All in the family is an absolute classic in the ever — but unaccountably — popular sitcom genre of obnoxious people being terrible to each other. In this episode, for example, you may, at first, be inclined to sympathise with Mike,1 who gets his sandwich grabbed out of his hand for not immediately providing gratifying answers to silly questions about idiotic hypotheticals. But for the rest of the episode he is so full of himself it’s a wonder he doesn’t explode, so maybe you would sympathise with his wife Gloria.
On the other hand, Mike is trying to play chess with his friend, while Gloria is constantly interrupting them. So maybe Mike is the lesser evil after all. But perhaps it is actually the director we should sympathise with, since he is smart and kind enough to show a beautiful clear shot of the board.
The position is this one:2
Black puts his opponent out of his misery with Qd2. To Mike, who is playing white, this comes as an absolute shock. Who would have thought of checking the coordination between the two active black pieces? Who could have thought that black, who is a queen, a bishop, two knights, and two pawns up, could be winning?
When Mike says he’s going to college, I suspect he just drives to the campus, has a nice coffee with a muffin, and drives back. Normally, I would complain about nobody being this moronic, but it is acknowledged in universe that he is, and I quote, the worst.
Realism: 3/5 This is quite plausible. Normally, one would expect black to be better developed, but he’s been too busy snacking on white pieces.
Probable winner: Black. For the third time already, apparently.
1. [You may, ahem, like Mike.] ↩
2. [It’s all in the diagram editor.] ↩