Tuesday 20 June 2023

Four Double Pinwheels

 


All in the Family was a TV series which first aired January 12, 1971. It featured Archie Bunker, a loud-mouthed bigot, and his long-suffering wife, Edith. Most of the show took place in the Bunker’s living room, where two very used mismatched chairs stood. These chairs were purchased for the pilot episode from a southern California second-hand shop for less than $20. At the end of the show’s eighth (and presumably final) season, both chairs were donated to the Smithsonian Institute. And then the network ordered a ninth season. The chairs couldn’t be retrieved from the Smithsonian, and it was unthinkable to film a whole season without them. A mill was found in England to reproduce the chairs’ original fabrics. Both chairs were painstakingly remade, and then were distressed so they wouldn’t look new. The cost of the new chairs was more than $15,000 in 1978 – nearly $70,000 in today’s money.

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