Rob Reiner’s Favorite ‘All in the Family’ Moment Was Improvised
- - Rob Reiner’s Favorite ‘All in the Family’ Moment Was Improvised
Victoria MillerDecember 15, 2025 at 7:30 PM
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Photo by CBS Photo Archive on Getty Images
Rob Reiner once shared a story about one of his favorite moments from All in the Family—and how it came to be. The beloved film producer, director, screenwriter writer and actor first found fame in his early twenties playing Mike “Meathead” Stivic, the son-in-law of Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor) on the CBSsitcom from 1971 to 1978.
All in the Family had many memorable episodes, but one scene stood out to Reiner as his all-time favorite—and it wasn’t even part of the script.
In a 2019 interview with Sirius XM host John Fugelsang, Reiner recalled the famous scene he played alongside O’Connor in which they debated the correct way to put on socks and shoes.
“Most people come up to me after over 200 shows, they'll say the scene I remember most is when you and Archie discussed how you put socks and shoes on,” Reiner shared. “And we had this scene that just happened in improv, it was improvised. I was putting my socks and shoes on, he walked in and he goes, ‘What are you doing?’ And this was all improvised. He said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘What do you mean, what am I doing?’ He says, ‘Yeah, you don't put your socks and shoes on like that.' I say, ‘What are you talking about?’ He says, ‘You don't put a sock and a shoe and a sock, you put a sock and a sock and a shoe and a shoe.’ And we just improvised the whole thing, and it became to something that was in the show.”
The shoe etiquette scene that Reiner referred to was from the Season 4 episode “Gloria Sings the Blues.” The "sock-sock-shoe-shoe" argument was ad-libbed into a script in which Reiner’s TV wife, Gloria (Sally Struthers), questioned their relationship.
Reiner said the scene was sparked by the real way he put on his socks and shoes.
“When people approach me on the street, this is the one scene they all remember from All in the Family of the over 200 shows, and this actually happened in rehearsals. We improvised this,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Carroll walked in and saw me putting my, and that's the way I do it, I put my sock, you see, I put a sock and then a shoe and then a sock and then a shoe.”
The actor added that there are “more people sock and shoe, sock and shoe than you think.”
The Sock-Shoe-Scene Wasn’t the Only Scene That Was Improvised on ‘All in the Family’
In the interview with Fugelsang, Reiner also shared a behind-the-scenes memory that involved improvising with the core cast, which also included Jean Stapleton as matriarch Edith Bunker.
“I also remember, and this was really extraordinary, we have become such a tight unit after eight years,” Reiner said. “What we do is every Friday night we tape the show in front of a live audience. We do a show at 5:30 and then we do some notes, and when we get another audience in and we do another one at 8 o'clock.”
Reiner noted that typically producers would “take the best of both shows” and cut it together. But he recalled, “After the 5:30 show one time, the first act, the first half of the sho,w it died. I mean, there was nothing. It was just a bomb, and we thought, 'What are we gonna do?'”
“The four of us got together and started improvising the opening act, the first act, and the writers are writing it down, and we're scribbling it, and we learned it," Reiner shared. "And we went in front of the 8 o'clock show, and we just did it and it worked. That is something I'll never ever forget because it only works after eight years and a tight-knit [cast].”
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This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
