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Alexsander Stivic (uncle) Michael Casimir "Mike" Stivic is a fictional character played by Rob Reiner on the 1970s American television sitcom All in the Family. He is the live-in son-in-law of the series' lead character, Archie Bunker, who frequently calls him "Meathead". Michael is the husband of Archie's daughter Gloria (played by Sally ...
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Michael Casimir "Meathead" Stivic is a fictional character on the American sitcom All in the Family, played by Rob Reiner.
Brother in Law of Elijah Ray Sanders
Michael Stivic was a supporting character in All in the Family, a long running American television sitcom of the 1970s. He was the fictional live-in son-in-law of the series's lead role, the bigoted and undereducated Archie Bunker, and husband of Archie's daughter Gloria. Actor and later director Rob Reiner played the role of Michael Stivic throughout the series.
The character of Michael Stivic is an Americanized version of the British original: Til Death Us Do Part's Mike, the Trotskyist "randy Scouse git" who aroused the passionate ire of his arch-conservative father-in-law Alf Garnett. For the American version of this character, the Trotskyist angle was drastically softened. Michael Stivic's first meeting with Archie (seen in a flashback) showed him to be a bearded hippie with a tie-dyed shirt. However, his wardrobe throughout most of the series was much more subdued; most often he wore a denim shirt, jeans, and boots. He shaved his beard for his wedding with Gloria, but kept his mustache and wore his hair well below the collar. (As Reiner was losing his hair very rapidly early on in the series, he began wearing a toupee when playing his character.) Michael was seen as a representative of the counterculture of the 1960s (reflecting what were then current events during the period in which the show was broadcast), though unlike his hippie friends, he was a dedicated academic.
Michael Stivic was a Polish-American from Chicago (despite Rob Reiner's New York accent, which made him refer to "Archie" as Awch rather than Arch). He was orphaned at a young age, but the viewer does not find out how.
Exacerbating the conflicts between the graduate student Michael and his father-in-law Archie Bunker, was the fact that for much of the television series, these two characters live under the same roof. This proximity means that the tensions between these seemingly diametrically opposed people result in endless arguments over the simplest of topics.
As the character developed, however, it becomes clear that he and Archie are not entirely dissimilar. Just as Archie Bunker is a satire of arch-conservative attitudes, within the context of the show Michael's character is a critique of the limits of liberalism, especially in the sex-based hierarchy of marriage. Michael's treatment of his wife Gloria (played by Sally Struthers) is repeatedly called to account for his sense of superiority over her. This means that as much as the conflicts between Archie and Michael represent conflicts between "modern" liberalism and "old-fashioned" conservatism, the conflicts between the Stivics also serve to illuminate the close similarities between the liberal patriarch, Michael, and the conservative patriarch, Archie. All these themes were carried over from Till Death Us Do Part.
In the episode titled Everybody Tells the Truth, Archie and Michael are shown to be alike in that both of them are not above twisting the truth to suit their own racial stereotypes. He also had two uncles named Alex and Casimir.
1.Interview titled "5 minutes with Rob Reiner", dating 2003 by Ivor Davis in the Manila Times.
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Two years later, Reiner became famous playing Michael Stivic, Archie Bunker's liberal son-in-law, on Norman Lear's 1970s situation comedy All in the Family, which was inspired by the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part. It was the most-watched television program in the United States for five seasons (1971–1976).
Michael Casimir "Mike" Stivic on the CBS-TV series All in the Family was the live-in son-in-law of the series' lead character Archie Bunker, who frequently called him "Meathead". Michael was the husband of Archie's daughter Gloria (played by Sally Struthers). The role of Mike Stivic was played throughout the series by Rob Reiner (son of comedian Carl Reiner). The character of Michael Stivic is ...
Rob Reiner as Michael "Meathead" Stivic: Gloria's Polish-American hippie husband is part of the counterculture of the 1960s. While good-hearted and well-meaning, he constantly spars with Archie, and is equally stubborn, although his moral views are generally presented as being more ethical and his logic somewhat sounder.
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Rob Reiner Biography. Rob Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, and writer best known for his role as Michael Stivic on All in the Family (1971–1979), a role that earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s.
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May 9, 2024 · Rob Reiner (born March 6, 1947, Bronx, New York, U.S.) is an American actor and director known especially for his role as Michael (“Meathead”) Stivic in the television series All in the Family (1971–79) and for his direction of such culturally resonant films as This Is Spinal Tap (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally ...
