All In The Family actress Sally Struthers says she feuded with the show’s creator Norman Lear, declaring she ‘wasn’t a huge fan of his.’

Lear died in 2023 at the age of 101, after decades being hailed as a TV legend who deftly wove political issues into situation comedy. 

All In The Family starred Carroll O’Connor as ornery patriarch Archie Bunker, whose right wing atтιтudes were used by the writers to poke fun at conservatism.

Struthers, 77, featured as Archie’s daughter Gloria, who clashes with her father politically and leans towards her liberal husband Michael, played by Rob Reiner.

Now Struthers has ᴀsserted that she had a troubled equation with Lear offscreen, and even spent $40,000 on a failed legal bid to leave his show after season five.

She also claimed Lear once told her he only cast her because of she had ‘blue eyes and a fat face,’ on the podcast Let’s Talk About That!.

All In The Family actress Sally Struthers says she feuded with the show’s creator Norman Lear, declaring she ‘wasn’t a huge fan of his,’ on the podcast Let’s Talk About That!

During Struthers’ new interview, Lear was mentioned as the creator of All In The Family, and she immediately objected to the characterization.

According to Struthers’ version of events, Carroll O’Connor first came up with the idea of creating an American adaptation of the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, on which All In The Family was based.

She said O’Connor and a ‘full-fledged writer friend of his’ collaborated on ‘scripts’ for a US version of Till Death Do Us Part, ‘but they didn’t have the producer power, money to make it happen, so after shopping it around for awhile it wound up in Norman’s hands, and Norman pretended for the next 52 years that he created it.’

All In The Family enjoyed a successful eight-season run on CBS from 1971 to 1979 – but Struthers claims that during this period, she was excluded from cast dinners that were held at the home of Lear and his then-wife, feminist activist Frances Loeb. 

Struthers said that during the run of the show, Lear and Loeb ‘would have dinner parties, and they would invite Carroll O’Connor and his wife Nancy. They would invite Jean Stapleton, who played Edith Bunker, and her husband Bill.’

Rob Reiner, who played Struthers’ TV husband, was also supposedly asked to the dinners along with his then-wife Penny Marshall.

Struthers ᴀsserted that Reiner was invited ‘because Rob was the son of Carl Reiner, who was a good friend of Norman Lear’s.’

Meanwhile, she alleged: ‘I wasn’t in eight years invited to his home,’ and as the podcast hosts expressed sympathy, she added: ‘It didn’t feel good.’

(top; left to right) Rob Reiner, Struthers, (bottom; left to right) Jean Stapleton holding Corey M Miller and Carroll O’Connor are pictured in a 1976 publicity still for All In The Family 

Lear, pictured in 2019, died in 2023 at the age of 101, after decades being hailed as a TV legend who deftly wove political issues into situation comedy 

Reiner and Struthers are pictured on an episode of All In The Family that aired in 1979, the year that she won her second Emmy Award for the series 

By the latter part of season one, All In The Family had proven itself a ratings triumph, and Struthers excitedly bounded up to Lear during a break to talk to him about it.

She noted that he had auditioned ‘so many young ladies’ for the part of Gloria, and that the final four had included Penny Marshall.

Struthers confessed she ‘didn’t even try’ during her last audition because she ᴀssumed Marshall was a shoo-in, given that her real-life husband Reiner had already been cast as Gloria’s fictional husband.

After making the admission, she asked Lear whether she had really been ‘the funniest one’ when the actresses did improvisations for their auditions.

‘And he said: “No,”‘ Struthers recalled, adding: ‘So I said: “Okay, well, wow, then why did I get it? Why am I here right now?”‘

According to Struthers, Lear replied that he and the writers decided that the show would last longer if Struthers’ character Gloria was a ‘daddy’s girl.’

Lear and his fellow writers supposedly felt Archie Bunker would be ‘a lot to swallow for the American audiences, with his bigotry and his social slurs,’ and so they wanted to ‘soften him up’ by giving him a ‘soft spot in his heart for his daughter.’

She then claimed that Lear told her: ‘So we hired you because, just like Carroll O’Connor, you have blue eyes and a fat face.’

Struthers has ᴀsserted that she had a troubled equation with Lear offscreen, and even spent $40,000 on a failed legal bid to leave his show after season five; Lear pictured in 1979 

Struthers felt that she was relegated to the position of a ‘fourth banana’ on the show whom the writers were unsure how to utilize; pictured on the show with Reiner (left) and O’Connor (right)

Struthers felt that she was relegated to the position of a ‘fourth banana’ on the show whom the writers were unsure how to utilize.

She explained that her ‘frustration in the first five seasons’ was that ‘our older, brilliant, Jewish faith writers, who knew how to write for Milton Berle and Carl Reiner and Carroll O’Connor, but they didn’t know what to do with a young lady.’

According to Struthers, she was left with ‘about three lines per show that said: “I’ll help you set the table, Ma!” “Michael, where are you going?” and: “Oh, Daddy, stop it!” And the next week I’d have the three same lines but in a different order.’

She alleged that she was so fed up she ‘hired a lawyer and tried to get off the show’ after five years, taking the matter to arbitration and spending $40,000 on legal fees in an unsuccessful bid to ‘break my contract.’

Struthers shared: ‘I lost and went back and had three more seasons, but they were by far the most fun for me’ as the writers created ‘a lot for me to do on the show.’

Ultimately Struthers won two Emmy awards for the show, one in 1972 during the early years of the show and again in 1979 after her attempt to break her contract. 

She got her own spin-off of the show, Gloria, which ran on CBS for one season and follows her character’s life after her husband leaves her for a younger woman.

More recently, she had a recurring role on Gilmore Girls and has guested on beloved shows ranging from Murder, She Wrote to American Dad.

As of last year, she has had a recurring part on the sitcom A Man On The Inside starring Ted Danson as a retired professor who becomes a private detective.