1974-75: THE FIFTH SEASON

Year-End Rating: 30.2 (1st place)

As the series closes in on the midway point of its nine-year run, the creative staff explores new territory when Mike and Gloria decide to move into their own apartment at the end of the season.

After four years as director, John Rich is succeeded by H. Wesley Kenney, who will direct all fifth-year episodes. Michael Ross and Bernie West take over as producers, Bill Davenport and Lou Derman sign on as story editors, and Don Nicholl is appointed executive producer.

86 The Bunkers and Inflation    First Aired: September 14, 1974
Writers: Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, Bernie West
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Star: Billy Halop

The Bunkers' breadwinner tries to avoid breaking the news that his union has called a strike.

Lear's writers and producers pioneered the multipart episode as a solution to the constraints imposed by the half-hour time slot. The extended format would rarely be used as effectively as in this four-part reflection on the short-term impact and long-range effects of an inflationary economy on the working-class Bunkers.

87 The Bunkers and Inflation: Archie Underfoot    First Aired: September 21, 1974
Writers: Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, Bernie West
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

Tempers flare in the Bunker household when Archie finds himself with nothing to do but sit around the house.

88 The Bunkers and Inflation: Edith the Job Hunter    First Aired: September 28, 1974
Writers: Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, Bernie West
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

When strike negotiations bog down, Archie grudgingly trades places with Edith and allows her to take a job at Jefferson's dry cleaners.

89 The Bunkers and Inflation: Archie's Raise    First Aired: October 5, 1974
Writers: Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, Bernie West
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Star: James Cromwell

Archie's union settles the strike, but under terms that effectively leave him worse off than he was before the walkout.

James Cromwell appears as Stretch Cunningham, the bard of the loading dock, who was often referred to, but, until now, seldom seen.

90 Lionel the Live-in    First Aired: October 12, 1974
Writer: Woody Kling
Story: Jeffrey Mackowsky
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

Lionel arrives to spend a few days with the Bunkers after a big blow-up with his father.

91 Archie's Helping Hand    First Aired: October 19, 1974
Writers: Norman and Harriet Belkin
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

The rising tide of feminism confronts Archie on all sides when Edith joins a women's group and Irene lands a job alongside him on the loading dock.

Edith's gradual awakening was inevitable. As Norman Lear observed, once the women's movement caught the writers' awareness, it wasn't long before Edith's consciousness was also raised. Her slow but steady evolution invested the series with a certain suspense: With each passing week, we wonder how long Archie can resist the waves of enlightenment that seem to be washing up all around him.

92 Gloria's Shock    First Aired: October 26, 1974
Writer: Dixie Brown Grossman
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

Gloria is shocked when Mike announces that he doesn't plan on having children.

93 Where's Archie? (Part 1)    First Aired: November 2, 1974
Writers: Barry Harman, Harve Brosten
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: Hector Elias, Charlotte Rae

Edith holds her first Tupperware party under a cloud of worry when Archie disappears on his way to a union convention in Buffalo.

This script was part of the producers' clever dodge to force the leading actor's hand after another contract dispute. When Carroll O'Connor failed to report to work at the start of the season, Lear taped this show without him. Then he vowed that Archie Bunker would be killed off in the very next episode--unless the actor returned to honor his contract.

Whether Norman Lear really planned to pull off this premeditated homicide will never be known. By the third episode of this trilogy, Carroll O'Connor had returned to the series--at a substantially higher salary--and all was right on Hauser Street once more.

94 Archie Is Missing (Part 2)    First Aired: November 9, 1974
Writers: Lloyd Turner, Gordon Mitchell
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: Allan Lurie, James Cromwell

With no word from Archie after twenty-four hours, the family faces the possibility that he might've run off with another woman.

95 The Longest Kiss (Part 3)    First Aired: November 16, 1974
Writers: Lou Derman, Bill Davenport
Story: Dawn M. Stephens, Lou Derman, Bill Davenport
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

Archie returns from his sorry adventure--he got sidetracked to a podiatrists' convention in Rochester--to find his friends and family celebrating his return with kissing contests, Hula Hoops, and ballroom dancing.

96 Archie and the Miracle    First Aired: November 23, 1974
Writers: Lloyd Turner, Gordon Mitchell
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Star: James Cromwell

After an accident on the loading dock brings Archie within inches of his life, he suddenly becomes a devout--if somewhat hypocritical--churchgoer.

97 George and Archie Make a Deal    First Aired: November 30, 1974
Writer: David P. Harmon
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

George Jefferson seeks Archie's help when he runs for local political office.

98 Archie's Contract    First Aired: December 7, 1974
Writer: Ron Friedman
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: Dennis Patrick, Mike Wagner, Ed Peck

Irene and the Jeffersons bail the Bunkers out after Archie buys $2000 worth of aluminum siding from a fast-talking salesman.

99 Mike's Friend    First Aired: December 14, 1974
Writers: Roger Shulman, John Baskin
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Star: Greg Mullavey

Gloria is made to feel like an intellectual outcast when she spends the evening with Mike and one of his graduate-school friends.

100 The Best of All in the Family (one hour) December 21, 1974
Writers: Bernie West, Michael Ross
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Star: Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda hosts an hour-long retrospective of high points from the show's first four years.

101 Prisoner in the House    First Aired: January 4, 1975
Writers: Bud Wiser, Lou Derman, Bill Davenport
Story: Bud Wiser
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: Cliff Osmond, Sid Chute

A plumber's assistant causes Archie agony when he finds out that the worker is a convict on a work-release program from Sing Sing.

102 The Jeffersons Move Up    First Aired: January 11, 1975
Writers: Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, Bernie West
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: Paul Benedict, Franklin Cover, Berlinda Tolbert, Zara Cully

The Bunkers bid a fond farewell to the Jeffersons when their neighbors abandon Queens for the nouveau-riche life in a Manhattan high-rise.

This episode served as the pilot for the excruciatingly long-running spinoff series, The Jeffersons.

103 All's Fair    First Aired: January 18, 1975
Writers: Lloyd Turner, Gordon Mitchell
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

Gloria gives Edith a lesson in marriage assertiveness.

104 Amelia's Divorce    First Aired: January 25, 1975
Writers: Lou Derman, Bill Davenport
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: George S. Irving, Elizabeth Wilson

Edith is surprised to discover that her cousin Amelia's ideal marriage is rotten to the core.

The writers made sure that O'Connor and Stapleton--masters of the comic take--had plenty of opportunity to practice their exquisite comic reactions on All in the Family. When Amelia frankly confides her husband's preoccupation with sex, Edith's discomfited reactions are funnier than any lines she might utter. And the episode closes with a memorable nonverbal scene where Archie and Edith reaffirm the bond of their own marriage by clasping hands in a poignant silence that speaks volumes.

105 Everybody Does It    First Aired: February 8, 1975
Writers: Lou Derman, Bill Davenport, Susan Ware
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

Archie steals a box of nails from work and finds himself at the center of a household debate on morality.

106 Archie and the Quiz    First Aired: February 15, 1975
Writer: Michael Morris
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

Archie feels the weight of his own mortality after a magazine quiz on life expectancy gives him another seven years--tops.

107 Edith's Friend    First Aired: February 22, 1975
Writers: Barry Harmon, Harve Brosten
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: Tim O'Conner, Jane Rose, Ruth Manning

Edith is reunited with her childhood sweetheart when she returns to her hometown for a wedding.

108 No Smoking    First Aired: March 1, 1975
Writers: Lou Derman, Bill Davenport
Director: H. Wesley Kenney

The Bunker house is locked in a battle of wills after Mike vows that he can go without food longer than Archie can abstain from smoking.

109 Mike Makes His Move    First Aired: March 8, 1975
Writers: Lou Derman, Bill Davenport
Story: Robert Arnott
Director: H. Wesley Kenney
Guest Stars: Burt Mustin, Ruth McDevitt, Sherman Hemsley

After a fruitless search for new lodgings, Mike and Gloria agree to rent George Jefferson's old house--even though it means living next door to Archie.