All in the Family

Gloria and Mike (Richard) are the originals, but not the classic "Little Girl" and "Meathead." Along with that, the Bunkers are known as the Justice's

Throughout the series, Archie Bunker's brand of beer was never revealed.

The type of person Alf Garnet, Archie Bunker's counterpart in the original British version, hated most was catholics of irish descent. This is ironic because Archie Bunker was played by actor Caroll O'Connor who was irish catholic himself.

All in the Family was based on the British television series, Til Death Us Do Part.

Carroll O Connor (Archie) co-wrote the closing theme to All in the Family - "Remembering You."

The penultimate line of the theme song is "Gee, our old La Salle ran great." Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton slurred the line some, and the La Salle brand was not much remembered (it's a car), so few people could make sense of this line. In later seasons the opening theme was re shot and Stapleton pronounced the line phonetically "Gee..our..old..La Salle..ran..great" so that people could understand it easier.

"Meet the Bunkers" was actually the third "All in the Family" pilot filmed, although the only one aired in the '70s. ABC had filmed one under the title "And Justice for All" with Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton as Archie and Edith Justice and two other actors in the Mike and Gloria roles (Mike was Irish in this version) When ABC passed on the series, CBS filmed a pilot more or less like the aired version, but still with two other actors in the Mike and Gloria roles. These pilots remained unbroadcast until 1998 when TVLand aired one of them as part of its celebration of gaining the rights to air the show in its line-up.

Their doorbell is totally different from the rest of the series,including the flashback story of when Mike and Archie first met.

Edith's comment about Nixon paying more attention to Archie's letter if Nixon thought it was from a plumber would take on a second meaning eight months after this episode's original airing when the White House Plumbers or simply The Plumbers -- the popular name given to the covert Nixon White House Special Investigations Unit -- was established on July 24, 1971.

Only All in the Family episode to feature a dream sequence (Archie daydreams President Nixon's reaction to his letter).

Mike mentions that he has a brother-in-law who is a lawyer in this episode that Archie could use. This implies that he has a sister who lives close by. The brother-in-law or sister were never mentioned again and were never seen.

Goof: When Edith shows Mike and Gloria what is supposedly a group photo, she mentions that it includes the shoulder of a celebrity, but when she briefly flips the photo around so it faces that audience, one can clearly see that it is a head shot of a single person.

According to the book Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria: The Tumultuous History of "All in the Family" by Donna McCrohan, the original title of this episode was "Now That You Know the Way, Let's Be Strangers."

Mike did have a best man. In fact, it does look like the same actor who played Paul after becoming a hippie, only cleaned up.

In the second last scene, a boom mic is visible in the top left hand corner of your screen.

In this episode the Jeffersons house is said to be two doors away, and of course later it will be right next door to the Bunkers.

Lionel says his aunt is moving in with them, but doesn't mention his uncle. Later we meet his uncle, but never hear about his aunt again.

Archie reminds Jim Bowman that Mr. McNab sold his house to a Jewish family when he left the neighborhood. However, in the previous episode, the Bunkers have the McNab's doormat on their porch, because the McNab's dog chewed up theirs.

Doris Singleton, who plays a juror who is sequestered with Edith, is most famous for her role as Lucy Ricardo's catty "friend" Carolyn (in some episodes, Lillian) Appleby on I Love Lucy.

Archie says that his father died, yet in the first episode when he refers to his parents as David & Sarah, they had both just visited the year before.