Mon, 09/18/2006

Carroll O'Connor's Archive of American Television Interview is Now Online


Actor Carroll O'Connor's 4-hour Archive of American Television interview has been added to the online collection at Google Video. This is tape 4 of Carroll O'Connor's interview in which he talks about Archie Bunker and All in the Family. Click here to access all eight parts of the interview.

Carroll O'Connor (1924-2001) won Emmy Awards for portraying "Archie Bunker" on All in the Family and "Sheriff Bill Gillespie" on In the Heat of the Night.

O'Connor on Archie Bunker (from Part 2):

The funniest man in a play [Micheál MacLiammóir once told me] is the most serious man on the stage. That was Archie Bunker, wasn’t it? That was Archie Bunker. He never thought he was funny. He never came into the house with a smile or a laugh on his lips. Nothing was funny to him, and god forbid, anybody told him he was funny. Well, I learned that back then…. I’ve passed that onto people over and over, you know, during the years. But I’m afraid there are actors today and comedians who know they’re funny. And it takes away from their work.

Interview Description:

Carroll O’Connor spoke about his stage career at University College in Dublin and his Broadway debut as Buck Mulligan in “Ulysses in Nighttown” in 1958. He also discussed such television anthology series as Armstrong Circle Theatre, as well as other dramatic series. He talked about starring, in 1968, in the first pilot for what would become All in the Family. During his interview Mr. O’Connor spoke vividly about his early television as well as his acclaimed work on both All in the Family and In the Heat of the Night.