News Brief

CBS-TV’s Slow-starting bigotry-baiter, “All in the Family,” was the top-rated network video series in a recent audience-measurement poll. The only program ahead of it that week was the annual Emmy Awards telecast–on which “Family” copped the statuettes for best comedy series, best new series and best comedic actress (Jean Stapleton–and how many remember her as a friend of another family, the Brices, in Broadway’s “Funny Girl”?). One of the most significant aspects of the fast rise to the top of “All in the Family,” which has been renewed for next season, has been the virtual absence of public criticism from minority-conscious organizations, especially Jewish groups–the same ones that two decades ago kept the British film of “Oliver Twist” out of the United States for three postwar years because of Alec Guinness’ allegedly Semitic characterization of Fagin. (Interestingly, there were no similar charges against the more-semitic portrayal of Fagin in the 1968 Oscar-winning film, “Oliverl,” by the Oscar-nominated Jewish actor Ron Moody.) But there has been behind-the-scenes action in the wake of “All in the Family’s” success. On April 27, the American Jewish Committee hosted an unpublicized two-hour conference in New York with leaders of various minority-oriented groups.

The participants, in addition to AJCommittee representatives, included spokesmen for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the Urban Coalition, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the City Commission on Human Rights, the Neighborhood Action Program, the Council of Churches of the City of New York, the Williamsburg (Brooklyn) YM-YWHA, the A. Philip Randolph Institute (represented by black civil rights leader Bayard Rustin), the Coalition of Italian-American Societies (not to be confused with Joseph Colombo Sr.’s Italian-American Civil Rights League) and the Ukrainian National Association (an eyebrow-raiser, as Ukrainians are just about the only minority group that “Family’s” central character, Archie Bunker, has not defamed). Also present was actress Sally Struthers, who plays Bunker’s daughter, Gloria, on the program. She mentioned the meeting on a recent “David Frost Show,” but the host didn’t pursue it. The opinions at the luncheon-conference included both “the show is a good thing” and “the show foments prejudice,” and the range was “quite wide,” according to an AJCommittee official who was there. He himself called “Family” a breakthrough–” Obviously there’s a lot of talk about the program”–and said it has become, in less than half a year, “a major force in American life.” He reserved comment on ADL general counsel Arnold Forster’s published criticism of “Family” as a purveyor of stereotypes, opining: “That’s Arnold’s privilege. It’s a free country.”

Bayard Rustin said he found the meeting “instructive” especially as he had never seen the program–and by mid-June still had not–and in fact thought it was a radio show. He reported that Miss Struthers “sincerely believes she is doing the right thing” by appearing on “Family.” He added that he knew of no protests against the show from within the black community–significant in that “coloreds” and “spades” are probably Archie Bunker’s chief targets, and that while blacks can laugh at such words when joked about by other blacks they are generally resentful of whites who use them. The idea behind the April meeting, the AJCommittee official explained, was to determine what impact, if any, “All in the Family”–based on the British hit “Till Death Us Do Part”–has on the minds and social attitudes of American televiewers. To pursue that point further, the AJCommittee will be consulting with CBS research experts “to determine the effect of TV broadcasting on people’s prejudices.” One must be cautious, however, in concluding that the Committee is seriously concerned that “Family” may be having a deleterious effect on impressionable viewers. The organization spokesman said it considered the “Family” affair only “moderately important.” In fact, he said, the New York meeting probably would never have been convened by the Committee if its California representative had not accidentally met Miss Struthers and suggested it might be a good idea.