Jean Stapleton (1923-2013)

All in the Family was the top-rated series on television from 1971 to 1976 for good reason. The writing was sharp and funny, each episode dealt with contemporary controversial topics, and the principal characters, though they began as stereotypes, became richly fleshed out over the series' run. Above all the actors were outstanding, none more so than Jean Stapleton, who died today at the age of 90.

Ms. Stapleton played Edith Bunker, the "dingbat" whom Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker verbally abused but deeply loved. Edith was the naive innocent who always assumed that everyone had pure motives. With great discipline the magnificent actress Jean Stapleton never broke character and always delivered her lines with wide-eyed innocence. By never revealing that she was in on the joke, she sometimes got the biggest laughs.

In honor of current events, below is an excerpt (2:33 on the YouTube clip [update 6/7 oops, removed due to copyright claim]) from Archie's Fraud, when Archie didn't report income on his tax return:

Archie, reacting to daughter Gloria and son-in-law Michael greeting each other with a deep kiss: "you don't see me coming home and slobbering all over your mother."

Edith: "that's right, Gloria, your father was never much of a slobberer.....He's more of a pecker!"

Jean Stapleton in 1972 sounded very much like a college-age feminist in 2013: "What Edith represents is the housewife who is still in bondage to the male figure, very submissive and restricted to the home. She is very naive, and she kind of thinks through a mist, and she lacks the education to expand her world. I would hope that most housewives are not like that." R.I.P.