User Reviews

704 Hauser was born during the rise of the 90s conservative era, and while left wing activist producer Norman Lear sought to perhaps sway some ratings by offering a very rare but somewhat honest glimpse of a conservative character on TV, Lear's liberal leanings overrode his ability to give a sincere portrayal of such and the show went down in flames after a mere handful of epidodes.

Unlike All in the Family, where the blue collar union Democrat was always wrong and portrayed as an ignorant, bigoted veteran fighting against the social changes taking place around him while such arbiters of such change were always correct and common sensical, 704 is the complete opposite, with the head of the household as the hero who is correct in his beliefs that things haven't improved, while his consetvative Republican son is now the one out of touch.

Some things will never change in Hollywood, which is its goal and lifelong ambition.

All in the Family was arguably one of the best sitcoms to ever air on American television. It said what every other show at the time was afraid to say. It challenged its audience and made them think. Week after week seeing Archie the working-class bigoted conversative butting heads with Mike, his liberal, college-going son in-law on a myriad of issues ranging from race relations, politics, war, women's rights, civil rights, you name it, they talked about it, and with their wives Edith and Gloria respectively giving their two-cents as well. It was funny, it was smart, it was daring, and though the show's quality began to decline in later years, it was still considered a massive hit, running from 1971 until 1979 at which point it was retitled Archie Bunker's Place, shifting focus more to Archie at his workplace and continuing until 1983 when it was unceremoniously canceled. Throughout the eighties and even into the nineties, All in the Family continued to burn up the airwaves via syndicated reruns, even rerunning on their parent station of CBS. Then in 1994, Norman Lear broached a question that nobody ever asked: "who is living in Archie Bunker's house now?" Well, isn't Archie still there? If not, surely Stephanie and Billie are living there, right? Nope, not even them. That's when Lear decided it was time to return to television, as he had a spotless record with so many hits under his belt, it was certainty that anything he could come up with would be a winner. Unfortunately, that was not the case when he created and developed 704 Hauser, a successor to All in the Family featuring an African American family living in Archie Bunker's house. I guess that's the first selling point: hey, what if a black family moved into Archie's house? Yeah, what if. Who cares? That's this series' first and probably biggest problem: its setting. Why did they need to set it in the Bunkers' house? What is the significance? That's like asking who's living in the Ricardos' old apartment, or Rob and Laura Petrie's house, or Darrin and Samantha's house, or hell, what's going on at that spot in Korea where the 4077th M*A*S*H was located? We didn't see new shows set in those locations, so why set this new show in such a recognizable place, especially when show has very little to do with All in the Family? Well, actually, a character from that series appears in the pilot, but I'll get to him soon enough. Now then, what is 704 Hauser about? Like I said, a black family, The Cumberbatches, moved in sometime between 1983 and 1994. What happened to Archie, Stephanie, and Billie? They never say. Ernie, Rose, and their son Thurgood "Goodie" now reside in Bunker Palace, and the best way I can describe them are as follows: Ernie and Rose are a black, liberal version of Archie and Edith, except if the dingbat were a firecracker. Yeah, Rose doesn't take guff from Ernie and proves he's whipped like a bowl of mashed potatoes. Goodie is a conservative who is dating a white, Jewish woman named Cherlyn. You got that? Two black liberals, a black conservative, and a white Jewish woman. Unfortunately, their race and religious affiliations also count as character traits, which sadly writers still use even to this day. Instead of writing a strong, relatable character, they just refer to them as "the black guy" or "the Jewish man/woman" or something basic like that. It's lazy writing at its finest. The way in which these characters are introduced is in the pilot episode that has a very familiar storyline, that's because Norman Lear essentially copied the pilot to All in the Family, it's almost the exact same episode with only a few minor changes. That's incredibly lazy; they couldn't be bothered to come up with a brand new way to introduce these characters? But then when you consider the series' setting and that the characters are essentially the Bunkers and Stivics turned inside out and thrown into a blender, maybe it isn't out of place to have a copy and paste script.

Do any familiar All in the Family characters show up on 704 Hauser? Well, as previously stated, yes. Guess who they got? Joey. Yeah, Mike and Gloria's son Joey shows up on the Cumberbatchs' doorstep for no reason whatsoever. He's played by that guy who was one of Biff's lackeys in the Back to the Future trilogy. He shows up ten minutes into the pilot and asks if he can take a look around the house. Okay, that would never happen in real life. If you went back to your childhood home after a decade and asked the new residents if you could look around, they would refuse you, especially since that's a pretty easy ploy used by people who then turn around and rob the place. But no, without question, they just let Joey mosey on in and help himself to anything he wants in the kitchen. Ha ha ha, he's a food vacuum like his old man, ha ha ha... not funny! It would make sense if Joey Stivic was going to be a recurring character, like if he were this show's answer to Lionel, but he never appears again. I don't even know why he was included in the first place. Maybe they tried to get Carroll O'Connor, Rob Reiner, or Sally Struthers to guest star, but they probably all said no. They couldn't even get one of the actors who played Joey as a kid to show up. That was a dumb move, adding that character. As for the pilot itself, it's basically the father and son going back and forth arguing about things, mostly race relations. I don't really understand it, so maybe this show wasn't meant for me. In the end, Goodie is seen on Face the Nation, where he gives props to his old man, and we actually have a tender moment where it seems he and Ernie are making amends for all the cruel words exchanged... but then he goes and starts ridiculing his father on national television and another fight ensues. At least with the fights and arguments on All in the Family, they actually had something to say. This is just mean-spirited as it's between a father and a son, not in-laws. Not much else happens, and I'm not surprised this series was canceled after only 6 episodes were made. You could say maybe the world wasn't ready for this type of show, but then you would be wrong, because the way this series tries to be "edgy", it feels like something out of the mid-'80s, not the early '90s. This type of thing wasn't edgy anymore, it was no longer taboo for a black man and white woman to be in a relationship. I'm sorry, but it feels like Lear was considerably out of touch when he made this.

So why exactly did 704 Hauser fail? I want to blame the unoriginal concept and setting it in the Bunkers' old house. Sure, it looks nice redecorated and brought up to date, except whoever redid the kitchen put the door in the wrong place, but there was no reason to set it there. If they had set it anywhere else, it would have worked better, because the audience wouldn't keep getting distracted by this familiar location and always wondering what became of Archie Bunker. This series also fails in the acting department, though it was nice to see John Amos get another shot at a lead role in a Norman Lear sitcom, as I guess it was his way of making it up to Amos after firing him from Good Times. But even he couldn't save this show, because we don't see him as a black Archie Bunker, we see him as an angrier, more racist James Evans. I have a feeling this series was never going to be a hit, and it was just an excuse to cash in on a wildly successful series, and to utilize a set that had been sitting in storage for eleven years. 704 Hauser is largely forgotten now adays, and I think that's for the best. Lazy concept aside, they couldn't even give it a decent intro! I mean, I wasn't expecting Ernie and Rose to sing an updated version of "Those Were the Days", but all we get is a stock image of the house used for the Bunker abode and a bad hip-hop tune, then the episode begins. Sadly, that's how most modern shows begin as their producers are too lazy to make a decent opening, and the opening is usually the best and most iconic part of any show. Do I recommend 704 Hauser? No, it's boring, it's not funny, it brings nothing new to the table, and it was done much better 23 years earlier. But do check out All in the Family and any other show Norman Lear attached his name to, as I've still got mad respect for him and his efforts that saved television in the 1970s. In fact, I'd say he needs to get back to work and save television now. If he can't do it, nobody can.