4 students are killed. ethan alter: but some people didn't want to hide from what was happening. drew carey: people were like, no, we want to hear about all this stuff and how it's affecting our families. that's when shows like all in the family came on. ethan alter: norman lear was at the beginning of his career and was looking to find a show that he could really make his own and he was turned on to a british series called 'til death do us part'. norman lear: it was about a bigoted father and i was said holy moly. that was the way i grew up, and i knew i had a show. crew: air pilot. take one. ethan alter: they shot the pilot at abc. it featured carroll o'connor and jean stapleton as archie and edith bunker. actor 1: we just don't see any evidence, of god... alright? actress 1: that's right daddy. archie: i know we had a couple of pinkos in the house but i didn't know we had a pair of atheists. ethan alter: it was not well received by abc. they watched it and felt the chemistry wasn't there between the parents and the kids. norman lear: and then asked me to make it again