I've never seen that scene until now. I've NEVER seen Archie crying before! VERY powerful! It made me cry to know Edith had passed away. She was my Favorite!
I'm 36, this show was long over before I knew it existed. However in my 20s I started to binge "All in the family"- to be honest I'm not even sure where I first learned about the show. There is something so special about this show and the time it came from though. This is one of the most heartbreaking but beautiful moments of the show too. And even to this day I feel like it was a show that was truly ahead of its time with what it tried to teach. I have never been able to see this full episode of Edith's passing but I'm glad I was able to watch this scene. Archie crying really was an amazing moment let alone the way he was able to admit he wasn't sure if he could raise the girl on his own. He came from a compeltely different time but this was a character that loved his family and did the best he could. He reminds me of my Grandfather in certain ways. I wish I was able to watch it when it first was aired <3<3<3
Like many TV viewers in the 70s, All in the Family was appointment viewing on Saturday nights. (VCRs wouldn't become a staple household device until late in the decade.) By the time Archie Bunker's Place rolled around, I was only catching the odd episode, and I missed this one. Thank you for posting this. It allowed me the heartfelt goodbye to Edith that eluded me 45 years ago.
I know how he feels all my life I've smoked drank did drugs and planned on dying young...didn't care now everybody i knew is gone wife,parents, everybody long dead and my ass is still here.....alone! You don't get to plan this shit God does. I don't know how but I certainly beat the hell out of the odds but it sucks being last 😢😢 😢
I know that I saw the original. But that was long, long before my husband died suddenly, and u didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, or tell him I loved him one more time. Now, this episode will get me sobbing every time.
He was in real life...a really great guy. Not at all like the part he played as "Archie". Even though its only T.V. people really think that he is thst charactor.❤
Man Edith was a bit feisty here.Its amazing how they transformed her character into someone that's a bit ditzy and naive.I love her comebacks to Archie lol
“Archie’s” saving grace was “Edith”. She was such a pure, good soul that she wouldn’t be able to love a REAL bigot. “Archie’s” “bigotry” was the result of pure fear of losing what he thought he’d need. “Edith” knew he was really a good man and conveyed that to us so many times in that show. Each character was so well defined it’s as though we really knew them. That’s testament to pure ingenious character creation which was so clear in every episode.
This is how "Boomers" dealt with death, stoicism. But this show, this series, dealt with it the way we ALL feel. Archie/Carol, BROKE! He showed, on film, how we TRULY deal with this! Carol O'Connor wrote this episode. He felt Edith had to die in the show, not just be absent for awhile. He did, does and back then, believed, SHE, was the show!
My wife committed suicide about 3 months ago. She had her reasons because she had a terminal disease that would have led to early onset dementia and Parkinson’s. She watched her dad pass away from the same disease. So she knew the pain it inflicted upon others to see the person wither away and suffer the effects. But the wound that never healed for my wife was when she went to see her dad one day and he had no idea who she was. She always told me that she never wanted me to feel that pain that she felt. She was 44. She was diagnosed with the Parkinson’s side - but the dementia wasn’t a real factor yet. That morning, when I walked into our closet and I found her laying there - I saw the gun she used - I saw the blood - and most vividly I remember my hand touching her shin (and how cold it was) as I shook it back and forth while I begged her to wake up all the while knowing she was gone. The thing is….I understand her ‘why’ - but I don’t understand her ‘when’. Being a spouse who lost their absolute best friend is something I would never wish upon anyone. Please, if you’re in a relationship, for one moment hold them tighter. You just never know when it’s the last time.
My dad passed suddenly in 96. He had an aneurysm the day before Thanksgiving. And we found him on the kitchen floor. 2 years ago my mom passed suddenly. Neither time I was able to say goodbyes. I can understand how hard it is to grieve. Especially when things happen suddenly. And you can't really get closure.
im a huge all in the family fan and i never seen this episode before i lost my wife last year and watching this really brought tears to my eyes because i still think of her at least once a day. this was really touching.
I guess, in a way, I was lucky. I got to say goodbye to my first wife 3 months before she passed. We had both just saw the doctor that told us what she had. Strangest thing I ever heard of. Calcifalaxyis. I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong. It was easier to just tell everyone it was kidney failure due too diabetes only. The condition was caused from the same. The ugliest scabbing you ever saw. It's when your veins and capillaries calcify. You get normally 1 year if caught early enough. She went MONTHS with this excruciating pain it causes before the doctors found out what it was. Was some 7 to 8 months before they figured it out. Hence, why I only got 3 months with her. After finding out, we hugged, prayed, and talked about what MY plans were going to be after she was gone. I started balling and I started to do what in always did- saying we'd beat this like we always beat all else. But this was one of the last real talks we'd have. We left the hospital the next day. 2 more inpatient hospital stays were all we'd get after that. After the last one, she died the next morning. So, I was doing what Archie did in a way- would try to downplay what was inevitable. If I pretended it wasn't happening, it'd eventually go away. The struggle is real.
I am unabashedly crying. I was so used to Carroll playing Archie in that hard nosed-misanthropic way, and I think that made this scene even more jarring. He seemed so frail and broken up, it didn't seem like he was acting. Powerful.
Thank you to whoever posted this link. I vaguely heard about him returning to Archie bunker in a new show where he was a car dealer or something like that ONCE! Back in the mid 90s and I could NEVER find any evidence of that again for nearly 30 years until today.
