Carroll O'Conner / All In The Family / Contract renegotiations
 

During a contract hold out, Carroll O'Connor missed the taping of four episodes of "All In the Family." Three episodes were filmed about Archie failing to return from a convention (Season Five). The producers gave O'Connor an ultimatum, that the story arc could conclude with Edith finding out that Archie had been murdered [episode #93: "Where's Archie?"].

What kind of show would this have been, without an Archie Bunker?! That's like The Sopranos without James Gandolfini; that's like Dallas without Larry Hagman. Gandolfini and Hagman both renegotiated their contracts when they found they were the life-blood of their respective series, and both won out for higher salaries. Carroll O'Conner was obviously the life-blood of "All In The Family," and felt he deserved a bigger salary, which is why he held out. Poor guy, he had to buckle or else they would have killed his character off.

(This is totally off-topic, but Carroll O'Conner auditioned for the role of The Skipper on Gilligan's Island.)

They would have had Archie's brother, played by some lesser talented "star", move in to help Edith and end up staying, in an effort to replace the Archie character and hope we don't notice too much. I can pretty much guarantee it.

Kind of like "Valerie"--> "Valerie's Family"--> "The Hogan Family"

If they had killed off Archie, the show would've been gone by the end of that season.

Doesn't Jean Stapleton quit Archie Bunker's Place, and they actually kill the character off prior to the start of season 2?

Buttmunker - why the sudden fascination with everything All in the Family?

If I remember right she didnt want to continue on the show so they killed her off and spun Archie off into Archie Bunker's Place which little Stepphie.

Are you sure? According to episode listings on TVRage, episode 3 of season 1 is called "Edith Gets Hired":

Season 2 starts with a two-parter called "Archie Alone".

Didn't we have a thread on this like 30 years ago?

No, that was a thread about the spinoff from All in the Family called "Gloria." :)

The information in my first posting was based on memory, and was incorrect.
Stapleton did appear in five episodes of the first season of Archie Bunker's Place.
The last time Edith appears is on the two-part Thanksgiving show with Mike and Gloria.
They then killed Edith off, rather unceremoniously for such an important and beloved character, during the summer hiatus.

I'm taking a break from the Kennedys.

Which reminds me - what was Archie Bunker's opinion of the Kennedys? I only saw once when JFK was brought up:

Edith [reading from a magazine]: Who said this: "what happened to the American Indians is a national disgrace?"

Archie: "who?"

Edith: "President Kennedy!"

Archie: "Aw, Kennedy never said that. And if he did, he said it before he was in office, trying to get the American Indian vote. Which didn't work anyway because the indians can't vote..."

It appears to me that, despite Kennedy being a catholic and a liberal, Archie liked him.