With Archie Bunker's place, Carroll O'Connor had much more creative control than he did on All in the Family... too bad he didn't have Jean, Sally and Rob to back him up, with the exception of a 2 part episode. Rob Reiner was supposedly reluctant to return, but being newly divorced, he needed the money.
The post-Edith episodes are much more maudlin than the first season, and it's depressing to see a sadder Archie. We saw much less of 704 Hauser St., and when it was shown, it looked a lot darker and emptier.
About a year before it was cancelled, Sally Struthers, who really had nothing better lined up, was talked into doing a spin off featuring her Gloria character, now separated from Mike Stivic.
Before the show was cancelled, there was talk of possibly having Rob Reiner return occasionally as Mike, but Rob had become an established director and had no desire to reprise Meathead.
Gloria was now a veterinary assistant, and the trainer from Rocky was the veterinarian that let her sleep in an extra room in his house where his practice was.
Unfortunately, not enough people were interested in seeing a single Gloria, who had matured since the original series. I saw the first show, and thought the show was awkward. It was an attempt to show a single woman struggling to make it on her own (and that's been done before, what, at least a couple times...Mary Tyler Moore, That Girl)
