Live HistoricSee what matters.

Series · CBS · 1971

Pass it on

All in the Family

60Watch it awake.

Don't laugh with Archie just because the chair looks familiar and Edith stayed.

The review

Archie works a loading dock, takes his chair, and says the neighborhood's prejudices out loud. Edith stays. Their daughter and her husband live under that roof and argue with him, so the rooms are full of people who can answer. The show wanted you to hear the ugly line and disagree with the man saying it.

Plenty of the country agreed with him instead. The laugh is the risk, and on a lot of weeks the laugh won. You can still see a working marriage and a crowded house, which is more than most comedies of the time bothered to build. The chuckle is not a verdict, even when the room treats it like one.

Journal

Keep All in the Family in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 60. Yours can differ.

The glance

Temperance is the thin one.

Is appetite shown and then put down, or are you being trained to want the next one?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

The Andy Griffith Show

73 instead of 60

The Andy Griffith Show is still a comedy show, and it scores 73 instead of 60. What you gain is temperance: Appetite is not the engine.

The eight

7
Industry
Archie works a loading dock, and the job sits in the way he comes home.
8
Household
Edith stays, and the daughter and son-in-law live there and argue.
5
Piety
The show wants you to flinch at him, but Archie rarely stops himself.
6
Courage
The daughter and her husband risk the peace of the roof every time they answer him.
7
Republic
A neighborhood's prejudices get said in a living room the whole country watched.
4
Temperance
The laugh invites the next slur instead of making anyone put it down.
6
Truth
He says the ugly belief out loud, and the chuckle still blurs the bill.
5
Stewardship
A real house is left standing, and so is the permission a lot of viewers took.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · All in the Family · 60IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Series · ITV · 2010

Pass it on

Downton Abbey

60Watch it awake.

Service is looked at, not only worn. Soap, and still a serious house. Worth an evening.

The review

The danger of a show like this is nostalgia for a bell that other people had to answer. Downton does not entirely escape it. It does something better than most period soaps: the person with the tray has a plot that is not only gratitude. Carson, Mrs. Hughes, Daisy, Bates — they are not furniture.

Class is not redeemed because the lord is sometimes kind. The show knows that, on its good nights. Watch it for the work and the duty. Smile at the dress if you must, and do not let the dress be the lesson. A family can take it. Talk about who ate after the room was cleared.

Journal

Keep Downton Abbey in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 60. Yours can differ.

The glance

Piety is the thin one.

Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

East of Eden

71 instead of 60

East of Eden is still a drama show, and it scores 71 instead of 60. What you gain is piety: The book underneath is a Genesis argument.