For a particular segment of 1972 America, Sammy Davis Jr. kissing Archie Bunker represented all their worst fears rolled up into one smooch. A man kissing another man! A Jew kissing a gentile! A Black person kissing a white person! The trifecta!
It’s not a surprise that it took some work for the show to get that electric moment. Credit goes to Davis himself, who was an All in the Family superfan. He loved the show so much that he pushed back the start times for his Sunday performances by 30 minutes so he could catch the latest episode in his dressing room, according to the biography, Norman Lear: His Life & Times.
Davis had been friends with producer Norman Lear for years, going back to the days when Lear was a writer for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour. From the show’s beginning, Davis wanted to confront the Archie Bunker character and pestered Lear for a guest shot. He even took his plea to the people on The Tonight Show, telling Johnny Carson, “Imagine a one-eyed, colored Jew going head-to-head with Bunker.”
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Strangely, given that Davis was such a big star at the time, Lear and All in the Family director John Rich weren’t interested. “Norman asked me what I thought of the idea,” said Rich. “‘Not much,’ I said. We both agreed it wouldn’t work. To have a star of Davis’ magnitude show up at the Bunkers’ home would be too unbelievable.”
Lear and Rich also wanted to avoid guest-star visits, a typical sitcom stunt when ratings started to sag. All in the Family wasn’t at that stage.
But Davis wouldn’t give up. He appeared on more talk shows about his desire to guest-star, sometimes even claiming that he’d made a deal to appear. Lear and Rich finally relented after making a deal with comedian Bill Dana, who was desperate to write for the show. They told Dana that if he could come up with a plausible story in which the real Sammy Davis Jr. shows up at the Bunker house, they’d hire him to write the script.
Dana cracked it. “Sammy’s Visit” would feature Davis accidentally leaving his briefcase in the back of Archie’s cab. Archie had given Davis his home address to send an autographed picture, so the star had a plausible way to get to the Bunker home. Davis calls the house to say he’s on his way to the airport and would stop by to pick up the case.
Davis’ visit features conversations that, for once, you truly wouldn’t see on television today. After Archie complains to Sammy that Mike and Gloria think he’s prejudiced, an amused Davis replies, “You prejudiced? Look, if you were prejudiced, Archie, when I came to your house, you would have called me coon or a n—. But you didn’t say that. You said ‘colored.’”
Whew. But Davis wasn’t done. “If you were prejudiced,” he continued, “you’d walk around thinking you were better than anybody else in the world. But I can honestly say, having spent time with you, you ain’t better than nobody.”
But the best was yet to come. When Archie’s pal Burt Munson pulls out his camera, Davis says he wants a picture with Archie. On the count of three, the camera flashes and Davis locks his lips on Archie’s cheek.
That moment earned All in the Family “the biggest, longest laugh I have ever experienced,” said Rich. The version that made it to air had to be edited down because the howling and applause went on for so long. “Our adventure into a ‘one in a million’ story had worked superbly. But we vowed never to do it again.”
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