Carroll O'Connor was creating for ABC called "Justice For All", with O'Connor playing Archie Justice, a lovable yet controversial bigot. After three pilots done between 1968 and 1970, a network change to CBS, and the last name of the character changed to Bunker, the new sitcom was renamed "All in the Family". The show was based on the BBC's "Till Death Us Do Part", with Bunker based on Alf Garnett, albeit somewhat less abrasive than the original. O'Connor's Queens background and New York accent is said to have influenced Lear to set the show in Queens. Wanting a well-known actor to play
Tony Connor Tony Connor John Anthony Connor (born 1930) is an English poet and playwright. Tony Connor was born in Manchester, England. After leaving school at 14, he served in the Royal Army as a tank gunner, and worked as a textile designer between 1944 and 1960, and in radio and television in Manchester in the 1960s. He was a founder member of The Peterloo Group. He earned an MA at the University of Manchester in 1967 and in 1968 visiting writer at Amherst College in Massachusetts. From 1971 until he retired in 1999 Connor was professor of English at Wesleyan University