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Jamie Foxx, Marisa Tomei, and Jennifer Hudson were among the stars of ABC's live productions of Norman Lear's 1970s successes, "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons," by producer Jimmy Kimmel.
If you're lucky, it's often interesting to watch a big Broadway show at the start of the previews. It's easier to get tickets and watch stars play with the audience. Sometimes they have trouble remembering the lines. Sometimes the blockage is heavy. Sometimes, a performance is too strong or too weak or the actors do not know yet when they need to take a break to laugh. But if you are lucky, you can find a core of something big.
The experience of watching a very rough preview was mentioned several times during ABC's Wednesday night special. Live in front of a studio audience: "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons" by Norman Lear. Jimmy Kimmel's dream project, entitled "Cumbersomely", looked like a blunder of stars, at least as much as a validation of Norman Lear's timeless genius. With more time to rehearse, prepare and fine-tune, I think you would have seen interpretations more suited to the actors and less faithful to the originals. You would surely have had a tighter and more sensible timing than the stars were waiting for book for more than a day or two. But you probably would not have incited Woody Harrelson and Jamie Foxx and Will Ferrell and Marisa Tomei and Kerry Washington and Ike Barinholtz and Wanda Sykes to join forces for a television production.
My final thought was the slightly contradictory feeling that Live in front of a studio audience was imperfect and often messy and that I really hope that ABC will do it again.
The gadget, in case you missed it, was that, under the watchful eye of Lear (and under the direction of the industry's emblem, James Burrows), this set of stars was staging an episode of All in the family and an episode of The Jefferson back to back and live for the east coast. The sets of both shows were recreated with particular attention to detail, the costumes paid particular attention to the butterfly necklaces and no line of dialogue was changed. In a perfect world, this meant that younger viewers were in a hurry to go to Wikipedia to understand the strong points about Tom Bradley, Shirley Chisholm, or Lester Maddox – I guess Richard Nixon's zingers have landed pretty well without explanation – and have were simultaneously astonished at the eternity of Lear's comedy approach.
the All in the family The episode called "Henry's Farewell", attributed to Don Nicholl, and starred Archie Bunker (Harrelson) fearing to have to organize a farewell party for Henry Jefferson (Anthony Anderson), brother of neighbor George (Foxx) and his uncle to Lionel (Jovan Adepo). As usual, the episode depends on what Gloria (Ellie Kemper) and Meathead (Barinholtz) are wary of the fact that Archie will spoil the occasion with his occasional racism and that he will not go away. Edith (Tomei) is diverted, soft and vaguely disconnected.
Presumably, this half hour was chosen because of the presence of the Jefferson Clan – double up Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykes! – and for his solid encapsulation of Archie's blue-collar insecurities and their way of manifesting themselves in a jovial fanaticism, even as he is clubbed on all sides by his daughter, his son-in-law, his neighbors and the forces of progress that make everyone around him grin each time he refers to the "colored". From the despicable dismissal of an unpopular president to talk about wage differences based on race and sex to a deconstruction of the reason why America could have, in the 1970s, felt more ready to take on a black chair that a woman in the White House, it was a solidly selected script.
It might have worked better with a better Archie or rather with a better design of how to approach Archie. Archie Bunker must have his own gravitational force, because every other character in the series only makes sense as an emanation of Archie's grandiosity. Harrelson's interpretation was halfway through the print, mostly an inconsistent and exaggerated emphasis and a lot of hand gestures and an unmotivated stammering, but none of the required size. Given more time, I guess Burrows, who worked with Harrelson has an exceptional effect on Cheers, could have pushed him to the good performance. Instead, Harrelson's work, and perhaps all of it All in the family episode, culminated with a wonderfully quirky rendition of the theme song.
For me, Edith is mainly credible as an answer to the two-part question "What kind of woman would be married to Archie Bunker for several decades and what would it do for her?" With an ill-defined Archie, Tomei sets out on an island to give an epic, if not always explicable, impression of Jean Stapleton who has made me laugh many times with his vibrant and offbeat madness. Tomei stole the episode in a way that was probably not ideal. Playing mainly against each other rather than Harrelson, Kemper and Barinholtz each had good moments.
The episode really came to life when Sykes and Foxx arrived as Weezy and George. Foxx accepted all the makeup and hair ornaments that Harrelson had clearly rejected, and his George looked like a sketched version of Sherman Hemsley, but it was still a representation of a force of the nature of a kind that could cause all other actors in the room. to disappear, were Sykes not his equal. This interaction, which has continued throughout the Jeffersons This episode perfectly illustrates what was missing from Edith and Archie.
Honestly, the Jeffersons The episode probably could have stopped with Jennifer Hudson's interpretation of "Movin 'On Up," a staunch tribute to a classic in which the audience applauds, though against the rhythm .
the Jeffersons choice, written by Barry Harman and Harve Brosten, could have been less "current" than the All in the family episode, but I was struck by the way he provided a critique of the intersection of race and class that was tighter than anything in a current show trying to do comparable things, like CBS & # 39; The neighborhood. A conversation between Helen of Washington and Tom de Ferrell about how, despite their mutual love and admiration, tacit racist insults can hide from one fight, seemed like something you would never see today, because a network would be afraid to dig so deeply. This has helped Washington and Ferrell be in top shape, with a small sitcom width and the suggestion of real feelings.
The rhythm of the Jeffersons the episode was way better than that of All in the family, or maybe it's just that I appreciated the effectiveness of Foxx and Sykes. Add size captions like Jackée Harry and the great Marla Gibbs, and this has become a multicam master class. Adepo was great in both episodes. With that, When they see us and Sorry for your loss to his credit, the Leftovers veteran is on the verge of a massive escape (if he is not already there).
Whatever broadcast is chosen, I would like ABC to do this kind of thing two or three times a year. I would prefer that future payments spread a little more direct copies of the original sitcoms. Keep the exact scripts, but turn some roles into characters and see what other colors you can extract from text.
Give me the Maude abortion episode with Allison Janney. But that is too obvious. Do not stop there. Give me one Family ties episode with Timothy Chalamet in the role of Alex P. Keaton. Give me Taxi with Tiffany Haddish as Latka.
Bring it on!
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