Product Details

• Format: Color, EP, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: November 24, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B00000GKO8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,949 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While many of All in the Family's laughs arose from self-righteous Mike Stivic's exchanges with cantankerous Archie, Mike's own wife Gloria often gave him a pretty good run for his money. The three-episode collection Hot Pants Vs. Meathead features two gems along this theme.

The first episode, however, is Archie's showcase. In "Judging Books by Covers," the fourth episode of the show's first season in 1970-71, Archie finds that Mike's effeminate intellectual friend Roger is, shockingly enough, not gay. Archie's jockish bar buddy Steve, on the other hand, is a different story. In "Gloria Discovers Women's Lib," Mike and Gloria find that their ideas of equality aren't exactly... equal. When Gloria gets so hot under the collar about it that she takes off for awhile, Archie finds he's lost a daughter and gained a meathead. The couple make up, but it certainly isn't the last time in the series that Mike proves to be a little less liberal than he fancies himself.

Take "Gloria Poses in the Nude," for instance. Mike's blasé attitude about his wife spending several unchaperoned hours in the buff with an artist friend doesn't last under the force of Archie's constant ridicule. The episode features a hilarious bit in which everyman Archie is faced with abstract painting's disdain for anatomical accuracy. Not that he's too comfortable with realistic interpretations of the nude form either. In response to Gloria's claim that nudity is one of the most natural things in the world, he responds, "So is throwin' up, but I don't wanna look at it." --Bob Michaels

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Archie and the Meathead learn they might be wrong..., June 24, 2001

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All in the Family - Hot Pants Vs. Meathead [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In this trio of episodes from "All in the Family" it is not only Archie's conservatism but also Mike's liberal views that are sorely tested. In "Judging Books by Covers" (Episode #5 February 9 1971) Archie assumes that because Mike's friend Roger is intellectual and somewhat effeminate, he must be gay. But it turns out that while Roger is straight, Steve, the manly guy down at the bar, is not. The other two episodes on this tape bring the battle of the sexes to the Bunker household as Gloria sorely tried Mike's liberal views. In "Gloria Discovers Women's Lib" (#11 March 23 1971) Archie's daughter discovers that Mike's views on sexual equality are not what she expected. As a result, she leaves home for a while and Archie is mad that the wrong person in the marriage left his home. Then there is "Gloria Poses in the Nude" (#15 25 September 1971), where Gloria agrees to be painted by one of Mike's friends. Archie is dead set against the idea, Edith is embarrassed, and Mike keeps telling himself he does not mind. Yeah, right. One of the nice things about these three episodes from early in "All in the Family," is that they remind you that even from the start the show skewered Liberal views as well as Conservative as both Archie and Mike have their beliefs punctured by friends and family alike. All three episodes also contain great ensemble work by the talented cast, led by the late Carroll O'Connor.