THREE TIMES I REALLY LIKED MIKE

All In The Family (1971-1979) was a sitcom about a loudmouthed bigot, his family, friends an neighbors. When the show first aired, there was a lot of backlash from people who did not care for the lead character, Archie Bunker, and the things that he said about minorities, women, etc. Archie lived with his wife Edith, daughter Gloria and son-in-law Mike Stivic. I could probably write a series of blogs all about the ways in which the character of Archie angered people, both in the show itself as well as the viewing public. But for this blog post, I want to focus on his son-in-law Mike. Because for me, he was more obnoxious and arrogant than Archie could ever be.

When the series first began, I wasn't even born yet. But I grew up watching reruns, and saw the way in which Archie yelled at and insulted other people. But it would be years before the character of Mike became really significant in my mind. And as I grew older I realized I didn't like Mike one bit. He was just as loud as Archie and was condescending to everyone around him, thinking he was more intelligent and socially aware than anyone. To this day I can visualize how many times I would have turfed him out on his butt if I were Archie and Edith. Did I ever like him? Yes. I liked him a grand total of three times during the series.

1. Edith's Crisis of Faith During Season 8, a two-part episode was featured in which Edith lost a very dear friend who was a drag queen performer. She had always been very religious and could not reconcile her faith in God with the fact that her friend was now deceased. Mike, an atheist, was the one who ultimately helped Edith regain her faith in God by telling her that maybe we are not meant to understand everything that happens to us.

2. Christmas In California During the show's run, Mike got a job offer in California and moved his young family out there to live. By the time Christmas rolled around, however, Mike and Gloria were already separated. When Archie and Edith came to visit them for the holidays, Gloria asked Mike to come home temporarily to keep up the pretense that they were still together, which Mike did. And even when the truth came out and Archie was screaming at him, Mike refused to admit that is it was Gloria, not he, who was having an affair with one of his colleagues.

3. Archie and Mike Locked In A Storage Room When Archie and Mike were locked in a storage room at Archie's bar on a cold wintry night, they kept warm by huddling together and drinking. As Archie became more inebriated, he told Mike about his childhood and his experiences with his own father. For once, Mike let Archie talk without interrupting him or putting him down in any way. And when Archie finally passed out on the floor, Mike covered him up with a tarp they had been using for warmth as he said goodnight to him using a childhood nickname Archie admitted to having.

As much as Mike preached about peace, love and tolerance for his fellow man, he fell short of that at least as often as Archie, maybe even more so. But what Mike can teach all of us is that is that brand of tolerance exists in everyone, even if we rarely get to see it.