All in the Family: The Complete 6th Season (DVD)

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There's an interesting website called "Jump the Shark" (jumptheshark.com) that tries to pinpoint the exact moment when a beloved TV show started going downhill. The title comes from a "Happy Days" episode when the writers had run so out of ideas that they had a leather-jacketed Fonzie trying to water-ski over an enclosure that had a shark in it. According to that site, "All in the Family" jumped the shark this season, when Michael and Gloria have a baby and move out of the Bunker household . . . into the house next door vacated when the Jeffersons went "movin' on up to a de-luxe apartment" in upscale New York.

I'd have to agree with that. When you remove the young couple from the household, you mess with a dynamic that drove the show since it debuted mid-season on January 12, 1971. With Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), America's bigotry came out of the closet, and this blue-collar loading-dock worker had a racial slur for everyone who wasn't a "real" white American. He was also blatantly sexist, ordering his wife, Edith (Jean Stapleton) around and telling her to "stifle" whenever she tried to voice her opinion. So it was up to daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and her husband, Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner), whom Archie called "Meathead" and "Pollack") to say what half of the United States wished they could say to people like Archie. And the other half? They identified with Archie, and so the show was miraculously able to have it both ways.

"All in the Family" finished Number 1 in the Nielson ratings five years running, from the 1971-72 season through this 1975-76 sixth season. With a minimalist set that showed us mainly the Bunker's first floor and centered on Archie's favorite chair (now in the Smithsonian) and the other one next to it for Edith or guests, the TV show had a real stage-play feel to it-especially when the bulk of the episodes those early years were dialogues about important social issues, with Archie arguing with his "little goil" and "Meathead." So why depart from that successful formula?

Well, you could see it coming. Norman Lear's tandem of writers simply ran out of significant social issues to debate, to where in the fifth season we started to see the Bunkers get out of the house more in order to have encounters worthy of a popular sitcom. But to take Mike and Gloria out of the house? This season, the focus shifted dramatically from dialectics to diapers. Viewers spent more time watching Mike and Gloria's relationship-not exactly a fresh concept--than they did giggling over Archie's verbal missteps or his bigoted remarks.

Here's how the season played out:

1) "The Very Moving Day"-On the day that Mike and Gloria move out, Gloria tells everyone that she's pregnant . . . and receives mixed reactions.

2) "Alone At Last"-Mike forgets to have the utilities turned on, so he gets the cold shoulder on their first night in their own home.

3) "Archie, the Donor"-Archie mistakenly donates his organs to science while trying to suck up to the boss so he can get a promotion.

4) "Edith Breaks Out"-Edith finally stands up for herself when Archie insists she quit volunteering at the local nursing home.

5) "Mike's Pains"-The first birthing episode has Mike having second thoughts about being in the delivery room with Gloria.

6) "The Little Atheist"-Archie gets a Thanksgiving shock when Mike and Gloria tell them they're not going to raise their child as a church-goer.

7) "Archie, the Hero"-Archie saves the life of a woman in Munson's cab, but it turns out to be a female impersonator.