Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994 TAG: 9403120216
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Christy Slewinski New York Daily News
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Apparently, in an age when Roseanne Arnold gets kissed in a gay bar, PBS' "Tales of the City" offers prime-time pot-smoking and homosexual love scenes and "NYPD Blue" flashes bare butts and ample breasts on a frequent basis, an impending interracial wedding involving television's best-loved bigot isn't a big deal.
"I don't know why it hasn't been noticed (by the media)," series star Carroll O'Connor said recently. "We do get a lot of mail on it, though. A lot of people don't like it, a lot of people do."
In May, O'Connor's character, once-racist Southern sheriff Bill Gillespie, will tie the knot with black city councilwoman Harriet DeLong (Denise Nicholas).
And, let's face it, what makes the relationship even more ironic (from a television-history point of view, anyway) is that O'Connor's most famous role is that of "All in the Family's" irritable, prejudiced, blue-collar lambaster Archie Bunker.
The interracial relationship - which began when "In the Heat of the Night" aired on NBC, and continued after the show's move to CBS two seasons ago - has been allowed to develop at its own pace.
"We play it the way people are in life," said O'Connor, pointing out that the focus is on the emotional, not physical, aspect of the relationship.
"I don't like to go into the heavy stuff, because I think it's silly for an old man like me to be a great lover," said the 69-year-old actor. "Although we do, as they say, what comes natural."
O'Connor's hoping to take the veteran series, now airing Wednesdays at 9 ET p.m., into an eighth season next fall. Even though the show - which also stars Carl Weathers and O'Connor's son, Hugh - usually hovers between No. 40 and No. 50 in the Nielsen's rankings, it has attracted and held on to a wide-range of loyal viewers.
"We were never a big hit, but we were liked," O'Connor said. "We were just a nice successful show from the beginning, and we've stayed that way."
O'Connor says that he relates more to Gillespie than he ever did to Archie Bunker.
Prior to World War II, O'Connor, a former English teacher, attended school in the South and grew to appreciate the Southern lifestyle, and feels at home taping "In the Heat of the Night" in and around Covington, Ga.
He also admits that he enjoys working more on "In the Heat of the Night" than he did on "All in the Family." It doesn't hurt that this time around, he's the show's executive producer and head writer.
"It's easier," O'Connor said, "being a boss than being bossed."
by CNB