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Carroll O'Connor in 1974: ''They can get someone else to do Archie''
The actor almost walked away long before the role was through.
Turnover on a sitcom is rare, but it's not unheard of. Think of the revolving cast door on M*A*S*H. Actors came, and actors went. What's even less common is actors switching in and out of the same role. Again, it has happened, but it's not a very likely scenario, for all the reasons you'd expect as a television viewer.
The most frequent case is that of the little kid on TV. Nobody really bats an eye when a baby on Fresh Prince is suddenly a toddler in the next season. We've also seen it in actors a bit older, as was the case with the one daughter on Roseanne, or the sister on That '70s Show.
In movies, quite famously, Terrence Howard was recast in his role as James Rhodes in the Iron Man movies, with Don Cheadle.
But these are really the exceptions that prove the rule. When we identify a face with a character on TV, it's nearly impossible to suspend our disbelief when that face changes suddenly. And it's even harder to ignore a shakeup in a show's lead role.
However, that was exactly what Carroll O'Connor was suggesting in a bout of frustration with the direction of the hit sitcom All in the Family. He'd become a household name for his portrayal of Archie Bunker, but by '74, it was all getting a bit old for O'Connor, as he explained to the Baltimore Evening Sun:
"I cannot at this moment plan to go on with All in the Family," he said.
Of course, TV fans will know that O'Connor not only stayed with All in the Family for an additional five years, but he also headed a spinoff in Archie Bunker's Place from 1979 through 1983. However, as it was, Bunker was feeling pretty much over the whole ordeal by the mid-'70s.
"I've been asking the producers for two years for some administrative changes, and they aren't forthcoming. I've got about 92 per cent of what I wanted from the show, but time is running out. They can get someone else to do Archie."
Luckily, O'Connor and the producers were able to meet in the middle, with each side making some considerable concessions to assure the project could stay on-air. All in the Family commanded an incredibly large audience, and fans are surely happy that it didn't end over a miscommunication in 1974.
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