29 Years Ago in TIME

By Melissa August, Beau Briese, Rhett Butler, Kathryn Hoffman, Ellin Martens, Sora Song, Heather Won Tesoriero, Kadesha Thomas, Josh Tyrangiel

In January 1971, when CARROLL O'CONNOR first introduced Archie Bunker to the American TV audience, CBS braced itself for a flood of protest calls. Instead, as TIME wrote 1 1/2 years later, the show sparked "a new era of candor" on TV.

Archie Bunker burst onscreen snorting and bellowing about "spades" and "spics" and "that tribe." He decried miniskirts, "bleeding heart" churchmen, food he couldn't put ketchup on and sex during daytime hours. He bullied his "dingbat" wife Edith and bemoaned his "weepin' Nellie atheist" daughter Gloria. Above all, he clashed with his liberal, long-haired son-in-law Mike Stivic, a "Polack pinko meathead" living in the Bunker household while working his way through college.

No matter that Archie tripped up on his own testiness and lost most of his arguments. As played by Carroll O'Connor, he was daringly, abrasively, yet somehow endearingly funny. With his advent, a mass-media microcosm of Middle America took shape, and a new national hero--or was it villain?--was born.

--TIME, Sept. 25, 1972

For the full 1972 cover story, go to time.com