There are some things that you never stop loving. You loved them when you
were young, and you love them now with unaltered strength. You wouldn't
call this kind of love a passionate love, because it's too
matter-of-fact. Would you say you loved gravity? Or air? You take them
for granted. You love them as if they've always existed, and always will
exist.
The saddest time is when you realize they don't always exist forever.
"All in the Family" was part of youth from the first minute I laughed. Like air, gravity, mom, dad, and my teddy bear. It was always there. All in the Family will exist forever, unchanging, alive, joyful, in my mind and every time I see it again. The amount of pleasure this single television show brought me is too immense to quantify. But one thing is clear. It was Carroll O'Connor's portrayal of Archie Bunker that elevated a television show from entertainment to a beloved treasure.
It's impossible to imagine anyone but Carroll O'Connor waving two hands in circles, fingers pointed, shhhushing his wife Edith like an orchestra conductor. Or anyone but Carroll O'Connor silently committing suicide, by pistol, by noose, or by razorblade, as Edith trailed on endlessly about some cousin from New Jersey. Or anyone but Carroll O'Connor agonizing through a story about a traffic accident in a supermarket parking lot involving "Mmm Mmm-mm" - the unforgettable term Edith was reduced to using when referring to her "cling peaches".
It's impossible to imagine anyone but Carroll O'Connor frozen in shock after being kissed by Sammy Davis, Jr. Or swigging back a few too many gulps of booze while trapped in the back of the bar with Mike, revealing his own childhood nickname, Shoe-Booty, and evoking even Meathead's sympathy.
Or standing up to the Kweens Kouncil of Krusaders, when they threatened to burn a cross in front of Mike and Gloria's house - by calling on his brethren through blood transfusion: "us blacks". Or the way he blamed a certain Italian organization on a mugging in order to avoid responsibility for what he witnessed.
Or the facial expressions. You wouldn't know a human face could contort into so many positions if you've never seen Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker. Even if the show's writing wasn't as brilliant as it was, Carroll probably could have stood on stage and winced for half an hour and retained an audience.
If the definition of a comic genius is a person with an exceptional ability to translate the absurd to concrete reality, to make the ridiculous and the joyfully nonsensical alive and visible before your eyes, Carroll O'Connor was a comic genius. He never erred. Carroll O'Connor had the unflinching ability to push the extremes of human emotion, without ever making his character unbelievable. Carroll O'Connor's Archie was sometimes sympathetic, sometimes mean, but always real. Whether he was standing on a chair and screaming on the top of his lungs, or quietly coaxing Edith in the direction of the upstairs bedroom, he was always Archie.
Carroll O'Connor helped to make All in the Family one of those things that you love as if it always existed, and always will. One of those things that feels like it's a part of yourself. Like you couldn't even imagine yourself without it.
Carroll O'Connor died yesterday, June 21, 2001. He won't be forgotten.
