User Reviews

It can be a very fine line indeed between quitting a good thing too early and running the wheels off of this same good thing. All in the family was a great show that stayed far too long. This episode is painful to watch if you have seen any of the much-better, earlier episodes. Unfortunately,in these later episodes,the whole premise of the show seems to be off-kilter,the balance of the show has been lost,and the actors seem to go further and further out on a limb to try to get a laugh. This often falls flat,and gives the later shows an air of desperation. When this show episode aired,the series was circling the drain. They stayed too long.

Whenever any episode revolves around Archie's bar, it's probably a safe bet it'll be mediocre, as this one surely was. Most of the episode takes place there as the guests are preparing for the big game between Dallas and Denver, although it seemed a tad corny when everyone in the bar sang the pre-game anthem while standing up. The gist of the story is that while Archie plans to charge the patrons for sandwiches and football pools, his bar is about to get robbed by 2 dopes who don't bother to conceal their faces; you may recognize Louis Guss as one of the robbers, who has a bad New York accent that could be chopped off with an ax. This isn't as bad as when Archie pops pills, but it's close, as nothing remotely funny happens here, and we get to see everyone in their underwear, as the thieves order them to do, which is as unfunny as it gets. The jokes were stale, and Archie trying to break up a fight with a baseball bat is laughable. Stay away from 1978 episodes, save for a few, as the show was begging to be put out of its' misery.