All In The Family of Sexual Violence
On my flight to NYC, I looked up from my book to see All In The Family on my tv. I saw a not unattractive young man, on top of Edith. He looked like he was going to rape her. I quickly plugged my earphones in and watched the rest of the most disturbing sitcom episode I’ve ever seen. Here is the episode description from tv.com:
Before Edith arrives home, Gloria and Mike teaches Archie the plan for Edith 50th birthday surprise party which will be taken at 6 o’clock at the Stivics house. Edith comes back home while Archie and the Stivics leave to decorate the house for the party. A sudden knock at the door reveals a cop. Edith welcomes the policeman inside the house who claims that there’s a rapist in town but he slips out that it’s him. Edith is held at
gunpoint and pushed on the couch. The rapist slowly strips Edith! Before it can go any longer, the phone rings. The rapist orders Edith to get rid of the caller as soon as possible. When she does, Archie knocks at the door, wondering why the hell the door is locked. The rapist hides himself in the closet and once again orders Edith to get rid of Archie. She does as quickly as possible. Still stranded in the house with the armed man, they suddenly smell something burning. It was the cake which Edith previously started to bake. They rush to the oven where the room is just smoke. When she it pulls, she tosses the hot cake in the rapist’s face and rushes outside the kitchen door, but he stops her. She knees him in the groin and exits as soon as possible out of the front door and interupts the party, running into Archie’s arms.
During the horrible and uncomfortable scenes when Edith is alone with her attacker, they keep cutting back to the hi-jinks that are happening next door as Archie and Meatheat and Gloria prepare for Edith’s surprise party. They literally cut from a man threatening to tie her up and unzipping her dress to Meathead and Archie doing a cheesy tug of war over a punch bowl, complete with HUGE laughs from the laugh track.
After she escapes her attacker and runs next door for safety, the entire room bursts into shouts of, “SURPRISE!!” for her birthday party. She merely runs past them, her dress unzipped down the back, tears streaming down her face, into Archie’s arms. She is bawling, and an arm (Gloria?) reaches into frame and zips her dress. Archie looks down at her and jokes about her crying because of her birthday surprise, and then- IT ENDS. It ends right there. It cuts to the executive producer credits and the BIGGEST closing laugh on the entire fucking laugh track.
