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All in the Family Season 8 Episodes
Season 8 Episode Guide
24 Episodes 1977 - 1978
Episode 1
Archie Gets the Business: Part 1
Sun, Oct 2, 197760 mins
Archie buys Kelsey's Bar, but has to forge Edith's signature to get the money.
Episode 2
Archie Gets the Business: Part 2
Sun, Oct 2, 197760 mins
Mike has to soothe Edith's feelings after she learns that Archie forged her signature to buy the bar.
Episode 3
Cousin Liz
Sun, Oct 9, 197730 mins
Archie and Edith go out of town to attend the funeral of Edith's cousin Liz, a school teacher who curiously never married and spent many years living with her roommate, Veronica. While Edith's attention is on the mourning process, Archie's attentions focus on what Edith might stand to inherit since she is Liz's closest living relative. Edith admits that Liz never had much money and that the only thing she stands to inherit is a sterling silver tea set that has been in her family for over 100 years. Archie doesn't think much of it until Edith informs him that it is worth over $2000. Overhearing the conversation, Veronica confides in Edith that she'd like to keep the tea set because it is a reminder of special times between she and Liz, and further that she and Liz had been romantically involved for 25 years. Edith is stunned by the news but then is heartbroken that they had to keep their relationship a secret for so long. Moved by Veronica's story, she allows her to keep the tea set, but Archie makes a big stink over it because he wants to sell it. When the truth comes out, Archie threatens her job if she doesn't give up the tea set (at the time gays and lesbians working in the public school system could lose their jobs if they were outed). But Edith comes to Veronica's defense by breaking through Archie's self-righteousness and encourages him to do the right thing.
Episode 4
Edith's 50th Birthday: Part 1
Sun, Oct 16, 197760 mins
Archie, Mike and Gloria plan a surprise party for Edith to celebrate her 50th birthday. But an unwelcome visitor to the Bunker's home - while Edith is home alone - has a much different surprise in mind for the Bunker matriarch.
Episode 5
Edith's 50th Birthday: Part 2
Sun, Oct 16, 197760 mins
A badly shaken Edith tells Archie, Mike and Gloria about her encounter with the rapist and that she managed to fight him off. Two weeks after the attack, Edith is still shaken by what happened and refuses to come to the station to identify the suspect. Gloria finally manages to persuade her mother to snap out of her shaken self and help bring her attacker to justice.
Episode 6
Unequal Partners
Sun, Oct 23, 197724 mins
Archie has to delay his fishing trip when Edith has an anniversary party for a couple from the Sunshine Home.
Episode 7
Archie's Grand Opening
Sun, Oct 30, 197730 mins
Harry the bartender quits after Archie keeps bossing him around. Edith and the Stivics end up helping out during the grand opening of Archie's Place.
Episode 8
Archie's Bitter Pill
Sun, Nov 6, 197730 mins
Archie is in a grouchy mood because all of his business has moved down the street to McPheeney's place. One of his friends drops by and introduces him to a solution for his funk - in the form of a pill. Archie takes the pill and suddenly has a burst of energy that makes him ready to paint the front porch at 3 in the morning. Mike is the first to catch on that Archie is hooked on something so the family goes to visit him at the bar and he begins acting erratically and talking nonsense. Suddenly he begins to come down from the high and slips into a serious depression, realizing how far he has fallen and breaks down in tears.
Episode 9
Archie's Road Back
Sun, Nov 13, 197730 mins
While in the hospital recovering for his addition to pills, Archie's bar is left in the hands of his young assistant. When he gets home and starts to get back on his feet, he learns that the only action in the bar has been the repo men who have come by to clean the place out. Archie becomes a recluse, locking himself in his bedroom and proclaiming that he won't come out until 1997. Edith talks a very reluctant Harry (Archie's former bar tender) to come to the house and talk to him. Archie wants nothing to do with Harry and still maintains that he still intends to stay in bed. That is, until the rest of the family joins him. Angry, he finally gets up and has words with Harry, reluctantly agreeing to be partners 60/40.
Episode 10
Archie and the KKK: Part 1
Sun, Nov 27, 1977
A power outage and reports of looting in the city prompt Mike to write a letter to the editor about how greedy governments do the same in the name of free enterprise. At the bar, Archie vents his frustrations about how Mike always argues his point and doesn't see things his way. Two men - who have been listening in - approach Archie and suggest that he come to a meeting of the Kweens Kouncil of Krusaders (a chapter of the Klu Klux Klan), where they will come up with a more severe way of "teaching" Mike a lesson.
Episode 11
Archie and the KKK: Part 2
Sun, Dec 4, 197730 mins
Archie learns that Gordie and Mitch - the two men he met earlier at his bar - plan to burn a cross on the Stivic's lawn and must come up with a way to stop them. When Archie tries to persuade Mike to write a new letter to the editor (recanting his previous stance on free enterprise), he lets slip that he had spoken with known Klu Klux Klan members. Mike is outraged and tells Archie to go away, but Archie is still determined to stop the cross burning - even if it means he will be the KKK's next target.
Episode 12
Mike and Gloria Meet
Sun, Dec 11, 197730 mins
Gloria receives a telegram from an old college friend, Debbie Ballantine, announcing the birth of her sixth child. Mike doesn't remember her, but Gloria reminds him that she was the one who introduced them 9 years ago. That leads to a flashback of how Mike and Gloria met through a double date with their college roommates. Gloria was young and virginal with golden curls; Mike was a scruffy hippie who blew off a chance to protest at the Nixon inauguration. Initially they don't get along, but when they start to talk, they find that they both enjoy the old style of dancing. The dance leads to a kiss;the kiss leads to a second date. The rest is history.
Episode 13
Edith's Crisis of Faith: Part 1
Sun, Dec 18, 1977
The Bunker family spends the holiday season with their old friend, the drag queen Beverly LaSalle. Edith is excited that Beverly has been hired for a gig at Carnegie Hall. She reveals that she keeps a scrapbook with photos and newspaper clippings about Beverly's career. Beverly considers Edith to be his surrogate family. At a later point, Mike is attacked in a brutal robbery and Beverly attempts to rescue him. Beverly fights off one robber, but the rest of the robbers fatally bludgeon him with the lead pipe. Mike survives the attack, but Edith's religious faith is shaken. She question whether a God who does not prevent brutal murders is worth worshiping.
Episode 14
Edith's Crisis of Faith: Part 2
Sun, Dec 25, 197730 mins
Mike recovers from the injuries he sustained in the mugging. But the Christmas Day gift exchange is still strained due to Edith's depression due to Beverly Lasalle's death, so the family rallies around her.
Episode 15
The Commercial
Sun, Jan 8, 197830 mins
While doing the family's laundry at the laundromat, a man walks up to Edith and starts pouring ketchup all over the clothes. Edith is shocked and infuriated until she realizes that the man is secretly auditioning her for a detergent commercial. She gets the job, which will pay $250 whether she does the commercial or not. Archie is not happy, especially since the man ruined the shirt he got from Disney World (signed by Mickey Mouse), but is happy with the prospect of the money. However, during the commercial shoot, Edith is asked which pile of laundry looks cleaner and keeps choosing the other brand because she is too honest to tell a lie even for money. The director cancels the commercial and Archie is flummoxed because it means that no residuals will be coming.
Episode 16
Super Bowl Sunday
Sun, Jan 15, 197830 mins
Archie gets ready to have a booming business at the bar on Super Bowl Sunday. He has packed sandwiches, bought a projection television, and plans to keep shoveling beer down the customer's throats all night long - even if he has to cheat them to do it. During the festivities, however, two guy drop in that no one seems to know. They plan to rob the place just as the tabs are being collected. Their plan goes off without a hitch and even the added humiliation of having everyone in the bar drop their pants so they can make a clean getaway.
Episode 17
Aunt Iola's Visit
Sun, Jan 22, 1978
Archie will not allow Edith's aunt to move in after she was rejected by the rest of her family.
Episode 18
Love Comes to the Butcher
Sun, Feb 5, 1978
At dinner one night, Edith begins to talk about the friendship she is developing with the local butcher, Mr. Klemmer. Mike and Gloria suspect that the man may have feelings for Edith, but Archie blows it off because he believes that she has already found perfection. During a conversation at the Laundromat, Edith has a conversation with Mr. Klemmer, stating that he might have a chance. He thinks she's talking about her, but she means with someone else. She invites him over to the house for coffee and to sit around the piano and sing. She hopes Archie will join them but he goes to work at the bar, leaving him alone with the man. At the bar, Barney Hefner comes buy in tears because Blanche has just left him for their exterminator, which gets Archie's mind ticking. Back at he house, Mr. Klemmer declares for Edith but she reminds him that she is happily married, just as Archie walks in. Embarrassed over the misunderstanding, Mr. Klemmer leaves and Edith and Archie sit at the piano. Archie is in the mood for amour, but Edith wonders where she's going to get her meat from now on.
Episode 19
Two's a Crowd
Sun, Feb 12, 1978
Archie and Mike are alone in the bar cleaning up. Everyone has gone home and Edith and Gloria are away on vacation with little Joey. While moving things into the storeroom, Mike closes the door behind him with the key on the outside - the only way out. Trapped for the night, Mike and Archie down a bottle of booze while covered with a tarp left over from Kelcy's days. As the booze soak in they begin to talk, mostly about why Archie is so prejudice against people who are different. Mike is stunned when Archie reveals not only taunting from his classmates over the fact that he had to wear one shoe and one boot, thus giving them the nickname "Shoobootie", but that his father was a very abusive man who corrected Archie by hitting him and locking him in the closet for days at a time. Yet, Archie defends his father none-the-less. Finally, Archie passes out on the floor and Mike, who is still stunned, covers him with the tarp and wishes "Shoobootie" a good night.
Episode 20
Stalemates
Sun, Feb 19, 1978
Even a Pocono weekend doesn't seem to spark the romance in the Stivic's marriage.
Episode 21
The Brother
Sun, Feb 26, 1978
Before an operation, Archie's brother tries to smooth over differences that occurred long ago.
Episode 22
Mike's New Job
Sun, Mar 5, 1978
Mike accepts a job on the West Coast and the Stivics prepare to move.
Episode 23
The Dinner Guest
Sun, Mar 12, 1978
Mike and Gloria can't make the special dinner that Edith prepared for the departing Stivics.
Episode 24
The Stivics Go West
Sun, Mar 19, 197830 mins
Saying goodbye to Mike and Gloria proves traumatic for the Bunkers. Before they leave for their new life in California, Mike and Gloria share some long-hidden feelings, confused tears, and much, much more with Archie and Edith.
