by Hal Erickson
synopsis
It could only happen to Archie Bunker: He's trapped in a stalled elevator with a prickly black attorney named Thompson (Roscoe Lee Browne), a ditzy secretary named Miss McCarthy (Eileen Brennan), and a pregnant, monolingual Puerto Rican woman (Edith Diaz). Things take an even dicier turn when Mrs. Mendoza goes into labor! The touching final scene was the result of on-set improvisation; star Carroll O'Connor felt that the scene as written was in poor taste, and threatened to walk off the show unless something new was added. A young Hector Elizondo rounds out the cast (and further crowds the elevator) as excitable janitor and father-to-be Señor Mendoza. Written by Alan J. Levitt, "The Elevator Story" first aired on January 1, 1972.
