All In The Family: The Complete 5th Season (DVD)
APPROX. 620 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1975 - MPA RATING: NR
" Its fifth season "All in the Family" took on quieter, personal issues than the political hot topics that earned it Emmys its first four seasons.
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Right before the 1974 TV season opened, America was coping with something new, something unheard of: the resignation of a president and the elevation of a vice president to the highest office in the land. Nixon, on the ropes from the Watergate Scandal and learning that he was about to be impeached, stunned the nation with the announcement that he was stepping down.
I remember the Watergate story, which broke in 1972, and I also recall how tired of Watergate and the whole dirty business of politics people had become by the time Nixon finally resigned. What mattered most in the aftermath of a presidency that failed on so many counts was that the nation was in the middle of an economic downturn that was only getting worse with each passing day. All anyone cared about was trying to survive. Maybe that's one reason why the fifth season of "All in the Family" is far less political-oriented, compared to earlier seasons, and devoted the first four episodes to coping with rising inflation. Things were so bad that even traditionalist Archie (Carroll O'Connor), who felt that women belong in the kitchen and at home, consented to his wife joining the work force . . . working for a BLACK, no less, at the Jefferson's dry cleaners.
Change was a huge part of the fifth season of "All in the Family," as the switch from wall-to-wall political and issues-oriented banter gave the writers and cast a chance to explore relationships between the characters more. Sure, issues still popped up the way that newspaper headlines do, but the focus was squarely on situations personal rather than national. There was much less squaring off the way political commentators do, like Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots for the bemusement of the audience. Things got personal the fifth season, which was also the first season that "All in the Family" was shut out at the Emmys.
This was the season that saw the Jeffersons eventually "movin' on up to a de-luxe apartment in the sky" and Mike (Rob Reiner) finish grad school and announce they too would be leaving the Bunkers . . . only to land next door, in the Jeffersons' old house. Here's a rundown on the 24 episodes:
1-4) "The Bunkers and Inflation"—In this four-parter, Archie copes with a striking union and economic hard times, while Edith (Jean Stapleton) takes a job at the Jeffersons' dry cleaners in order to bring in some money.
5) "Lionel the Live-In"—Lionel Jefferson (Mike Evans) gets into it with his father (Sherman Hemsley), and takes the argument next door.
6) "Archie's Helping Hand"—No good deed goes unpunished, Archie's reminded, after he tries to get Irene Lorenzo (Betty Garrett) a job at the plant and is shocked to find out they hired her as a forklift driver who'll work the loading dock right alongside him.
7) "Gloria's Shock"—The latest Stivic spat is over children: Gloria (Sally Struthers) wants them, Mike doesn't.
8-10) "Where's Archie?"—Archie turns up missing en route to a lodge convention in Buffalo, and everyone has a theory about what terrible thing has befallen him.
