He was originally portrayed by D'Urville Martin for two unaired pilots, before the role was recast with Mike Evans.

[2] Jovan Adepo portrayed the character for the television special Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons.

As such, Lionel often enjoys patronizing Archie's attitudes by playing dumb in conversations and adopting a stereotypical speech pattern (saying things like "I'm gon' be a 'lectical engineer!"

Lionel finally tells Archie off (albeit calmly), but also lets him know that they can remain friends.

Mike Evans returned to the series in September 1979 and appeared regularly as Lionel for two more seasons.