Gloria


The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

02:26

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About

From Wikipedia:

Gloria is an American sitcom that lasted one season on CBS, from September 1982 to September 1983. It stars Sally Struthers, reprising her role as Gloria Bunker Stivic, the daughter of Archie Bunker on the hugely successful 1970s sitcom All in the Family. Gloria was a spin-off of Archie Bunker's Place, which was a continuation of All in the Family.

The setup of the show was that Gloria had been left at loose ends after her husband, Michael Stivic (who did not appear in the new series), left her and moved away to a commune. (Some viewers thought that this was somewhat of a contrived story about Michael, as over the run of All in the Family he became more moderate and seemingly had left his "hippie" past behind him). Gloria, to be closer to her father, decided to move with her young son, Joey (played by Christian Jacobs), and pick up the pieces of her life as an assistant to two veterinarians in Fox Ridge, New York. The veterinarians were played by Burgess Meredith and Jo De Winter; the character played by Meredith was also, conveniently, Gloria's landlord.

Though Gloria ranked 18th in the Nielsen ratings for the 1982-83 season, CBS chose not to renew it for a second season, making it one of the few spin-offs of the successful All in the Family not to have a successful run.

CBS rejected Gloria's original pilot which featured a brief cameo by Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker dropping off Gloria and Joey at Dr. Adams' clinic and residence. It was repackaged as an episode of Archie Bunker's Place. This pilot was written by veteran All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place writers Pat Shea and Harriett Weiss and Archie Bunker's Place producer and close Carroll O'Connor associate Joe Gannon who co-created, wrote and produced the pilot. They were replaced by former WKRP in Cincinnati writers Steve Marshall and Dan Guntzelman (who would later find success writing and producing the long-running ABC sitcom Growing Pains).

The shows production was moved from CBS Television City to Universal Studios. According to a December 1982 feature interview with Sally Struthers in "TV Guide" this did not sit well with Carroll O'Connor who, with the rest of the Archie Bunker's Place production staff, was effectively shut out of the production of Gloria. (Even Norman Lear, who created All in the Family and had some hand in all of its other spin-offs, had no credited involvement in Gloria.) After this, O'Connor chose to be uninvolved in the retooled pilot and series. The characters of Dr. Jim Waynewrite and Ben the handyman were dropped when Marshall and Guntzelman's second pilot was made which went to series. In the second pilot, Joey adopted a black dog which he named Archie after his grandfather, which O'Connor was said to be less than thrilled about according to the same 1982 "TV Guide" article. In the original pilot, actress Jo de Winter's character, Maggie Lawrence, was an assistant to Dr. Adams. In the second pilot and the series, Maggie Lawrence is a veterinarian and Dr. Adams' partner in the clinic.

Who talked about this show

Bob Claver

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Bob Claver on directing Gloria
02:55
Bob Claver on directing Gloria
01:25

Donald A. Morgan

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Donald A. Morgan on his early work as a director of photography on Gloria, one of two shows he was working on at the time
01:55

Carroll O'Connor

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Carroll O'Connor on the spin-off series Gloria
06:32
Carroll O'Connor on his falling out with Sally Struthers after Gloria
00:23

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