This first episode of a three-part story arc finds Edith preparing for a Tupperware party while Archie is away attending a lodge convention in Buffalo. The tranquil mood in the Bunker household is shattered when Archie fails to call Edith as he promised, leading Edith, Mike, and Gloria to worry that Archie has met with an accident. Written by Barry Harman and Harve Brosten and originally broadcast on November 2, 1974, "Where's Archie?" was taped at the beginning of All in the Family's fourth season to compensate for Carroll O'Connor's walkout due to a salary dispute. Reportedly, producer Norman Lear intended to kill off Archie if negotiations with O'Connor fell through. As it turned out, the "death of Archie" episode was rewritten as an installment of the Lear-produced Good Times when star John Amos left that series.
