of work to do and this bench needs to go over there. but we just moved it over here. don t question my authority, thanks! we talk about race and culture in serious ways. that is important. discussing these things in a sitcom, you are not offensive. you are able to take in new ideas. the family was doing something that nobody had ever done. we are talking about having one of the biggest bigots in america and having a black man coming to his house. you see my daughter gloria standing over there and her husband mike? it was electrifying! i was tangling the whole time. he is sitting there going you are watching kind of a master class in reflecting humanity. it was revolutionary in a lot of ways. all in the family change the way we think about society. that s the picture of sammy davis. to archie bunker, the whitest guy i know. you realize that norman lear is taking us into a whole new realm of comedy. my father used to tell my mother, jeanette, it
they just see him as being a hero. caroll o conner: president nixon saw the show, and he was asked about what he thought of it and he said, they re trying to make a fool out of a good man. archie: sorry don t help me, boy, now i gotta change the shirt. norman lear: some people think it was altogether wrong, but the blowback from the public was far buried by the excitement and the applause. assistant: hey, i don t like that. archie: you don t like what? assistant: you calling me boy. i m not a boy, i m a man. tracy: if you look at archie bunker, he s a racist guy, but we loved him. sitcoms hold a mirror up to us. say, look at us. look what we re afraid of. archie: i m a man too, i don t have to go around making a point of it. assistant: you never had to make a point of it. beretta smith shomade: in the 70s, with all in the family, we re starting to have a conversation about race in ways that the conversation had not been had. aramide tinubu: there was this huge rise of the black middl
beretta smith shomade: black life had not been shown in any kind of fashion. it was important that people were feeling recognized todd bridges: it proved that black shows can be just as successful, as long as people can relate to it. fred: i m dying! hear that elizabeth, i m coming to join ya honey. oh! [knock on door] fred: maybe that s elizabeth. ernest lee: with all in the family, sanford and son.. norman lear owned the airwaves tracy: and then there was good times. james: well, let s see i ll pay this one, stall this one, gotta argue about this one, and this one imma put in the funny papers. diana depasquale: shows like good times and sanford and son took a great step forward in that we see more depictions of black families, but those families are also squarely in the working-class. jimmie walker: we were people that work 60 hours a week and
because i was a backward kid. george lopez: and then it s just over and he s gone. he committed suicide in january of 1977. jim mckaines: he dies at age 22 with the world literally at his feet. patrick gomez: it was heartbreaking for the latinx community, and i think we ve realized you can t put that pressure on one person to represent an entire minority group. george lopez: to see somebody that. that changes you; that gives you a purpose. i wanted to be a comedian because of him. ed: i ll miss you. chico: you ll miss me? ed: but i won t miss you with this if you don t get back to work.. emily vanderwerff: the american sitcom had gotten a disruption in the early 1970s with all in the family, mary tyler moore beretta: you go from lear s, we gonna hit race.
and we had a couple of more writers who were themselves african-american. beretta smith shomade: does lear miss the mark a lot? yeah, he does. but he does capture some moments that had not been captured before in terms of showing african-american culture. sheryl: i believe that it is important to have writers in the room that understand the characters of the show. the pains, the pleasures, the joy. if not, it looks like amos and andy.