It’s kinda funny that the show was written with Mike Stivic being the hero, and Archie being his bigoted and racist father-in-law as the heel.

Instead the audience related to Archie far more than Michael, so their roles reversed. Archie became the lovable old guy who had some old-fashioned Irish thoughts due to the era he grew up in, but was otherwise just a nice guy. People saw authenticity in that role that they didn’t see in Meathead.