|
Post by WarrenPeace on Aug 26, 2019 13:17:26 GMT
That's funny because recently I have been catching repeats of Archie Bunker's Place and I was never a regular watcher of it before. Yeah, it is not the same as AITF and nothing can ever replace it. But I am starting to like it and am finding the episodes as touching and poignant as certain episodes of AITF. So I have no problems, yet, with ABP and don't mind the storylines at all with the girls. I've been catching some of the ABP reruns myself. It does have its moments, and I particularly like the episodes where the late Martin Balsam appeared as a regular. He brought a very nice touch to the show. Antenna TV? There were two good ones last week. One of them had the blind regular, Mr. Van Ranseleer, get mugged and the workers of ABP set up a sting to catch the mugger but the police or DA couldn't hold him since they didn't have enough evidence. I liked that and how realistic it was and showing how Mr. Van R had to cope with feeling more vulnerable instead of the usual happy-go-lucky endings we usually get. In another episode Reggie Jackson was a guest star as himself and had to deal with Archie and his naive, clueless bigotry ways. It had reflections of the classic Sammy Davis AITF episode. A good one. Marty Balsam huh? I'll have to watch for those. One of my favorite old school character actors.
|
|
|
Post by amyghost on Aug 26, 2019 14:21:55 GMT
I've been catching some of the ABP reruns myself. It does have its moments, and I particularly like the episodes where the late Martin Balsam appeared as a regular. He brought a very nice touch to the show. Antenna TV? There were two good ones last week. One of them had the blind regular, Mr. Van Ranseleer, get mugged and the workers of ABP set up a sting to catch the mugger but the police or DA couldn't hold him since they didn't have enough evidence. I liked that and how realistic it was and showing how Mr. Van R had to cope with feeling more vulnerable instead of the usual happy-go-lucky endings we usually get. In another episode Reggie Jackson was a guest star as himself and had to deal with Archie and his naive, clueless bigotry ways. It had reflections of the classic Sammy Davis AITF episode. A good one. Marty Balsam huh? I'll have to watch for those. One of my favorite old school character actors. Antenna TV, bless 'em. I haven't been able to keep up with watching for the past week or two, but I did catch part of the Reggie Jackson episode, and I remember some of Mr. van R's mugging story from watching the show back when it originally aired. Martin Balsam played Murray Klein in the 1979-81 seasons, where he becomes Archie's partner in the bar. His character is very much a liberal in Mike's vein, and there's a lot of argument going on between him and Archie in the style of the old AITF ones on topical issues; Murray is a lot more tolerant and patient with Archie than Mike was, though. When Balsam left the series, they wrote him off as having gotten married and deciding to move to California with his new wife. A shame, because he was great in the role and added lot to the series. Since I think Antenna is running ABP pretty much in its original order, it might be a while before they get back to the earlier episodes with Balsam, but they're worth catching. I'm with you that he was one of the all-time great character actors, always a pleasure to watch.
|
|