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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