Archie Bunker three-year old Gloria with her. The inspiration for Archie Bunker was Alf Garnett, the character from the BBC1 sitcom "Till Death Us Do Part", on which "All in the Family" was based. When first introduced on "All in the Family" in 1971, Archie is the head of a family consisting of his wife Edith (Jean Stapleton), his adult daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers), and his liberal son-in-law, college student Michael "Mike" Stivic (Rob Reiner), with whom Archie disagrees on virtually everything; Archie frequently characterizes Mike as a "dumb Polack" and usually addresses him as "Meathead" because, in Archie's words, he is
Archie Bunker II, and by the 1970s he was a foreman. A Protestant, Archie seldom attends church, despite professing strong Christian views. The original pilot mentions that in the 22 years Archie and Edith were married, Archie had only attended church seven times (including their wedding day) and that Archie had walked out of the sermon the most recent time, disgusted with the preacher's message (which he perceived as leftist). Archie's religiosity often translates into knee-jerk opposition to atheism or agnosticism (which Mike and Gloria variously espoused), Catholicism (despite Carroll O'Connor being a devout Catholic), and, until late in the series, Judaism.