All In The Family

Amazing performance by O'Connor. He actually says "God Damn War" although it was later censored and overdubbed so we hear "Rotten war.." but you can clearly read Archie's lips as O'Connor says "I don't want to talk about that God Damn war no more!"

You can actually feel the astonishment of the stunned audience. O'Connor's most brilliant moment of the series by far.

Too bad the censored version is still the only one we see, although I hope the DVD version gets it right.

This television show really faced a lot of serious matters during its run, and it did an excellent job of dealing with the Vietnam issue. I have to say that it was very eerie to listen to this today because if it weren't for the part about the draft, the scene could have been written for today's time, if you know what I'm talking about. It was great to see how Archie didn't know how to handle having to face somebody who was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum in his beliefs and who was not afraid to stand up to Archie.

Again, tough to choose favorite episodes, but this one clearly deserves recognition among the best. All hell breaks loose when Archie discovers Mike's buddy David is a draft dodger, sneaking down for Christmas from Canada. One of my favorite moments is when Pinky Peterson (the Gold Star father) shakes hands with David and tells him his son would have wanted to sit down to dinner with him, and that's what he (Pinky) wants to do as well...you just see how tough it must be on him as a dad. Shortly thereafter, Archie still can't return to the table to face him, and Edith finally coaxes him by saying, "Please Archie...for me?" He looks at her, and slowly makes his way back to the table.



Also, love in the final scene when Archie reluctantly thanks the Christmas carollers outside his door, then mildly threatens to call the cops on them. He then shuts the front door, which is adorned with a wreath that reads PEACE.