ALL IN THE FAMILY: THE COMPLETE 4TH SEASON - DVD review

Marketing people like to accentuate the positive, and the banner across the DVD box for Season Four of "All in the Family" proclaims it "the season that won an Emmy and 2 Golden Globes." Which is true. Rob Reiner did win an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy. But the show fared much better its first three years, winning Outstanding Comedy every year and earning Jean Stapleton a pair of Emmys for Outstanding Actress, Sally Struthers one for Outstanding Supporting Actress, and two additional awards for writing and directing. Same with the Globes.

But Archie Bunker's chair isn't sitting in the Smithsonian Institution alongside the Fonz's leather jacket and Dorothy's ruby slippers because of Emmys. Bunker is an American institution—blue-collar bigotry personified—who somehow appealed to both liberals (who reveled in his ignorance) and prejudiced Americans (who identified with him). That's why the show finished atop the Nielson's for its first five years, and that's the real selling point for this latest boxed set from Sony.

The show was so potent—with Archie's frequent attacks on "spics" and "spades" and "wops" and "hebes" and "micks," none of which which could never air in today's hypersensitive climate of political correctness—that when it debuted, CBS ran an announcement before each episode warning that the material might be offensive to viewers. It took audiences only a little while to recover from shock and welcome the Bunkers and Stivics into their households. Each episode served up a debate on a major headline issue of the day, with a heaping side order of prejudice.

Archie (Carroll O'Connor) was the typical blue-collar, middle-aged, middle-class white male whose main goal in life was getting through each day on the loading dock and parking his keester in his favorite chair, contoured from use to fit his buttocks exactly. His wife, Edith (Jean Stapleton), was the traditional housewife who doted on Archie, despite his frequent commands to get him this or serve him that, and never seemed too terribly hurt by his repeated commands to silence her ("Will you stifle yourself, Edith?") or his verbal abuse ("You Dingbat, You"). Most of the friction each week came from arguments Archie had with his son-in-law, Mike Stivic (Reiner), whom he preferred to call "Polack" or "Meathead," while the feminist daughter he still called "Little Goil" took her husband's side.

Season Four introduced new neighbors Irene and Frank Lorenzo (Betty Garrett and Vincent Gardenia), with Irene serving as another foil to Archie's conservative rantings and a much-needed friend to Edith. Frank, meanwhile, with his love of cooking and housework offered an alternate husband model for Archie and audiences to mull over. And it also contains the famous incident where Archie screams "God damn it!" and got around it with Edith AND the television censors by explaining, in his own twisted logic, how the words "God" and "damn" are both in the Bible, and when something is damned, well, it's usually God that's doing the damning. So there's nothing wrong with saying "God damn it," he concludes, because it's a very biblical thing to say.

Here's the episode rundown on this three-disc set:

1) "We're Having a Heat Wave"—Watergate is the argumentative topic of the day in an episode that has Archie joining forces with black neighbor Henry Jefferson (Mel Stewart) to keep a Puerto Rican family from moving into the neighborhood. The Lorenzos also make their first appearance.

2) "We're Still Having a Heat Wave"—Irene and Edith hit it off, much to the dismay of both of their husbands, who are used to being the center of their wives' attention.

3) "Edith Finds an Old Man"—Veteran character actor Burt Mustin makes the first of many appearances as Justin Quigley, who, with his life-partner Jo Nelson (Ruth McDevitt) provides the fodder for a Meathead lecture on how the government under Nixon is failing its senior citizens.

4) "Archie and the Kiss"—When Gloria admires the Lorenzo's replica of Rodin's famous sculpture of "The Kiss," Irene touches off a chain of reactions by giving it to Gloria and Mike without asking her husband.

5) "Archie the Gambler"—A backstory episode has Edith showing uncharacteristic backbone and coming down hard and unrelenting on Archie when he reverts to pre-marital behavior and starts playing the horses again.

6) "Henry's Farewell"—Archie finally meets neighbor George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) when Edith inadvertently volunteers to host a going-away party for Henry Jefferson.

7) "Archie and the Computer"—When Edith gets a nice fat check as the result of a computer mistake, Archie is gung-keyboard. But when another computer records him as "deceased," that's another matter.

8) "The Games Bunkers Play"—Mike is under the microscope in this episode where he refuses to accept constructive criticism about himself during a group therapy game.

9) "Edith's Conversion"—Archie gets the idea in his head that Irene's sister, a Sister, is trying to turn his wife into a "[Rosary] bead rubber."

10) "Archie in the Celler"—A solo episode, with Archie locking himself in his own cellar while everyone else is gone. Which leaves him with nothing to do but THINK, for a change.

11) "Black is the Color of My True Love's Wig"—Mike gets turned on when Gloria buys a black wig, and what's first erotic turns quickly into something neurotic.

12) "Second Honeymoon"—Archie takes Edith to Atlantic City to celebrate their 25th anniversary and hopefully start a new spark.

13) "The Taxi Caper"—One of the "outside" episodes features a politician trying to bribe Archie to keep him from pressing charges against his son, who robbed Archie while he was driving Munson's cab.

14) "Archie is Cursed"—Hell hath no fury like a Lorenzo scorned. After Irene challenges Archie to a game of pool for money and he manages to insult her, Frank defends her honor by putting a curse on his neighbor.

15) "Edith's Christmas Story"—A serious episode where Edith discovers a lump in her breasts, but keeps it close to the heart.

16) "Mike and Gloria Mix it Up"—When Gloria becomes a bit too aggressive for Mike, sparks fly, with Mike showing a conservative side.

17) "Archie Feels Left Out"—Archie refuses to attend his own 50th birthday party, insisting that he's really only 49.

18) "Et Tu, Archie"—Archie becomes paranoid when he thinks that an old friend who once had his job at the loading dock is wanting it back again.

19) "Gloria's Boyfriend"—In a poignant episode, Gloria befriends a mentally challenged delivery boy, but complications result when he misinterprets her actions.

20) "Lionel's Engagement"—Mike Evans takes center stage in an episode that has Archie attending his engagement party of George Jefferson's objections. Archie meets his match when he tangles with Mother Jefferson.

21) "Archie Eats and Runs"—The Bunkers panic after Archie eats canned mushrooms that may have been tainted.

22) "Gloria Sings the Blues"—Gloria is afraid she's fallen out of love with Mike, until Mom tells her about a time when she felt the same about Archie. A tender episode between Edith and Gloria.

23) "Pay the Twenty Dollars"—When George Jefferson is told he's got a counterfeit $20 bill at his store, he puts the finger on Archie.

24) "Mike's Graduation"—With Mike finally poised to graduate, Archie is counting the days until "Meathead" moves out. But, of course, something happens to change all that.

Video: Too bad the episodes don't have the same quality and clarity of the promo shots. The biggest disappointment of this set is the poor video quality. It's not just slightly fuzzy or grainy with faded colors, as often happens with Seventies' shows. Many of the episodes have visible, thin horizontal and vertical lines, with some episodes even having annoying flickers that we used to chalk up to tracking problems on the old VHS tapes. In fact, the quality on these DVDs is no better than VHS—which is unconscionable, given the importance that "All in the Family" has in the annals of television and American cultural history. The press releases on this set tout that its "digitally remastered," but I don't see it. The aspect ratio is 1.33:1, with closed captions.

Audio: The audio isn't much better. It appears to be Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono matrixed to other speakers with identical information. When I watched the first episode and the sound came on, it sounded faraway and muted, the way that sometimes (on "Friends," for example) an episode takes on a different sound quality when an optional commentary track is embedded. But that's not the case here. There's no commentary, and the sound still sounds muffled and unnatural. You get used to it, sure, but it takes a handful of episodes before it stops being noticeably annoying and you can forget about it and just enjoy the episodes.

Extras: There are only a few previews, and that's it.

Bottom Line: Season Four catches the cast of "All in the Family" when they were still at the top of their game and riding high at #1 in the ratings. This was "issues" television, but the characters and their conflicts with each other were still what made the show appealing. The episodes still hold up surprisingly well, and for that you have to credit the sharp writing, the convincing and energetic performances, and Norman Lear's uncanny knack of knowing just when to import more neighbors or new characters to play off of Archie and his narrow mind. I'm told that the show has been butchered in late-night reruns, but these are the full, uncut episodes.