Don't forget Annie,he also said his father would lock him in a closet "to teach him to do good".
(For some stupid reason,some people in the audience laugh at that!
)
I love that episode too,because I feel it takes Mike & Archie's relationship full circle. From the time Archie met him as a long haired "hippie" (for lack of a better term),to a college graduate who (until later) is a good husband and on his way to big endeavors. Even Archie (though he may not have said it) understands Mike better.
That's what makes Mike & Gloria's departure even more dramatic. They've all gone throug so much in the last deacade (from 1968 when M. & G. dated & then married) and now they'll be 3000 miles apart.
It's just my opinion but when i watch the fade out on Archie & Edith,I just think,"They should have stopped there".
David,yes,you remembered right. That's the 1st show of season 2 on "Archie Bunker's Place". In the first season Edith was rarely seen.
Then Jean quit the show because she felt there was nothing left to do with her character (she was right.) Scary as it was,the "attempted" rape episode was the pinnacle of her acting on the show.O'Conner played the loss of Edith well,for the love of Archie's life was gone.
Near the end of the series though,Archie starts dating again.
Like I said above,there was no "final" episode. In fact the last show was so far from the original series,it wasn't even about Archie.
It was about his neice Billie and her on/off feelings about a man she's dating (his fewelings too. In fact the episode is called,"I'm Torn Here".
It was May of '83,almost 13 years since the show taped it's first episode. It's time was up. (Evidenced greatly by the failure of it's spin-off "Gloria" (she and Mike had divorced due to Mike going to live on a commune with his "girlfriend"..he even invites Gloria to join them!
) She worked in an upstate NY vetrenarian hospital.