Archie Bunker

Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional character in the long-running and top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place. He is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative blue-collar worker and family man, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. The Bunker character was first seen by the American public when All in the Family premiered in January 1971. In 1979, the show was retooled and re-named Archie Bunker’s Place, finally going off the air in 1983. Bunker lived in the borough of Queens in New York City. TV Guide named Archie the greatest television character of all time. All in the Family got many of its laughs by playing on Archie's bigotry, although the dynamic tension between Archie and his liberal son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, provided an ongoing political and social sounding board for a variety of topics. The inspiration for Archie Bunker was Alf Garnett, the character from the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, on which All in the Family was based. Archie, in turn, was an inspiration for Eric Cartman of South Park. In 2005, Archie Bunker was listed as number 1 on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, defeating runners-up such as Lucy Ricardo, Fonzie, Homer Simpson, and Ralph Kramden. Archie Bunker's own ethnicity is never explicitly stated, other than the fact that he is a WASP. Although that might suggest he is of English origin, he mocked the British and referred to England as a "fag country. " He also referred to Germans as "Krauts."