704 Hauser was born during the rise of the 90s conservative era, and while left wing activist producer Norman Lear sought to perhaps sway some ratings by offering a very rare but somewhat honest glimpse of a conservative character on TV, Lear's liberal leanings overrode his ability to give a sincere portrayal of such and the show went down in flames after a mere handful of epidodes. Unlike All in the Family, where the blue collar union Democrat was always wrong and portrayed as an ignorant, bigoted veteran fighting against the social changes taking place around him while such arbiters of such change were always correct and common sensical, 704 is the complete opposite, with the head of the household as the hero who is correct in his beliefs that things haven't improved, while his consetvative Republican son is now the one out of touch.
It has been over ten years since I saw the first episode but I remember it well. I found it pretentious to have Archie Bunker's grandson Joey Stivic come to the house for no apparent reason and found it absurd that, after explaining who he was, he is invited into the kitchen to help himself to anything he wants to eat.
The ridiculous thing about this show was that John Amos, newly popularized by his daddy role in Coming to America, played the father - the show was based on the sketchy premise that a black, politically conscious family moves into the Bunker's old house. That's quite believable - but then what are the odds that a man who looks and acts EXACTLY like James Evans from Good Times, a spin-off of Maude, which was a spin-off of All In The Family, itself would exist in that very same world that we were supposed to believe to be the same one from the 70s?
The cast is a very good cast with some decent performances by the always dependable John Amos (Good Times) and a then-unknown Maura Tierney who has been good in shows like "News Radio". The problem is that the show is somewhat superficial in the creation of its characters.
