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<sup></sup> Archibald "Archie" Bunker was a fictional character in the long-running and top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place. He was a reactionary, bigoted, blue-collar worker and family man, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. The Bunker character was first seen by the American public when All in the Family premiered in January 1971. In 1979 the show was retooled and renamed Archie Bunker’s Place, finally going off the air in 1983. Bunker lived in the borough of Queens in New York City. TV Guide once named Archie the greatest television character of all time.
All in the Family got many of its laughs by playing on Archie's bigotry, although the dynamic tension between Archie and his left-wing son-in-law Michael "Meathead" Stivic (Rob Reiner) provided an ongoing political and social sounding board for a variety of topics. However, during the series' run, it would be revealed that, while he did disagree with his son-in-law's political views, much of his resentment stemmed from the fact that Mike was attending college and would be able to chart his own successful future, while Archie was forced to drop out of high school during the Depression to help support his family. Other family members included wife Edith (Jean Stapleton), daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and, after late 1975, grandson Joey Stivic.
In spite of his numerous flaws, Archie was simultaneously portrayed as being basically decent and, rather than motivated by genuine malice, a product of the time in which he was raised. In the episode "Archie and the KKK," for example, Archie is invited to join a secret "Christian" club which turns out to be a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. In spite of his inherent discomfort around people of color, Archie responds with genuine revulsion at the group's violent methods, and attempts to thwart a cross burning. It should also be noted that as the years went on, Archie grew more accepting of people different from himself, albeit partially out of necessity. For example, in 1978, the character became the guardian of Edith's nine-year old niece, Stephanie, and when it was revealed that Stephanie was Jewish, Bunker accepted her faith.
In 2005, Archie Bunker was listed as number 1 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, defeating runners-up such as Lucy Ricardo, Fonzie, and Homer Simpson.
Such was the name recognition and societal influence of the Bunker character that by 1972 commentators were discussing the "Archie Bunker vote" (i.e., the voting bloc comprised of urban, white, working-class men) in that year's presidential election; in the same year, there was a significant parody election campaign, complete with T-shirts, campaign buttons, and bumper stickers, advocating "Archie Bunker for President." The term "Archie Bunker-ism," or just "Archie-ism," was also coined during the show's run to refer to the many malapropisms, such as "groin-acologist" for gynecologist, that Bunker used on the series.
Archie's opposition to the Klan in the episode mentioned above upset several watchdog groups, who believed that the show shouldn't have "humanized" what they viewed as a racist and believed that Archie should be kept thoroughly unlikable.