All in the Family broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for a U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, antisemitism, infidelity, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, religion, miscarriages, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence. Through depicting these controversial issues, the series became arguably one of television's most influential comedic programs, as it injected the sitcom format with more dramatic moments and realistic, topical conflicts. The show was an American version of an earlier British show, the BBC sitcom "Till Death Us Do Part", with Archie Bunker modeled after his British counterpart, Alf Garnett. "All in the Family" is
United States in the 1950s show. In "Life of Riley" (1953–1958), blue collar Chester A. Riley (William Bendix) became the prototype for a long line of bumbling television patriarchs that included Fred Flintstone and Archie Bunker. The show's first incarnation for the DuMont Television Network lasted a season (1949–1950) and won an Emmy during the first Emmy Awards in 1949. "The Honeymooners" (1955–1956) followed bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and his sewer-working sidekick Ed Norton (Art Carney) while archetypal suburban life was limned in "Leave It to Beaver" (1957–1963), purportedly the first sitcom to be told from a child's point of view and the