I feel sorry for "All in the Family."

I haven’t watched very much of All in the Family, but the episodes I have seen made me laugh a bit too much for how real-life its topics are. (Were?) And that fact troubles me the most: It’s really, really smart politically, but that’s not what I (and most TV watchers) look for when they flop onto the couch.

The History and Discovery channels notwithstanding, I watch TV for relaxation and entertainment, not to have my mind changed. This does not rule out watching shows like The West Wing and House that make a concerted effort to be smart; in fact, I always try to watch them and stay away from vapid programming like Keeping Up with the Kardashians. (Search engine optimization!) And when I watch those “smart” shows, I can examine an episode all I want, especially if I set out to watch that show specifically.

But that’s not the norm for me. My norm is sitting there and letting it wash over me. I’m sure that’s how a lot of people want to watch TV: unchallenged, eyes wide open and mind relatively shut.

In that sort of mindset, I might be Archie. (Especially when thinking of Mike’s response to Gloria’s plea to see things from Archie’s side: “That would be impossible, Gloria. We’d have to close our minds first.” Season 3, episode 45) I don’t often look to have my mind expanded or opened when I watch TV, so if I were shown something that challenged what I believed previously, I might either ignore it or interpret it to fit my worldview.

Such a thing happened in Vidmar and Rokeach’s study from 1974. It’s already mentioned in the book, but the gist is that people who watched the show didn’t see Archie as a bigot and often saw him as making better sense. The “lovable” part outshone the “bigot” part, and what part of his bigotry showed was often condoned. In the words of the researchers, “many persons did not see the program as a satire on bigotry,” and highly prejudiced people saw “him winning in the end.” In other words, “the program is more liking reinforcing prejudice and racism than combating it.”

Given that the show’s creators meant to challenge what was thought, this is quite unfortunate.

“The program you are about to see is All in the Family. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are.” (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ContentWarnings)

Hence, I feel sorry for All in the Family. It fell into the media’s inherent (dis)ability to reinforce already-held attitudes. Damn.