Archie's many frailties are all funny. He really can't cope with any of them. His way to cope is not to think about them. He does live a very unhealthy life with all his stress, and bad lifestyle. Great ending Archie suggests Edith take up drinking & smoking so their lifespans meet.
3 Reviews
deadly quiz
stones7813 December 2013
This fun episode starts with Edith and Gloria taking a quiz on how long a person may live, and what type of daily habits said person does or doesn't do in their life. I think the quiz gave Edith a life expectancy of 84, and when Archie comes home from work to belittle the quiz, he soon changes his tune after the quiz says he'll live to be 57. He's reminded by his family that he smokes cigars and drinks too much beer, and is very irritable, which leads to the premature "death" of him way before his wife. The funniest moment has Archie waking from a nightmare yelling "don't drop me!", as he explains to Edith that he dreamt that the Meathead was a pallbearer at his funeral, and while he's carrying Archie's coffin with one hand, his other hand is holding a sandwich; soon after, he drops Archie as the coffin rolls away, and Archie's new suit gets dirty. A scene or 2 later, Gloria, who actually is useful for once, tells her dad that the math was wrong on the quiz, and she adds the numbers again, and now she has him living until he's 75 this time around. While Archie's relieved, he goes to the kitchen to get Edith and while he's out of the room, Mike tells Gloria that there was no problem with the original numbers, then she confesses that she simply made up the higher number to ease her dad. While this isn't close to any of my favorite episodes of this show, I enjoyed how all the family members were involved and all had several lines of importance.
Pure Archie!
andyrichtx11 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers
This may be my favorite episode of a classic sitcom, certainly of its later years:
1. Only involved the four main characters. Many times the side characters were annoying; this episode had no such distractions. By season 5, we were well aware of the personalities and this one let them all shine. Everybody pulled their weight!
2. A nice respite from "isn't Archie a bigot?" Obviously, that was the main reason this series was so groundbreaking but good to give it a rest on occasion.
3. Some of the best lines of the series. Mike: "Get away from the things that aggravate you." Followed by that look from Archie and Michael's foot in mouth reaction. Plus, the ending line - Archie logic at its finest (which gave us arming all air travelers) of how Edith can avoid her predicted lonely widow years. Great script!
4. Carroll O'Conner. Boy, did Norman Lear get this casting right! Archie's immediate rage at his disposition being questioned, his quiet realization that his father died at the same age the quiz projected, and later fuming at how early Edith and Meathead croaked him. All topped off with his problem solving at the end.
From the debut on, the Archie character would have quickly (or instantly) be terminally off-putting if handled by a less gifted actor. Great writing and Carroll MADE this series (though he alone couldn't carry the later episodes or Archie Bunker's Place, when the scripts were hollow shells of their once daring selves).
1. Only involved the four main characters. Many times the side characters were annoying; this episode had no such distractions. By season 5, we were well aware of the personalities and this one let them all shine. Everybody pulled their weight!
2. A nice respite from "isn't Archie a bigot?" Obviously, that was the main reason this series was so groundbreaking but good to give it a rest on occasion.
3. Some of the best lines of the series. Mike: "Get away from the things that aggravate you." Followed by that look from Archie and Michael's foot in mouth reaction. Plus, the ending line - Archie logic at its finest (which gave us arming all air travelers) of how Edith can avoid her predicted lonely widow years. Great script!
4. Carroll O'Conner. Boy, did Norman Lear get this casting right! Archie's immediate rage at his disposition being questioned, his quiet realization that his father died at the same age the quiz projected, and later fuming at how early Edith and Meathead croaked him. All topped off with his problem solving at the end.
From the debut on, the Archie character would have quickly (or instantly) be terminally off-putting if handled by a less gifted actor. Great writing and Carroll MADE this series (though he alone couldn't carry the later episodes or Archie Bunker's Place, when the scripts were hollow shells of their once daring selves).
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