40 years later, CBS News remembers the importance of former #1 sitcom “All in the Family”

Forty years ago this week, All in the Family debuted on CBS. It ranked tops as the #1 TV show in America for five consecutive seasons, but as creator/producer Norman Lear pointed out at the 2002 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, he probably couldn't get the show on network television then (and probably not in 2011 either).

CBS News talked to Lear and Rob Reiner about the show on its 40th anniversary, and noted how the political divide and climate now isn't all that different than it was in January 1971, and that perhaps Americans would be better served having a comedy that speaks to all of the American family, the Archie Bunkers and Meatheads alike.

Roll the clip because you're too young to remember the show, or too old and your memory needs a wake-up call!

 

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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