imagination. It just took looking around.”

One of the best parts about television is that it holds a mirror up to reality and forces us to take a long hard look at ourselves and reckon with what we see. When All in the Family first aired, the expectation for shock and scandal was so expected that CBS added extra telephone operators under the impression that they would get an influx of calls from upset viewers watching the episode. But while startling, it’s important to understand that the series wasn’t operating from the absurd; While there was only one Archie Bunker on television, countless Archie Bunkers were walking around in the real world.

According to Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria: The Tumultuous History of All in the Family by Donna McCrohan, the writing of All in the Family was more of a collective effort than other television shows airing at the time. Michael Ross, who worked as a story editor on the show, said, “Most situation comedies in Hollywood are 10-to-5 jobs for the writers. But on All in the Family, there is a kind of community effort. Everybody stays with it until the final moment.”