What Might've Been: Gloria (1982)

The last spin-off from All In The Family was rolled out in the fall of 1982, just as Archie Bunker's Place was entering its final season. But, for whatever reason, known only to CBS suits who left their brains in mason jars, Gloria was cut off from the family tree.

The initial pilot was, for unknown reasons, rejected by CBS. Tandem Productions went back to the drawing board and reworked it into an episode of Archie Bunker's Place, but brought in writers from WKRP In Cincinnati and veteran director Bob Claver, who'd been with Screen Gems for a number of years (i.e. Here Come The Brides, Partridge Family, The Interns), would direct the entire subsequent series.

Gloria Bunker-Stivic (Sally Struthers), newly divorced from husband Mike (Rob Reiner), has custody of their son, Joey (Christian Jacobs), and rents an apartment from veterinarian Willard Adams (Burgess Meredith), for whom she works as an assistant in order to pay the rent. Reiner would not appear in the series at all, and, aside from the pilot, there would be no more interaction with Archie (Carroll O'Connor). No crossovers between the two series.

That last point, dear friends, is what killed Gloria after 1 season. Someone at CBS had a beef with Norman Lear, or vice versa, we don't know, because despite being placed in the same Sunday comedy block as Place, Gloria was, for all intents and purposes, left out in the cold.

Gloria was given a romantic interest (Lou Richards), who made Mike look like a Rhodes scholar by comparison. You'll see what I mean as we screen the series finale, "An Uncredited Woman". Paul Rodriguez guest stars.

Edit, 12/17/22: The video has been deleted due to a copyright claim from Sony. In its place is the intro:



Believe it or else, my late mother, who was a big All In The Family/Archie Bunker's Place fan, just wasn't into Gloria as much, and that may have been the case for much of the country.

Rating: B-.