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Where did you hear that? It’s pretty clear that Archie was the focal point. O’Connor and Stapleton got top billing.

I've heard/read it a number of places over the years. TV trivia books, etc.

Yes, O'Connor and Stapleton got top billing. But the plot was supposed to be about two "modern" (read: Liberal) young adults having to confront, daily, their completely backward and out of touch (read: Conservative) parents/in-laws. Meathead and Gloria were SUPPOSED to be the sympathetic ones, even if they were the supporting characters. But it didn't turn out that way.

Indeed. This is quite evident when one views the first, initial episodes (including the pilots). Archie Bunker was meant to be an unlikeable, unsympathetic lout, and Mike-Gloria the ‘enlightened’ youth. But O’Connor’s talent made his character so three-diminsional, and the audiences felt more empathy for him as a traditionalist (if not necessarily for his bigotry) than the whiney smugness of the Mike-Gloria youth generation.

I have no doubt that Norman Lear was not happy about this twist of events... but since the show was booming into a huge hit, Lear just rode with it and profited with it.