I would not call myself an AITF fan, but this is one of the best episodes! Carroll O'Connor shows here that he is a dramatic actor par excellence. We finally understand where Archie is coming from. His background doesn't excuse his thoughts and behavior about things, but he really was a product of his time. Additionally, having others to look down on is par for the course when your father is abusive and you come from nothing. However, a few joke-hungry audience members, unaware that this was supposed to be a serious moment, ruined it with their giggles. It's a shame that sitcoms had to be one-dimensional back then. To squeeze in a few PSA-type episodes was the best they could do, but even those were awkward at best. But as for serious character study moments, audiences had no idea how to react to those and kept waiting for the next joke, unaware of the deeper realism they are being handed. But maybe they did not want that. Maybe real life was too depressing. They all knew about life and watched TV to escape. Or maybe the giggles were out of nervousness because they came from similar backgrounds and finally see that they aren't so different from the usually-offensive Archie Bunker like they thought, a knee-jerk response to too much realism. Either way, great episode!
Review of Two's a Crowd
