Those Were the Days : 20th Anniversary Party for ‘All in the Family’ Brings Out the Stars

The Scene: The party Columbia Pictures Television and CBS threw Monday for “All in the Family’s” 20th anniversary retrospective, which will air Saturday night on CBS. It was held at Carroll O’Connor’s Place (formerly the Ginger Man Restaurant) in Beverly Hills. “It’s more difficult to run a restaurant than do a sitcom,” said O’Connor. “You meet more crazy people in the restaurant business.”

Who Was There: The show’s stars--O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers--plus 300 guests. Among them were Columbia Pictures Television Chairman Gary Lieberthal, CBS Entertainment President Jeff Sagansky, Billy Crystal, Valerie Bertinelli, Bonnie Franklin, MacKenzie Phillips, Bernadette Peters, and veterans of four shows spun off from “All in the Family.”

These included Bea Arthur, Conrad Bain, Adrienne Barbeau, Bill Macy and Rue McClanahan of “Maude;” Marla Gibbs of “The Jeffersons”; Esther Rolle and Ja’net Dubois of “Good Times,” and Denise Miller and Danielle Brisebois of “Archie Bunker’s Place.” The five shows produced 830 episodes, “all of which went into syndication,” said Lieberthal. “Which is why I’m living well.”

The Buzz: The continued speculation in the trade papers that Castle Rock Entertainment, in which Rob Reiner is a partner, might buy Orion Pictures. Irony: Archie gets a restaurant, but Meathead could end up owning Orion. Financial Reality: Castle Rock might someday end up running Orion, but nothing is going to happen soon. Really. Straight from the horse’s mouth.

Dress Mode: The kind of serious suits that serious men who make serious money syndicating TV comedy shows wear to the office.

Key Noun Used as Verb: Deficited . The cost of making a TV show that the network doesn’t cover. As in a producer saying: “I deficited that show for eight years. Now it’s going into syndication and I’m going to make some serious money.”

Chow: Trays passed with pizza, baby lamb chops and egg rolls. Plus buffets with baked brie, desserts and one table with a selection of Hostess Twinkies. These were in honor of the treat Edith placed in Archie’s lunch box. The Twinkies were admired, but no one risked the horrible social consequences that might come from actually biting into one.

Quoted: “When I was young I promised myself I would never get old and say ‘those were the good old days,’ ” said Jean Stapleton. “Tonight I’m going to do that. Those were the good old days.”