JANUARY 12th -- The 1st Poop

This day in 1971 was the premiere of one of the greatest TV shows in American history, All in the Family. The show wasted no time in confronting taboos. Having the main character, Archie Bunker--played superbly by Carroll O’Connor--be a working class bigot is a construction that would never work today, but it allowed the show to tackle a variety of important issues such as racism, women’s lib, and homosexuality. Those are all important issues and they were handled with humor on the show. But All in the Family also made television history by becoming the first show to flush a toilet on air. That may seem of little import, but that 1st toilet flush set the tone. Made the Bunkers more real. The Beverly Hillbillies were Hillbillies but they struck it rich and moved to Beverly Hills. They quit flushing toilets. But you know who flushes toilets? Everyone. Because everyone poops. Desi and Lucy pooped. Dick Van Dyke pooped. Jerry Seinfeld pooped. All the Friends pooped. Everyone poops. They even made a book about it. And here is Morgan Freeman reading it:



Everyone poops. And Archie Bunker was the first to let everyone know well before Forrest Gump came along. Shit happens.

This day has been Marked.

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