Archie Bunker's Chair from All in the Family

Object Details

T. A. T. Productions

O'Connor, Carroll

Description (Brief)

Upholstered wing chair used by Archie Bunker (portrayed by Carroll O’Connor) in the television series All in the Family. The chair is upholstered in an orange-yellow woven fabric and has a wooden frame with wooden arms and legs. The chair was likely made in the 1940s, but its exact date of manufacture and maker are unknown; the chair was purchased for the show’s production from a thrift store in Southern California and used until the final season, when a reproduction was made after this chair was donated to the Smithsonian.

All in the Family was a sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1971-1979. The series, created and produced by Norman Lear and Alan David “Bud” Yorkin, was one of the most popular and influential television programs of the twentieth century. It was the top-rated show on American television for five of its nine seasons, earned 22 Emmy awards, produced five direct spinoff series, and became a cultural touchstone for an entire generation. Before the series' premiere, most sitcoms had only lightly discussed political issues and social change, focusing instead on family matters and character foibles. Lear and Yorkin thought television should do more, depicting "real people dealing with real issues," and developed All in the Family to explore how American families were experiencing and debating contemporary issues and events. The duo was inspired by the British series Till Death Do Us Part, which focused on a family grappling with the social changes and political tumult of the 1960s, representing the “generation gap” of values and viewpoints between the baby boomers and their parents.

Set in Queens, New York, All in the Family followed the working-class Bunker family: Archie (played by Carroll O'Connor), a blue-collar World War II veteran and outspoken conservative, kindhearted wife and mother Edith (played by Jean Stapleton), college-aged liberal feminist daughter Gloria (played by Sally Struthers), and her husband, progressive graduate student Michael "Meathead" Stivic (played by Rob Reiner). Archie frequently butted heads with Meathead and Gloria, demonstrating his intolerance and ignorance on issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and civil, women’s, and LGBTQ rights. Supporting characters introduced as foils to Archie including black neighbors the Jeffersons (Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford) and Edith’s cousin Maude (Bea Arthur) proved popular enough to warrant their own spinoff series. The show’s theme song, “Those Were the Days,” was a nostalgic pean to the 1930s and Lear had the show’s set designers dress the Bunker house set in drab, sepia-toned furniture, props, and textiles to make viewers feel as if they were looking at an old family photo album.

Credit Line

Gift of Tandem/TAT Productions

before 1970

ID Number

1978.2146.01

accession number

1978.2146

catalog number

1978.2146.01

Object Name

chair

Object Type

Chair

Physical Description

wood (frame; arms; legs; stretcher material)

fabric (upholstery material)

Measurements

overall: 40 in x 26 in x 31 in; 101.6 cm x 66.04 cm x 78.74 cm

Related Publication

Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History

National Museum of American History. Treasures of American History online exhibition

Related Web Publication

http://americanhistory.si.edu/treasures

See more items in

Culture and the Arts: Entertainment

Popular Entertainment

Highlights from the Culture and the Arts Collection

National Treasures exhibit

Domestic Furnishings

Exhibition

Entertainment Nation

Exhibition Location

National Museum of American History

National Museum of American History

general subject association

Television

used

All in the Family {Television Program}

general subject association

Television

Record ID

nmah_670097

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a4-c95d-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa