IIRC, Carroll O'Connor was furious for two reasons: 1) CBS moved production of "Gloria" from CBS Television City to Universal Studios (which, to me, was a mistake, as it seems most of the Lear/Embassy shows suffered once they relocated to Universal with their cheap-ass lighting and canned-sounding laugh tracks); and 2) he, along with the rest of the "Archie Bunker's Place" staff, including Norman Lear, was shut out, in favor of Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall, who had worked previously on "WKRP in Cincinnati." All that, plus CBS' decision to cancel ABP without giving them an opportunity to tape a proper series finale, had O'Connor vowing never to work again for CBS (although, he would, years later, when CBS picked up "In the Heat of the Night").
In a way, Linda Lavin was right: "Alice" was aging and probably lasted a season or two longer than it should, but all those scheduling changes did weaken the show, too.
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Khan ·
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