Editing Carroll O'Connor (section)

===Television roles===

In the 1960s, O'Connor appeared in episodes of notable television series such as ''[[The Americans (1961 TV series)|The Americans]]'', ''[[The Untouchables (1959 TV series)|The Untouchables]]'', ''[[Naked City (TV series)|Naked City]]'', ''[[Death Valley Days]]'', ''[[Bonanza]]'', ''[[The Defenders (1961 TV series)|The Defenders]]'', ''[[The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)|The Outer Limits]]'', ''[[The Fugitive (1963 TV series)|The Fugitive]]'', ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'', ''[[Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)|Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea]]'', ''[[Ben Casey]]'', ''[[Dr. Kildare (TV series)|Dr. Kildare]]'', ''[[I Spy (1965 TV series)|I Spy]]'', ''[[The Wild Wild West]]'', ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'', ''[[The Time Tunnel]]'', ''[[That Girl]]'' and ''[[Gunsmoke]]'' (1966 - "The Wrong Man"; S12E7).

O'Connor also performed in anthology television shows such as ''[[NBC Sunday Showcase]]'', ''[[The United States Steel Hour]]'', ''[[Armstrong Circle Theatre]]'', ''[[The Play of the Week]]'', ''[[The Dick Powell Show]]'', ''[[Alcoa Premiere]]'', ''[[The DuPont Show of the Week]]'', ''[[Profiles in Courage (TV series)|Profiles in Courage]]'' and ''[[Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre]].''

====''All in the Family''====
[[File:All in the family october 27 1973.jpg|thumb|Publicity photo of O'Connor and Jean Stapleton in ''All in the Family'', 1973]]
O'Connor was living in Italy in 1968 when producer [[Norman Lear]] asked him to come to [[New York City]] and star in a series that he was creating for ABC titled ''[[Justice For All (TV pilot)|Justice For All]].'' Lear recruited O'Connor to play the role of Archie Justice, a bigot who was able to bring forth some measure of empathy from the audience. After two [[television pilot]]s of the sitcom were produced (between 1968 and 1970), the hosting network was changed to CBS.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://outsider.com/news/entertainment/all-in-the-family-abc-passed-two-separate-pilots-before-show-went-cbs/|title = 'All in the Family': ABC Passed on Two Separate Pilots Before Show Went to CBS|date = February 23, 2021}}</ref> For the third pilot, the last name of its main character was changed to Bunker, and its title was changed to ''[[All in the Family]]''. The show was based on the [[BBC]]'s ''[[Till Death Us Do Part (British TV series)|Till Death Us Do Part]]'', and Bunker was based on [[Alf Garnett]], but he was somewhat less abrasive than the original British character.
O'Connor's Queens background and his ability to speak with a working-class New York accent both influenced Lear to set the show in Queens.<ref name=oconnor2>{{cite news| title=Carroll O'Connor| url=https://movies.nytimes.com/person/53347/Carroll-O-Connor/biography| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119032542/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/53347/Carroll-O-Connor/biography| url-status=dead| archive-date=November 19, 2007| department=Movies & TV Dept.| work=[[The New York Times]]| first=Bruce| last=Eder| date=2007| access-date=September 2, 2011}}</ref>

Desiring a well known actor to play the lead, Lear approached [[Mickey Rooney]], but he declined the role.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.get.tv/gettv-blog/all-family-10-facts-about-archie-edith-and-1970s-classic|title = ALL IN THE FAMILY – 10 Facts About Archie, Edith, and the 1970s Classic}}</ref> O'Connor accepted the role because he did not expect the show to succeed, and he believed that he would move back to [[Europe]] when it failed. In her book ''Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria: the Tumultuous History of All in the Family'', Donna McCrohan revealed that O'Connor had requested that Lear provide him with a return airplane ticket to [[Rome]] as a condition of his acceptance of the role so that he could return to Italy when the show failed. Instead, ''All in the Family'' became the highest-rated show on American television for five consecutive seasons.

While O'Connor's personal politics were liberal, he understood the Bunker character and played him not only with bombast and humor but with touches of vulnerability. The show's writing was consistently left of center, but O'Connor, while his character held right-wing views, could also deftly skewer the liberal pieties of the day. Bunker was famous for his English language [[malapropism]]s, but O'Connor was in truth a highly educated and cultured man and taught English before he turned to acting.<ref name="Slewinski">{{cite news |last1=Slewinski |first1=Christy |title=It's No Big Deal |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-03-25-9403250125-story.html |access-date=23 February 2019 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=March 25, 1994}}</ref> Archie Bunker's long-suffering wife [[Edith Bunker|Edith]] was played by [[Jean Stapleton]], also from New York City, a [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] actress whom Lear remembered from the play and film ''[[Damn Yankees]]''. The show also starred then-unknown character actors [[Rob Reiner]] as Archie's liberal son-in-law Michael "Meathead" Stivic and [[Sally Struthers]] as Gloria, Archie and Edith's only child and Mike's wife.

CBS debated whether the controversial subject matter of ''All in the Family'' would mesh with a sitcom. [[Race (classification of human beings)|Racial]] issues, ethnicities, religions, sexuality, class, education, women's equality, gun control, politics, inflation, the Vietnam War, energy crisis, Watergate and other timely topics of the 1970s were addressed. Like its British predecessor ''Till Death Us Do Part'', the show lent dramatic social substance to the traditional sitcom format. Archie Bunker's popularity made O'Connor a top-billing star of the 1970s. O'Connor was apprehensive of being [[typecast (acting)|typecast]] for playing the role, but at the same time he was protective, not just of his character, but of the entire show.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/all-in-the-family-carroll-oconnor-impossible-deal-shows-execproducer-said.html/|title='All in the Family': Carroll O'Connor Was 'Difficult and Often Abusive,' the Show's Exec Producer Said|date=March 6, 2021}}</ref>

A contract dispute between O'Connor and Lear marred the beginning of the show's fifth season. Eventually O'Connor received a raise and appeared in the series until it ended. For his work as Archie Bunker, he was nominated for eight [[Emmy Award]]s as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; he won the award four times (1972, 1977, 1978 and 1979). At the end of the eighth season in 1978, Reiner and Struthers left the series to pursue other projects.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://outsider.com/news/entertainment/all-in-the-family-gloria-actress-sally-struthers-why-rob-reiner-left-show/|title='All in the Family': Gloria Actress Sally Struthers Explained Why She and Rob Reiner Left Show|date=March 14, 2021}}</ref>

Rob Reiner said in a 2014 interview about his on- and off-screen chemistry with O'Connor: "We did over 200 shows in front of a live audience. So I learned a lot about what audiences like, what they don't like, how stories are structured. I would spend a lot of time in the writing room and I actually wrote some scripts. And from Carroll O'Connor I learned a lot about how you perform and how important the script and story are for the actors. So the actor doesn't have to push things. You can let the story and the dialogue support you if it's good. I had great people around me, and I took from all the people who were around." Comparing O'Connor's character to Archie Bunker, Reiner said: "Carroll O'Connor brought his humanity to the character even though he had these abhorrent views. He's still a feeling, human being. He loved his wife even though he acted the way he did, and he loved his daughter. Those things come out. I don't think anybody's all good or all bad."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nell-minow/rob-reiner-on-the-middlea_b_5540654.html |title=Rob Reiner on the Middle-Age Love Story 'And So It Goes' |last=Minow |first=Neil |date=July 20, 2014 |newspaper=[[HuffPost]]}}</ref>

====''Archie Bunker's Place''====
{{main|Archie Bunker's Place}}
When ''All in the Family'' ended after nine seasons, ''Archie Bunker's Place'' continued in its place and ran for four additional years. Longtime friend and original series star Jean Stapleton appeared as Edith Bunker on the new show, but made only five guest appearances in Season 1. Stapleton decided she did not want to continue in the role, and in the second-season premiere, her character died of a stroke, leaving Archie to cope with the loss. At the time, O'Connor was receiving $200,000 an episode, making him one of the highest paid stars on television.<ref>{{cite book|title=Guinness Book of Records 1982|last1=McWhiter|first1=Norris|author-link=Norris McWhirter|publisher=Guinness Superlatives Ltd|year=1981|isbn=0-85112-232-9|page=113}}</ref> The show was canceled in 1983. O'Connor was angered about the show's cancellation, maintaining that the show ended with an inappropriate finale.{{citation needed|date=February 2013}} He would later work for CBS again when he starred in ''[[In the Heat of the Night (TV series)|In the Heat of the Night]]'' on [[NBC]] and they decided not to renew the series. CBS allowed the series to continue for two more years and have a proper ending.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1992-02-25-9202230605-story.html|title = CBS Grabs 'Heat of the Night,' but NBC May Want It Back| date=February 25, 1992 }}</ref>

====''In the Heat of the Night''====
{{main|In the Heat of the Night (TV series)}}
While coping with his son's drug problem, O'Connor starred as [[Sparta, Mississippi]], Police Chief Bill Gillespie, a tough veteran cop on ''In the Heat of the Night''. Based on the [[In the Heat of the Night (novel)|novel by John Ball]] and the [[In the Heat of the Night (film)|1967 movie of the same name]], the series debuted on [[NBC]] in March 1988 and performed well. He cast his inexperienced son [[Hugh O'Connor]] as Officer Lonnie Jamison. The headquarters of the Sparta Police Department was actually the library in [[Covington, Georgia]].

In 1989, while working on the set, O'Connor was hospitalized and underwent open heart surgery, which caused him to miss four episodes at the end of the second season. (Actor [[Joe Don Baker]] took his place in those episodes as an acting police chief.) O'Connor would later serve as one of the executive producers for the series, starting with the third season. The series was transferred from NBC to CBS in 1992 and cancelled two years later after its seventh season. O'Connor reprised his role the following year for four two-hour ''In the Heat of the Night'' television films.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094484/episodes?season=8|title=In the Heat of the Night (TV Series 1988–1995) |website=[[IMDb]]}}</ref>

While on the series, O'Connor recorded "Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella" for the 1991 ''In the Heat of the Night'' Christmas CD ''Christmas Time's A Comin'''. He was joined by Grand Ole Opry star mandolinist [[Jesse McReynolds]], Nashville accordionist Abe Manuel Jr., and Nashville fiddlers [[Buddy Spicher]] and [[Randall Franks]]. CD Producer and series co-star Randall Franks created the arrangement which was co-produced by series co-star [[Alan Autry]]. He joined other members of the cast for a recording of "Jingle Bells" with vocals by Country Music Hall of Fame members [[Little Jimmy Dickens]], [[Kitty Wells]], [[Pee Wee King]], [[The Marksmen Quartet]], Bobby Wright, Johnnie Wright and Ken Holloway.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://randallfranks.com/christmas-times-a-comin/ | title=Christmas Times' A Comin' }}</ref> According to MeTV, Carroll wrote several episodes under the pseudonym Matt Harris.