Meathead: The Real Douchebag?

Been on an All in the Family run lately, which reminds me of this post I wrote almost a decade ago:

One interesting thing about All in the Family is that we're all supposed to laugh knowingly whenever Meathead puts Archie in his place for being intolerant/racist etc. But in the spinoff show Gloria, we learn that Mike ditched his wife & kid and ran off with some flower girl hippy chick. This, of course, after Gloria supported him for five years while he was in college. So maybe Mike was the douchebag. Hmm. I am a fascinating cat.