Carroll O'Connor of Bunker's long-suffering wife, Edith Bunker, whom Lear remembered from seeing in the play and film "Damn Yankees". The producer sent the show over to ABC twice, but it did not get picked up. They then approached CBS with more success, and accordingly, "All in the Family" was retooled and debuted early in 1971. The show also starred unknown character actors, such as Rob Reiner as Archie's liberal son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, and Sally Struthers as Archie and Edith's only child and Mike's wife, Gloria. The cast had a unique on- and off-camera chemistry, especially Reiner, who became O'Connor's best
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.