Justice for All

Overview

Justice For All is an American television pilot shot in 1968 for the ABC network. This was Norman Lear's first attempt at what would eventually become All in the Family. The script, written by Lear, was based on a British show, Till Death Us Do Part. The lead character of Archie Justice was a white, working class reactionary with racist and anti-social views. Archie's wife, Edith was a kind, naive woman devoted to her husband. They had a daughter, Gloria, who was married to Richard, a young, Irish-American liberal hippie whom Archie despised. Richard had a black friend, Lionel. By the time All in the Family made it to air, a number of changes had been made. The Justice family's last name had been changed to "Bunker." The "Richard" character was replaced by Michael "Meathead" Stivic, a Polish-American liberal hippie with long hair. The Gloria character in the pilot more closely resembled her parents' appearance with her short, curly, red hair, as opposed to the long blonde hair worn by Sally Struthers, who portrayed Gloria in the series. This pilot never aired as ABC did not pick up Justice For All, but in 1969 Norman Lear shot another pilot called Those Were The Days with two different actors playing Gloria and Richard.