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
Teen sitcom format to "The Wonder Years", which ended before "Boy Meets World" debuted in 1993, both of which focused on a boy dealing with the challenges that come with growing into adolescence) and "Family Matters" (which originated as a family sitcom spun off from the family-friendly though adult-centered "Perfect Strangers", but soon shifted more of its focus towards its teenage characters due to the popularity of the character of nerdy high school (and later, college) student Steve Urkel). Over time, the Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) began shifting away from family-oriented comedies toward comedy series focused on adults