A middle-aged woman in a green patterned shirt stands indoors, accompanied by a middle-aged man wearing a blue palm tree-patterned shirt. The setting appears to be an older home interior with wooden doors and textured walls. 5:05
All In The Family channel icon All In The FamilyOriginal creator 252K views Save

Edith finds a woman's number in Archie's pocket

Edith Bunker finds another woman's phone number in Archie's pocket. She doesn't throw it at him. She asks. more

This is a 1970s episode of All in the Family, with Jean Stapleton as Edith and Carroll O'Connor as Archie, and it's not one of the funny ones. Edith is curious and she's worried, and she handles both the way she handles everything, gently.

An older man with gray hair in a patterned shirt sits indoors and looks off to one side. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Archie, caught with another woman's number, looks for a way out instead of an answer.

Archie's way out is to turn it around. She has been out of the house too much lately, he tells her, leaving him on his own, as if the number were something she had done to him. It's the oldest move there is, and plenty of fans have never forgiven him for it.

Edith picks up the phone. Just before she calls, a small smile crosses her face, as if it might still turn out to be nothing. Then she dials the number herself and finds out, and the look on her face is the one people still bring up.

A middle-aged woman in a green patterned shirt stands indoors, accompanied by a middle-aged man wearing a blue palm tree-patterned shirt. The setting appears to be an older home interior with wooden doors and textured walls. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Edith Bunker finds another woman's phone number in Archie's pocket.

She doesn't raise her voice, and she doesn't say one hurtful word to him. She just goes out of the house for a walk. The studio audience laughs in a couple of places, and many viewers wish it had kept quiet.

Archie is left alone in the house, the very thing he was complaining about. He sees his mistake and chooses Edith over the other woman, then waits for her to come home.

People who grew up with Edith will tell you she could forgive Archie almost anything. Being lied to was the exception, and that's why one phone number in his pocket hurts the way it does.