For those about to rock, we salute you!

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Private Joseph Hanks (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 22, 1863, at Vicksburg, Mississippi. His citation reads:

Voluntarily and under fire went to the rescue of a wounded comrade Iying between the lines, gave him water, and brought him off the field.

Sergeant Richard P. Hanley (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on June 25, 1876, at Little Big Horn River, Montana. His citation reads:

Recaptured, single-handed, and without orders, within the enemy's lines and under a galling fire lasting some 20 minutes, a stampeded pack mule loaded with ammunition.

Sergeant Marcus A. Hanna (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on July 4, 1863, at Port Hudson, Louisiana. His citation reads:

Voluntarily exposed himself to a heavy fire to get water for comrades in rifle pits.


We roll tonight, to the guitar bite… Yep, friends, tonight is the Annual Hootie Extravaganza (named Babypalooza by my friend KC on Our Life). If you are in Summerville around 4:00 today, that noise you hear will be me and my gang getting the party started (as the kids like to say). If last year is any indication, this should be a great night. The kind of night one wouldn’t want to forget… which leads me to once again asking you to join my Walk to End Alzheimer’s team (see the link below).

http://act.alz.org/goto/imjustsayin

If you join my team, please ask other people to donate. If you would “just” like to give, go to:

http://act.alz.org/goto/greghorres


The I’m just sayin… Kid Show of the Week

Our Kid Show of the Week this week is an all-time classic, All in the Family. All in the Family is a sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, All in the Family revolved around the life of a working class bigot and his family. I believe the show is based on the British television comedy series Till Death Us Do Part. Despite being considerably softer in its approach than its BBC predecessor, the show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, miscarriage, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence. Through depicting these controversial issues, the series became arguably one of television's most influential comedic programs, as it injected the sitcom format with real-life conflicts.

The show ranked number-one in the yearly Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976. It became the first television series to reach the milestone of having topped the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive years, a mark later matched by The Cosby Show (another classic) and surpassed by American Idol, which notched eight consecutive seasons at #1 (and proved people today have crappy tastes compared to people of the ‘70s and ‘80s). The episode "Sammy's Visit" was ranked #13 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time ranked All in the Family as #4. Bravo also named the show's protagonist, Archie Bunker, TV's greatest character of all time. I’m not sure I’d agree with that, but he’s up there high enough that I’m not outraged that they put him there.

Anyway, the comedy revolves around Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), a working-class World War II veteran. He is a very outspoken bigot, seemingly prejudiced against everyone who is not a U.S.-born, politically conservative, heterosexual White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male, and dismissive of anyone not in agreement with his view of the world. His ignorance and stubbornness tend to cause his malapropism-filled arguments to self-destruct. He often responds to uncomfortable truths by blowing a raspberry. He longs for simpler times when people sharing his viewpoint were in charge, as evidenced by the nostalgic theme song "Those Were the Days," the show's original title. Despite his bigotry, he is portrayed has loveable and decent, as well as a man who is simply struggling to adapt to the changes in the world, rather than someone motivated by hateful racism or prejudice.

By contrast, Archie's wife, Edith (Jean Stapleton), is a sweet and understanding, if somewhat naïve, woman. She usually defers to her husband. On the rare occasions when Edith takes a stand she proves to be one of the wisest characters, as evidenced in the episodes "The Battle of the Month" and "The Games Bunkers Play". Archie often tells her to "stifle" herself and calls her a "dingbat". Despite their different personalities they seem to love each other deeply. They have one child, Gloria (Sally Struthers), who is married to college student Michael Stivic (Rob Reiner). "Michael" is referred to as "Meathead" by Archie and "Mike" by nearly everyone else. Mike is a hippie, and his morality is informed by the counterculture of the 1960s. He and Archie represent the real-life clash between the generation who fought in World War II and the Baby Boomers. They constantly clash over religious, political, social, and personal issues. For much of the series, the Stivics live in the Bunkers' home to save money, providing even more opportunity for the two men to irritate each other. When Mike finally finishes graduate school and the Stivics move out, it turns out to be to the house next door. The house was offered to them by George Jefferson, the Bunkers' former neighbor, who knows it will irritate Archie. In addition to calling him "Meathead", Archie also frequently cites Mike's Polish ancestry, referring to him as a "dumb Polack". While Archie was a representation of right wing bigotry, Mike represented the hypocritical, and highly stubborn, liberal.

The show is set in the Astoria section of Queens, one of New York City's five boroughs, with the vast majority of scenes taking place in the Bunkers' home (and later, frequently, the Stivics' home). Occasional scenes take place in other locations, most often (especially during later seasons) Kelcy's Bar, a neighborhood tavern where Archie spends a good deal of time and which he eventually buys.

Some of the supporting characters of the show include Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson, Isabel Sanford as his wife Louise, and Mike Evans as their son Lionel, Archie's African American neighbors. George is Archie's combative black counterpart, while Louise is a smarter, more assertive version of Edith. Lionel first appeared in the series' premiere episode "Meet the Bunkers", with Louise appearing later in the first season. Although previously mentioned many times, George was not seen until 1973. Hemsley, who was Norman Lear's first choice to play George, was performing in the Broadway musical Purlie and did not want to break his commitment to that show. However, Lear kept the role waiting for him until he had finished with the musical. Plots frequently find Archie and George at odds with one another, while Edith and Louise attempt to join forces to bring about a resolution. They later moved to an apartment in Manhattan which resulted in their own show The Jeffersons.

Another supporting character was Bea Arthur as Edith's cousin Maude. Maude was white-collared and ultra-liberal, the perfect foil to Archie and one of his main antagonists. She appeared in only two episodes, "Cousin Maude's Visit", where she took care of the Bunker household when all four were sick and "Maude", during the show's second season. She then went on to her own spin-off series, Maude, in fall 1972.

The series' opening theme song "Those Were the Days" (one of the best theme songs ever, in my opinion), written by Lee Adams (lyrics) and Charles Strouse (music), was presented in a unique way for a 1970s series: Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton seated at a console or spinet piano (played by Stapleton) and singing the tune on-camera at the start of every episode, concluding with live-audience applause. (The song dates back to the very first Justice for All pilot, although on that occasion O'Connor and Stapleton performed the song off-camera and at a faster tempo than the series version.) Several different performances were recorded over the run of the series, including one version that includes additional lyrics. The song is a simple, pentatonic melody (that can be played exclusively with black keys on a piano) in which Archie and Edith wax nostalgic for the simpler days of yesteryear. A longer version of the song was released as a single on Atlantic Records, reaching No. 30 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart early in 1972; the additional lyrics in this longer version lend the song a greater sense of sadness, and make poignant reference to social changes taking place in the 1960s and early 1970s.

One of the more famous episodes is "Sammy's Visit," first broadcast in February 1972, is a particularly notable episode, whose famous episode-ending scene produced the longest sustained audience laughter in the history of the show. Guest star Sammy Davis, Jr. plays himself in the episode. Davis leaves a briefcase behind in Archie's taxi (Archie is moonlighting as a cab driver) and goes to the Bunker home to pick it up. After hearing Archie's racist remarks, Davis asks for a photograph with him. At the moment the picture is taken, Davis suddenly kisses a stunned Archie on the cheek. Rumor is that the ensuing laughter went on for so long that it had to be severely edited for network broadcast, as Carroll O'Connor still had one line ("Well, what the hell — he said it was in his contract!") to deliver after the kiss. (The line is usually cut in syndication.)

All in the Family was the launching pad of several television series, beginning with Maude on September 12, 1972. Maude Findlay, played by Bea Arthur, was Edith's cousin; she had first appeared on All in the Family in the episode "Cousin Maude's Visit", which aired on December 11, 1971, in order to help take care of the Bunkers when they all were sick with a nasty flu virus. Maude disliked Archie intensely, mainly because she thought Edith could have married better, but also because Archie was a conservative while Maude was very liberal in her politics, especially when Archie denounced Maude's support of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The show lasted for six seasons and 141 episodes, airing its final episode on April 22, 1978.

The second and longest-lasting spin-off of All in the Family was The Jeffersons. Debuting on CBS on January 18, 1975 The Jeffersons lasted 11 seasons and 253 episodes compared to All in the Family's 9 seasons and 208 episodes. The main characters of The Jeffersons were the Bunkers' former next-door neighbors George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) and his wife, Louise "Weezie" Jefferson (Isabel Sanford). George Jefferson was the owner of a chain of seven successful dry-cleaning stores; as The Jeffersons begins, they have just moved from the Bunkers' neighborhood to a luxury high-rise apartment building in Manhattan's Upper East Side. George was considered to be the "black Archie Bunker," and just as racist as Archie.

Other spin-offs of All in the Family include:

• Archie Bunker's Place was technically a spin-off, but was more of a continuation of the series.

• 704 Hauser features the Bunkers' house with a new family, the key twist being the Archie Bunker analogue in this series is black. Joey Stivic, Gloria and Mike's son, now in his 20s, makes a brief appearance in the first episode. There were also three spin-offs from spin-offs of All in the Family:

• Good Times, which featured Maude's former maid Florida Evans and her family in a Chicago housing project.

• Gloria, a spin-off of Archie Bunker's Place (only by virtue of being created after the continuation series began) where Gloria divorces Mike, moves back to New York, and starts a new life.

• Checking In, a spin-off of The Jeffersons in which the Jeffersons' maid Florence gets a job as head of housekeeping at a hotel.

You might not think it, but trust me when I tell you this is a great show to watch with children. It’s very funny… the kind of show that you’d probably never see started these days.