“All in the Family” as a Mirror of Contemporary American Culture

The television series “All in the Family” is discussed as paradigmatic of contemporary American culture. By exploring the dramas the members of the Bunker household enact, the images and identities they project, and those projected upon them, the dynamics of American culture are delineated. The analysis pursues such dimensions as interpersonal process, generational conflict, identity structure, value conflict, and cultural patterning.