Seems like I always forget Archie Bunker when I mention my comedy roots. In the seventies, I thought Richard Pryor and Archie Bunker killed racism. I thought what we learned from those two men was putting an end to that ugly shit.

I remember Richard doing his white voice, explaining how nervous it made him to be in a room full of "those people." Remember the bit about some white people left their front row seats at one of his shows to get some popcorn and when they came back, "two niggers" were in their seats.

The white guy stammers, "Excuse me, Sir, but we were sitting in those seats," and the black guy says, "Well, you ain't sitting here now are ya, motherfucker?" ...and the white guy said, "I guess not."

Showing that whites and blacks were uncomfortable with each other was diagnostic, I thought. Laughing about it was medicinal. Archie was the number one bigot in America.The shit he said was so outrageous, it was funny. It's how Rush Limbaugh should be treated today - with laughter and amusement.

But somehow, ...it's probably Reagan's fault, racism never faded away.

Reagan made America comfortable with its racism.

Today, Rush has the same hatred, and says the same things Archie said 25 years ago, and he's "the leader of the Republican party," the title Reagan bestowed on him.

<sigh...>

The contributions Archie Bunker made were enormous. The time Sammy Davis Jr. left his wallet in Archie's cab was one of the best. Like Chris Rock said 25 years later, celebrity trumps racism. Archie, as racist as today's GOP, was bragging that Sammy Davis Jr. was coming to his house. He was so pleased, he let Sammy sit in his chair - no small honor. Archie sat in Edith's chair and enjoyed a Coke while Sammy told stories.

Sammy coughed during one story and asked Archie if he could have a sip from his glass of water. Archie agreed and Sammy took the drink. A minute later, Archie needed a drink, and he brought the glass to his lips before he realized he was about to drink after a black man. The look on his face was priceless. It was white America's illogical fears in a nutshell. It was though Archie might "turn colored" if he drank it.

Then, one of the best lines I've ever heard: "Hey, Sammy, I know there was nothing you could do about being born black, but what made you turn Jew?"

Then, of course, when Archie had his racist pals over to meet Sammy, one of them had a camera. Picking up what an ignorant racist Archie was, as they counted down the seconds to snap the picture, Sammy kissed him on the cheek when the count hit zero. All of Archie's racist friends now had a picture of Archie kissing "a nigger." The studio audience laughed so hard and so long, they had to stop taping. Geez, there were so many...

Remember the time Lionel Jefferson went somewhere with Gloria, and Archie and George Jefferson got together with their equally-racist attitudes and declared there should be no "race mixing." When they realized they agreed, they shared a toast to their racism and bigotry.

Two conservatives, vowing to stick to their traditional values of hate and fear.

Do you remember when Archie locked himself in his basement for a weekend?

He was getting something ready for the movers to take, and he got locked in.

The others were out of town, and he was stuck down there. He did a great, one-man show. He tried to break down the basement door, but it was at the top of the steps and Archie was out of shape. He'd start at the bottom of the steps and charge up, but by the time he got to the top step, he was so tired all he could do was fall on the door and nothing happened - he was stuck.

Alcohol has always been a fertile writing tool, so they had Archie find an old bottle of Scotch. "A blanket in a bottle," he called it. As he got drunker, he convinced himself he was dying. (When you're drunk, you don't need a reason to act illogically.) So he's drunk as hell, passing out and waking up, wondering if he was alive on Earth or had died and gone to Heaven.

When the movers arrived, (they were black of course) they let themselves in the house and called out for Archie, yelling, "Mr. Bunker, are you down there?"

Archie thought God was speaking to him from Heaven. He dropped to his knees and prepared to meet his maker. The black guy walked down the steps, behind Archie, who was on his knees. Archie steeled himself for this once-in-an-afterlife opportunity to meet God. Finally, drunker than Jenna Bush and still on his knees, he spun around to meet God and said, "This is it!" He opened his eyes and saw a black man.

Once again, the crowd was absolutely ape-shit with hysteria. The look of panic and confusion on Archie's face was pure gold. The only words he could muster were, "Forgive me, Lord. Jefferson was right."

One more - it was the time the Bunkers had guests over for for Thanksgiving dinner. Archie had a friend of his from work, and Mike had a friend over the family hadn't met. This guy had been in Canada, dodging the draft, and he snuck back to New York to see Mike & Gloria.

It was a masterpiece of scriptwriting.

Archie kept asking Mike's friend about where he worked and where he lived and the tension was building higher and higher as Archie, the most pro-Vietnam hawk since the vulgar Pigboy, finally realized what was going on and he jumped up and said something like, "I refuse to eat Thanksgiving dinner with a goddamn draft-dodger."

I'd never seen anything this intense on my television before. Looking for closure, Archie asked his friend from work to back him up and the friend said he lost a son in Vietnam, and maybe if the his son had that draft-dodger's courage, they'd all be eating Thanksgiving dinner together that night.

This threw Archie for a loop. Things weren't funny anymore. After the "goddamn," I don't think there was another laugh in that episode.

Archie, clearly stung by his friend's unexpected sympathy for the draft-dodger, said, "I dunno about that kinda talk, ...I need to do some thinking..."

It was the first time I ever heard "goddamn" on television. Remember, this was the seventies and it was early Sunday evening - the family dinner hour. When they say All in the Family was ground-breaking TV, they're right. I don't know if Norman Lear got special permission from CBS to use that word, or if Carroll O'Connor accidentally let it slip out in the excitement, because it was bleeped in the repeat months later. That episode taught me that it's OK to use strong language when it really counts.

So, join me in a shot of Chinaco Anejo to a true giant of comedy, Carroll O'Connor, creator of one of the funniest characters in history.

...and then, in a couple of hours when you're purging that shot, think

about today's Archie Bunker, the racist son of a bitch who leads the "Let's turn back the clock" party.

PS. And when Carroll gets to Heaven, if God is black, I hope they both have a good laugh. Rest well, my friend.