People like Archie Bunker DID and STILL DO exist- I have met people like him... just much nastier... more hateful...
Had the show showed him to be a truly hateful human being then the show would have been a failure. Instead, it showed him to be basicly a nice guy that couldn't adapt to the changes happening in the world around him- frustrated that there whas nothing he could do to stop these changes and the way they were changing even his own family. He was a bigot, but one or two episodes endeavored to explain the reasons for this. Would it have been more acceptable to you if bigotry had been portrayed in a sympathetic light?
To me the character of A.B. was one of a man that resisted the positive changes of his time, but gradually learned to accept them... and slowly learned to view people as human beings despite their color...
Michael Stivvick (Meathead) played the stereotypical liberal... the show was balanced over all but it had an agenda- an agenda that I find it hard that any rational person on the left or right could object to.
Off Topic » in reply to Exactly - political blackface
If that is all you got from his performance, then that is very sad...
The whole thread (61 posts)
- Anyone watch the West Wing 'debate'?
- Okay, this guy gave Alda's character a pretty good review.
- I caught part of it.
- Alan Alda will get an Emmy nom for the "live debate"
- Alan Alda playing a Republican...
- I thought he pulled it off.
- ... is like Carroll O'Connor playing Archie Bunker
- Exactly - political blackface
- If that is all you got from his performance, then that is very sad...
- Sad
- The Archie Bunker character was a simple minded bigot...
- If that is all you got from his performance, then that is very sad...
- Yeah, THAT was a realistic portrayal of a conservative. (n/t)
- Exactly - political blackface
- No...*sigh*
- Clear
- You first. (n/t)