Who Ruined 'All in The Family?' Norman Lear? CBS? Carroll O'Connor?

[Benno123]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Edith being killed off was after AITF.

Oh Nuts! did point out their opinion by saying "AITF (and its clone ABP)."

I still say when Mort Lachman came onboard, as well as John Rich no longer directing, the show's entire feel changed. The early episodes always had a feeling like you were looking in and spying on the Bunker household, witnessing what was happening first hand. After about season 6 or 7 something in the entire series changed, and it was never as great as the first few years.

[Dr. Thong]

Let's face it, after a certain amount of years, all shows run out of gas creatively.

There are only so many situations you can put the characters into, only so many fresh takes on the material that can be found.

By season 9, two key characters were gone and you had an aging show.

I'm sure the writers made their best efforts, but there's only so much you can do with characters after a while.

[megamanj2004]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

You right, The Jeffersons and Gloria were the only Lear shows that did not have serious subjects matter

What about Sanford and Son?

I cannot really think of very many eps. that had drastic serious subjects matters on that series.

But back to AitF. The 1st 5-6 seasons were dynamic. Then S7-S8 rolled into town not AitF was already no longer the #1 show and CBS was no longer the #1 network on TV due to ABC's surging dominance w/ Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley (despite AitF still ranking in the Top of Nielsens) and the writing took a hit somewhere along the lines and I don't know it if it's me but IMO, I think Mike became slightly less of a foil to Archie and started being less of the hippie-like liberal he was in the 1st 5-6 seasons to the point that he sometimes would really alienate Gloria.

Then S9 rolled along and gone was Mike and Gloria, in was Stephanie. Despite those changes, AitF was still in the Top of the Nielsens.

Now once ABP came along, the 1st season did reasonably well. Then S2 came, and gone was Edith and despite the lost of Edith and the series not getting its proper finale, ABP somehow still ranked in the Top 25 of the Nielsens.

As for who killed AitF, I'd have to say it's more of CBS's doing for overmilking Archie.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by megamanj2004

What about Sanford and Son?

I cannot really think of very many eps. that had drastic serious subjects matters on that series.

But back to AitF. The 1st 5-6 seasons were dynamic. Then S7-S8 rolled into town not AitF was already no longer the #1 show and CBS was no longer the #1 network on TV due to ABC's surging dominance w/ Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley (despite AitF still ranking in the Top of Nielsens) and the writing took a hit somewhere along the lines and I don't know it if it's me but IMO, I think Mike became slightly less of a foil to Archie and started being less of the hippie-like liberal he was in the 1st 5-6 seasons to the point that he sometimes would really alienate Gloria.

Then S9 rolled along and gone was Mike and Gloria, in was Stephanie. Despite those changes, AitF was still in the Top of the Nielsens.

Now once ABP came along, the 1st season did reasonably well. Then S2 came, and gone was Edith and despite the lost of Edith and the series not getting its proper finale, ABP somehow still ranked in the Top 25 of the Nielsens.

As for who killed AitF, I'd have to say it's more of CBS's doing for overmilking Archie.

Never any serious topics on Sanford and Son