Television: Rerun Revival

A slew of video and cable options is turning the tube into a pop-culture history classroom

When All In The Family's Carroll O'Connor died last month, it was a great loss for TV. And a great gain. In the brutal summer of Fear Factor, America was actually talking about TV, the medium it loves to hate itself for loving. O'Connor's Archie Bunker, the consensus went, helped America make sense of a period of social turmoil in a way no news report ever could. In a way, O'Connor's media wake even outstripped that for Jack Lemmon, who died less than a week later, though TV actors usually land far lower on St. Peter's It List. Lemmon was praised...

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