What If You Put Archie Bunker And Fred Sanford Together?

Where do your characters come from? Do you extrude (force them to be what they become) them or do they surprise you?

I'm curious to see what happens when Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford are made partners by the new sheriff as punishment for conduct that pisses off everyone.

It depends upon what challenges they have to have face in their partnership. They might surprise you and find a common enemy in the Sheriff's office.

Not to mention the lone secretary/clerk that has to answer their phones! How she puts up with them, the Sheriff and newsmen that are bribing her to report the juicy details of the turbulent relationship, I couldn't fathom.

I was watching part of a interview with Norman Lear and it was discussing how risque and controversial and groundbreaking his series were.

All in the family, The Jeffersons, Good Times all had heavy racial connotations.

What stood out is how this was 40 years ago and here we are supposedly more enlightened yet Archie Bunker wold never be allowed on TV today because of political correctness.

Back then people were allowed to watch what they wanted and simply did not watch what they didn't like. Today the PC mob determines what can e shown.

Another stand out was All in the family featured a transgender cross dressing character. Back in 1974.

In this day and age society has the nerve to consider itself trendy, edgy...whatever you want to pick.

But there is no such thing as controversial because it is no longer allowed and TV consists of endless reality shows and the glorification of trash like the Kardashians, abusive criminal drug addicts called athletes, thugs like Chris Brown Hey Charlie Sheen threatened his wife with a knife, but people were okay with it because he was funny on two and a half men!

Watching the Lear segment was a real shot at what we think we are as opposed to what we really are today. That is if any people watching those "racist" clips had enough brain power to figure it out which is doubtful, they just went back to watching the Voice.

Both. The first story in my Marion series took a wild, unexpected turn and I rolled with it and wote more of the same to see if I could sustain it. Others...they did it my way.

How bout PILOT and LOVECRAFT together?

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

Where do your characters come from? Do you extrude (force them to be what they become) them or do they surprise you?

I'm curious to see what happens when Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford are made partners by the new sheriff as punishment for conduct that pisses off everyone.

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Archie Bunker did make a lot of outrageous comments but he was loved because his character would develop during an episode and confront his own prejudices. Fred Sandford was just a crusty guy who sold junk.

Jenny_4 said:

Archie Bunker did make a lot of outrageous comments but he was loved because his character would develop during an episode and confront his own prejudices. Fred Sandford was just a crusty guy who sold junk.

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I cant imagine Archie paired with George Jefferson, or George and Fred together, but I have seen odd bed-fellows make magic when each has a different half of the magic and they put them together.

Jenny_4 said:

Archie Bunker did make a lot of outrageous comments but he was loved because his character would develop during an episode and confront his own prejudices. Fred Sandford was just a crusty guy who sold junk.

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Archie's "Ah~Ha!" moments were what made the series work. Discovering he had given mouth-to-mouth to a drag queen, finding out his 'all man' ex-pro football player buddy was gay, and the infamous kiss from Sammy Davis Jr., are just a few of the plot twists that showed not only was Norman Lear a comedic genius, but also a great societal commentator.

Redd Foxx pretty much got permanently typecast as the Fred Sandford character, but I think he reveled in playing it. His 1976 movie, 'Norman...Is That You?', is hilarious as he portrays the same type of crusty old fart but with the twist that he discovers to his deep dismay his only son is not just gay, but has a white boyfriend to boot.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

Where do your characters come from? Do you extrude (force them to be what they become) them or do they surprise you?

I'm curious to see what happens when Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford are made partners by the new sheriff as punishment for conduct that pisses off everyone.

Click to expand...

JackLuis said:

It depends upon what challenges they have to have face in their partnership. They might surprise you and find a common enemy in the Sheriff's office.

Not to mention the lone secretary/clerk that has to answer their phones! How she puts up with them, the Sheriff and newsmen that are bribing her to report the juicy details of the turbulent relationship, I couldn't fathom.

Click to expand...

Showtime
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284490/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

I think that if they could each get over the color of the other - unlikely as that might seem - they would be very similar in outlook.

JAMESBJOHNSON said:

I'm curious to see what happens when Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford are made partners by the new sheriff as punishment for conduct that pisses off everyone.

Click to expand...

I dunno. Archie pretty much blew his racial bigotry image out of the water when he married the hot black babe during the run of the In the Heat of the Night TV series.

Now if Carroll O'Conner was still with us, reprising his Archie Bunker character as Olivia Benson's new partner on Law & Order SVU has all sorts of possibilities. Mariska Hargitay could easily pull off a younger version of Cousin Maude and the resulting conflicts of an aged misogynist teamed up with a no bullshit-modern woman would drive each other to the point of who "accidentally" shoots whom first.