Sally Struthers broke her arm on the set of ”All in the Family”
The cast had to be removed before filming.
While much of the comedy in All in the Family relies on verbal jokes, there are lots of moments that are excellent examples of physical comedy. Plenty of Laughs on the series come from a door being slammed in Archie’s face, or times when Mike and Archie both shoved to fit through the doorway at the same time. Not to be outdone, however, Sally Struthers, who played Gloria, was also well known for her physical comedy throughout All in the Family. But while Struthers’ actions resulted in a lot of laughter, it also led to a few accidents as well.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Struthers revealed that she actually broke her arm while on the set of All in the Family after she took a spell down the Bunker’s staircase. Struthers said, “I’ve hurt myself a couple of times just doing All in the Family. I fell down the stairs one week and broke my arms.”
The accident happened before the cast was set to begin filming, and Struthers, ever the professional, refused to go to the hospital and stayed on set to perform. She stated, “I went on with the two shows despite the cracked elbow, and then, after the second show, I was rushed to the hospital and they put a cast on.”
Stranger still, the powers that be decided that Struthers couldn’t be seen wearing the cast as Gloria during the next filming session for All in the Family. The solution was simple in theory, but different in practice.
“The next week they took the cast off right before the show and put it back on again afterwards.” the actor explained, “They were worried if they explained my broken arm on the show the audience would be so concerned about it they would lose some of the spontaneity. I just sort of had to carry my arm around and hope nobody noticed.”
While Archie Bunker was a menace to biggest of the characters on All in the Family, some of his sweetest moments are usually in scenes with his daughter, Gloria. Albeit, these moments are few and far between. But for the briefest of moments, All in the Family can forget the laughter and cut to a very human and realistic moment between a father and daughter.
Carroll O’Connor took great pains to convince everyone that he was nothing like his character, but one thing that the two men shared was their love for their daughter.
According to an interview with Closer Weekly, Sally Struthers explained that she considered O’Connor to be a father figure to her during their time on the series, after the death of her father.
Struthers said, “In 1968, my own father passed away. I was still feeling bad and fatherless when I got on this show [All in the Family]. Carroll and his wife, Nancy, turned out to be as parental with me as he was in the show.”
She continued, “Carroll gave me advice, laughed at my antics, he hugged me all the time – and he introduced me to my husband! So I gained a father again by doing that show.”
Struthers also called her on-screen mother, Jean Stapleton, “my living, breathing example, of what it’s like to be subtle as a human being..She didn’t think or say a single negative thing. That was glorious to be around !”
While Struthers left the show before its proper ending, her love for Stapleton and O’Connor was so great that, after their deaths, she found herself unable to rewatch old episodes of All in the Family.
Struthers said, “Whenever I see an episode on TV now, I stop for a second, but as soon as I see Carroll or Jean, I get so sad that I have to change the channel.”
