If Archie ever watched a few minutes of any Anime, he would go berserk!
The package Archie was supposed to send to London, Ontario, was a Secret Test of Character.
Archie loses his Chistmas bonus when he ships a parcel to London, England when it was supposed to go to London, Ontario.The package was used as a Secret Test of Character to see how intelligent he is, based on whether or not he would ask which London.
Archie and Mike were trolling each other, and neither one of them ever caught on.
Funny how Archie's prejudices and neuroses drastically lightened up after the kids moved to California. It's also worth noting that Mike isn't nearly as soapboxey, radical, and unbearable in scenes/episodes that didn't include Archie. The explanation? Neither one of them were as extreme as they were made out to be...one just enjoyed pushing the other's buttons, never realizing they were both doing the same thing.- Fridge Brilliance?
- That isn't a bad theory, but personally I think that while Archie was probably pushing Mike's buttons some of the time, I don't think it went in the other direction. Mike was just too uptight and sensitive to pull something like that off. (Contrast it with Lionel's easygoing mockery of Archie.) I don't agree that Mike was less soapboxey, radical, and unbearable when Archie wasn't present; look, for instance, at his behavior in "The Games Bunkers Play," where he has a total meltdown in front of his family and friends while Archie is at the bar.
Archie was a Democrat prior to the 1960s.
- Being a working-class bigot, it is hard to imagine that Archie would’ve been a Republican in the 40s and 50s. Edith even noted that he referred to Richard Nixon as “Tricky Dicky” during the 1960 election. This adds an element of ironic humor to his political arguments with Mike.
- More evidence of this shows up in "Cousin Maude's Visit." When Archie deliberately hits Maude's Berserk Button by saying "This country was RUINED by FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT!", she angrily points out that "his whole family was for Roosevelt," with Archie countering "for the first two terms." So he at the very least grew up with parents who voted Democrat.
Mike Stivic was a stoner
The series is set in the 1970s and first aired in 1971 - so we're still in the thick of the Vietnam War, and hippies abound. Meathead's all about the peace and love movement, he's just a short haired hippie if you can imagine such a thing. And he's hungry all the time. Mike was easily a connoisseur of what was then some of the finest Oaxacan Tops, getting Manhattan Sewer Silver when he could get it, and that insane appetite of his is just the munchies. Dude was high, man.