All in the Family, with fellow CBS series The Mary Tyler Moore Show and M*A*S*H, redefined the American situation comedy in the early 1970s. Based on the hit British show Till Death Us Do Part, All in the Family introduced social realism and controversy, conveyed in frank language, to the American sitcom while retaining the genre's core domestic family and revisiting its early blue-collar milieu. That generic reconstruction proved to be as popular as it was innovative: It was number one in the Nielsen ratings for its first five full years on the air and ranked out of the Top 20 only once in its 12-year broadcast life. At the same time, it created a long and occasionally vituperative discussion over the propriety of racism, sexism, religious bias, and politics as the situation of a half-hour comedy.

All in the...