Perhaps because, in the grand scheme of sitcom dads, Archie Bunker’s not looking so bad right now, Sony recently approached producer Norman Lear about making an All In The Family reboot for the new millennium. Lear mentioned that he was considering a new incarnation of the show that would be “not necessarily the same, but 2015… a modern version,” in an interview with MSNBC’s The Cycle, then elaborated on the idea in a conversation with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos at the Paley Center this morning. “Forget the Bunkers, forget the characters you know,” he said, describing Sony’s pitch. “Just do an All In The Family kind of show. They can be a Caucasian family or Latino family. But a family in 2015.”
Still, Lear went on to say that, after giving the idea some thought, he thinks, “I’m not sure that there’s much that I would elect to do. After a while, with success comes the ability to say, We’re not doing this.” Part of his reluctance may come from the changing TV landscape, which Lear says has made it more difficult to address controversial issues than it was in the ’70s. “[Sitcoms] can’t deal with impotence, abortion, aspects of cancer. The networks won’t have it,” he said.
Nevertheless, E! News reports today that there have been talks about rebooting the show, either as a series or a TV special. So apparently the possibility of a Bunker-less All In The Family still exists, if only in the minds of remake-happy TV executives.