Video: 'All in the Family S1 E01 - Meet the Bunkers'

(Tuesday, January 12, 1971, 9:30-10:00 p.m. EST) — All in the Family, an American sitcom television series about about a working-class white family living in Queens, New York, debuted tonight on CBS.

Produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, the series starred Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers and Rob Reiner.

The show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for a U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, antisemitism, infidelity, homosexuality, women’s liberation, rape, religion, miscarriages, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause and impotence.

Through depicting these controversial issues, the series became arguably one of television’s most influential comedic programs, as it injected the sitcom format with more dramatic moments and realistic, topical conflicts.