All in the Family: The Complete Fourth Season

Most popular TV shows start running out of gas after three years, but the writers of All in the Family confounded detractors and delighted fans by recharging their creative batteries with the 24 episodes of the 1973-74 season, which continued to tackle controversial subjects, while injecting a bit more drama into the lives of the Bunkers. “The Games Bunkers Play” is a perfect example: while playing a group-therapy board game, Mike (Rob Reiner) gets nettled by the criticism and lashes out by harshly insulting Archie (Carroll O'Connor), which infuriates the usually supportive Gloria (Sally Struthers). He has a heart-to-heart talk with mother-in-law Edith (Jean Stapleton), who explains that she understands why Archie behaves the way he does--an explanation that forces “Meathead” to come to grips with his own shortcomings. “Edith's Christmas Story” fairly drips with pathos, as the Bunker family matriarch tries to keep things festive during the holiday season while secretly terrified that she has breast cancer. The bickering Jeffersons (played by Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford) make their first appearance in “Henry's Farewell”: George and Louise would soon become the focus of All in the Family's first spinoff series, but Hemsley was never funnier than when he was opposite O'Connor's Archie. In another controversial episode, “Gloria's Boyfriend,” Archie takes advantage of a mentally-challenged delivery boy and inadvertently gets him fired. “Mike's Graduation,” the season finale, finds Archie buoyant when Meathead finally finishes college…a sense of euphoria that dissipates when Mike accepts a fellowship that will keep him and Gloria from moving out for another year. From first show to last, there's not a clunker in the two-dozen episodes compiled on this extra-less set. Recommended. (E. Hulse)