Television

Jesse Walker | 12.8.2023 8:30 AM

Archie Bunker, the slur-spewing outer-borough dad on the CBS sitcom All in the Family, was probably the most famous character to be created by Norman Lear, the TV writer/producer who died this week at age 101. People remember Archie as a reactionary, but did you know he backed that liberal lion Ted Kennedy for president?

OK, so strictly speaking that's actor Carroll O'Connor, not the character he played on the show. But the folks who shot that spot during the 1980 Democratic primaries did everything they could to suggest this was Archie Bunker speaking to voters. If you doubt that, look at the clapperboard at the start of the video—it says "Green Archie A," not "Green Carroll A."

Here's what historian Rick Perlstein wrote about the Bunker pitch in his 2020 book Reaganland:

Carroll........

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