Would Archie Bunker Be Welcome On TV Today? Bill Maher Says, “No”

deadline.com:

On Real Time tonight Bill Maher paid tribute to the late, great Norman Lear, who passed away a week-and-a-half ago. Maher emphasized, “I couldn’t do my show if it weren’t for what he did.” The host went on to lament that, while Lear opened a lot of doors, “a lot of those doors have shut.” He then said, “TV is not what it was in the ’70s.” CNN’s Laura Coates, a guest on the show, replied, “Some of the most controversial shows…I don’t know that — as much as we’ve evolved as a society — we would have the ability to do those shows [now] without it ending up on the cutting room floor…Someone would be afraid that too many folks would clutch their pearls.” Maher’s other guest, novelist Walter Kirn observed, “The great thing about that show is you never knew who the hero and the villain was.

I had an uncle who thought Archie Bunker was the hero of the show. And for a while, I thought so too. I mean, he really held his own…The show gave a round portrayal of people of all kinds.

And you kind of got a begrudging education of Archie over time. I think it gave more credit to the kind of characters that are now just dismissed.

That wouldn’t be possible now.” Coates said that, while Archie Bunker may not be allowed on TV, he is still well represented among the country’s actual population. “Archie Bunker is not really in the rear view mirror.