All In The Family Episode: Archie In The Hospital

"All In The Family" first aired on the CBS television network in January of 1971. The show, developed by producer Norman Lear, dared depict our prejudices, bigotries and hatreds right to our faces, but usually with a comedic twist. The basic format of the show was of middle aged Archie Bunker, a working class white man living in the Queens section of New York City, along with his wife Edith, their daughter Gloria, and Gloria's husband Mike.

This episode from "All in the Family" shows us how preconceived notions about what a person of a particular country is NOT supposed to look like. I would dare say that many of us, myself included, would assume the man on the other side of the partition to be a white Frenchman, and this doesn't make you a racist or a bigot in itself, but the question is, how would we treat another person in a circumstance such as this upon finding out the race or ethnic background of the person? Like another human being? Or would bigotry and racism overcome us, as it did with Archie?   

Episode Cast:

Archie Bunker ............................... Carroll O'Connor
Edith Bunker ................................. Jean Stapleton
Mike Stivic .................................... Rob Reiner
Gloria Bunker Stivic ..................... Sally Struthers
Jean Duval .................................... Roscoe Lee Browne
Lionel Jefferson ............................ Mike Evans
Louise Jefferson ............................ Isabel Sanford
Doctor Spence ............................... John Heffernan
Nurse ............................................. Priscilla Morrill

The episode opens with Archie in bed screaming for Edith because of back pain. Downstairs, Edith, Gloria and Mike are watching television, and Edith yells back to Archie that she'll be there, but she remains focused on the television program, an episode of then popular "Marcus Welby, MD." Gloria offers to go to her father and we then begin to learn that Archie is worried about his job, since he's been off work for several days. A little while later one of the workers calls and tells Archie that everything is fine at work, only causing more stress for Archie, because he isn't even missed at work, and there is a new young guy who is doing a great job, which is scaring middle aged Archie that the young man will replace him as foreman. Mike tries to explain to Archie that his back pain may be psychosomatic and caused more by worry and stress about this young guy taking his job, instead of being caused by a true physical injury. Fearful of showing what may be seen as weakness, Archie rejects Mike's idea. 

Archie's chain smoking doctor comes to the house and tells Archie he wants him in the hospital for tests. The scene shifts to the next day at the hospital where Archie is in a semiprivate room with a dividing partition drawn so that the two patients can't see one another. The other patient is black and the nurse says the partition is broken and can't be opened. Archie hears the other man's French-sounding accent and the two begin talking. The man tells Archie his name is Jean Duval (pronounced like "zawn," and it means "John"). Archie asks if the man is "a Frenchie," and Jean tells him, "Qui, I'm from Martinique."* Jean had a cyst removed from his back, so the two men share a problem in the same part of their anatomies and they get along in their conversation. Louise and Lionel Jefferson come to visit Archie and after about a minute, Jean asks Archie to introduce him "to your family" (for those unaware, the Jeffersons live next door to Archie and they are black).** Archie is rattled by Jean's request and he quickly tries to assure Jean that this is not his family and he tells Lionel to tell Jean this too, which prompts the joking Lionel to say, "Whatever you say, pop!"  Hahaha!  Louise and Lionel leave and in come Edith and Mike. Edith goes around the partition to meet Jean, and she then says to Archie, "It's funny, he don't look French" (said in improper English). Archie tells Edith and Mike that he and Jean haven't seen each other yet, because of the partition, which tells Mike all he needs to know. Mike tells Archie he should try to think of something other than his job and back, which sends Archie writhing in pain. Edith and Mike go to get the doctor.

Archie and Jean begin to talk again, and Archie tells him about his job and about this young 24 year old guy who is now working there, and just the mention of this young guy brings Archie to wince in pain. Jean says, "Do you think he is maybe after your job, Archie?" Now Archie winces again, but he tells Jean that is a good and smart observation. He also tells Jean that when they get out of the hospital, that Jean should come to supper with his wife some night. Jean says that he and Archie "are two ships that pass in the night," but Archie comes back with, "You are my kind of people." Archie tells Jean his address, but Jean cannot find a pencil to write it down. Archie has one and Jean gets out of bed and goes around the partition to Archie's side. This leads to an absolutely hilarious scene, because when Archie looks up, he is startled and says, "Who are you?" Jeans says, "Jean Duval." Archie sits up on the edge of the bed and says, "You said you was a Frenchman." Jean answers, "Qui." Archie says, "You didn't tell me you was black," leading Jean to say, "You didn't tell me you was white." Archie then says, "But white people don't have to go around tellin' other people that." Edith and Mike come back and tell Archie they can't find the doctor. Archie gets up and says he doesn't care, because he's going back to work. Mike says, "See .... psychosomatic!" Jean says to Archie, "Your illness was psychosomatic, but that's not what got you back up on your feet again..... It was that 'old black magic.' "  

* Martinique is an island part of France located in the Caribbean, just as Hawaii is an American state, but located in the Pacific Ocean, some distance from the contiguous United States. The population of Martinique is overwhelmingly of African descent.

** "The Jeffersons" soon was to become a popular separate television series as a spinoff of "All in the Family."

WORD HISTORY:
Anatomy-The first part of this compound word is related, through Indo European, to "on," a word from the Germanic roots of English. This part goes back to Indo European "ano," which meant, "on, upon." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "aná," meaning, "on, upon, up, up to, upwards." The second part of "anatomy" is related to "epitome," a word borrowed by English from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Greek. This goes back to Indo European "tem," which had the notion, "to cut, to cleave." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "témnein," meaning, "to cut, to cut into or through, to butcher." Together these parts gave transliterated Ancient Greek the noun "anatomē," meaning, "dissection," which produced "anatomia" (anatomy). This was borrowed by Latin as "anatomia," and it passed to Latin-based Old French as "anatomie." English borrowed the word in about 1400 from French, but with very likely reinforcement from Latin, and with the meaning, "anatomy, the course of study of the structure of living things;" thus also, "the part of science dealing with the structures of living things," but also, "the structure of living things." The overall idea lying behind the word is, "the use of dissection to study physical structures of living things." The word took on the more general "how things work" as another meaning.