Season 8 - Episode Guide

Kelsey has a heart attack, and decides to retire and sell the bar to the first person who can come up with $40,000. Archie is more than eager to buy it and quit his job, but must put his house at risk to get a loan, something that Edith is dead set against.

Edith is upset when she discovers Archie has forged her signature to get the bar. But Mike will influence Mrs. Bunker to change her mind.

Archie and Edith attend the funeral of Edith's unmarried cousin Liz. While Archie is obsessed with possibility of Edith inheriting her money and silverware, Edith has to convince him why she won't be taking any of it after she has a revealing conversation with Liz's longtime roommate, Veronica.

Archie leaves Edith by herself when he goes to Mike and Gloria's house to help them prepare for her surprise 50th birthday party. She is visited by a man posing as a police detective but quickly finds herself in a life threatening situation.

The family tries to convince Edith to cooperate in the investigation of her assailant and delicately help her through the lasting effects of her traumatic experience. However, it soon become obvious that it's going to take tough love to make a break through.

Edith puts her foot down when Archie demands that she cancel a planned wedding in their house for an elderly couple from the Sunshine Home that conflicts with their scheduled departure for a fishing trip with Barney. However, this doesn't stop Archie from scheming in an attempt to get his way.

Archie is excited for his grand opening, and calls in sick to work yet again so he can be there. The night starts off on a bad note when Harry and Carlos quit due to Archie's unrefined management skills, and things only go downhill when he is forced to turn to his inexperienced family members for help.

Archie becomes stressed out and depressed because his new bar is having trouble attracting customers, his friends have deserted him, and he is being hounded by a bill collector. Hank Pivnik convinces him to take amphetamine pills to help pick up his spirits, which only creates a succession of increasingly worse problems.

Archie breaks his pill habit, but remains in bed depressed and refuses to go back to the bar. His family tries to convince him that his only option to avoid losing the house is to apologize to Harry and make him his business partner.

A power outage and reports of looting in the city prompt Mike to write a letter to the editor about how greedy governments do the same in the name of free enterprise. At the bar, Archie vents his frustrations about how Mike always argues his point and doesn't see things his way. Two men - who have been listening in - approach Archie and suggest that he come to a meeting of the Kweens Kouncil of Krusaders (a chapter of the Klu Klux Klan), where they will come up with a more severe way of "teaching" Mike a lesson.

Archie comes to grips with the fact he just unwittingly joined the KKK and agreed to help them burn five crosses, including one on the Stivics' front lawn. He is compelled to take preemptive action when Mike and Gloria prohibit him from seeing Joey after learning what he's done.

Gloria gets a letter from her friend Debbie Ballantine, who was responsible for arranging a blind date between Gloria and Mike. Gloria recounts the story of what happened that night, when Archie and Edith left her home alone to visit Edith's Aunt Iola.

Edith is thrilled when her good friend, female impersonator Beverley LeSalle, pays a visit and announces she will be playing Carnegie Hall after Christmas. Mike offers to walk her to a cab on his way to the store to buy a new star for the Christmas tree, but tragedy results when they encounter a couple of muggers.

On Christmas Day, Edith becomes despondent and feels betrayed by God as she mourns the death of Beverly. However, she is encouraged to see the situation differently by the seemingly most unexpected person.

During a trip to the Laundromat, Edith is chosen to star in a commercial for "New and Improved Sunny Suds" detergent. Archie is elated at the prospect of the money she could earn, but becomes frustrated when her honest nature threatens to ruin her opportunity.

In anticipation of a large crowd at the bar for Super Bowl Sunday, Archie hires "Boom Boom" Turner as a waitress, rents a large screen projector, and organizes a $500 pool for the game. Unfortunately, everyone finds at the game's conclusion that two of the men in the crowd weren't there just to watch the game.

Edith's Aunt Iola has spent the past two weeks with the Bunkers and Archie is eager to get her out of his house as she prepares to depart and spend two weeks with Cousin Sydney. When Sydney calls and says he can't take Iola, a big fight ensues after Archie insists Iola move into the Sunshine retirement home even though she is healthy and he has a spare bedroom.

The local butcher has developed a crush on Edith, who resembles his recently deceased wife, and has been giving her special deals on meat to keep her coming into his shop. While Archie initially thinks he's harmless, he has a change of attitude after learning that Barney has just lost his wife to another man.

Archie and Mike become locked in the storeroom at the bar while moving empty beer bottles. They decide to start drinking the alcohol to pass the time, which results in them having an intimate conversation about Archie's childhood.

Mike and Gloria have dinner at a Japanese restaurant to celebrate their friends' seventh anniversary together as a passionate, yet unmarried couple. The experience causes them to acknowledge the sad state of their own marriage, and they decide to spend the weekend at a Pocono resort in an attempt to reignite their passion for each other.

Archie's brother Alfred shows up at the Bunker doorstep after being estranged for twenty-nine years. Archie becomes enraged and refuses to reconcile, but reconsiders when he reads the contents of a letter that Alfred gave him and told him not to read until three weeks after he left.

Archie is devastated when he learns that the Stivic's will be moving to California in two weeks after Mike accepts an offer to become an associate professor in Santa Barbara. A visit from George Jefferson makes his day even worse.

On the Stivics' last night in New York, Mike accepts a short notice invitation to have dinner with his new superior, who happens to be in town. This creates an awkward and potentially explosive situation since Edith has been busy preparing a special farewell dinner for them.

In an effort to erase the memory of last night's fighting and create a lasting positive memory before the Stivics depart for California, Gloria and Edith convince their husbands to renew their respective wedding vows in the presence of a minister.