Each return of a classic television series makes me worry about the future of original material that doesn’t involve superheroes, the supernatural, or battles in mythical kingdom.
Coming up soon, at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, is a biggie, a genuine television event, ABC’s one-night-only live update of two breakthrough Norman Lear series, “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” (originally seen back-to-back Saturday nights on CBS as tasty appetizers for Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, and Carol Burnett’s shows.)
Lear is among the folks bringing this revival – I loathe the word “reboot” – to us. With him as producer on a major scale is ABC late-night talk host, Jimmy Kimmel, and in a smaller role, Will Ferrell, who will appear in “The Jeffersons” as the neighbor, Tom Willis, played in the original series by Franklin Cover. Lear and Kimmel are hosts of the ABC presentation.
Seeing what Lear and Kimmel create spurs great curiosity. It also gives me mixed feelings.
Some entities are perfect as they are. The images, voices, and characterizations on both “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” are so indelible, I shudder at seeing them imitated or reproduced.
Which triggers my first question, whether these shows will be approached as if they have never been done before or if Lear and Kimmel have a kind of continuation in mind, which actors instructed to stay close to the way Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sherman Hemsley, and Isabel Sanford established their parts.
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Frankly, I don’t know which tack I prefer, although I lean towards giving the new cast some sway and letting it find its Archie, Edith, George, and Ouisie while possibly suggesting the originators.
Director James Burrows, famous for his creating “Cheers” and for his work on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” has an all-star cast at this disposal.
Performing before a live studio audience, of which I’d love to be a member, are “Cheers” alumnus and three-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker, Oscar winner and three-time nominee Marisa Tomei as Edith Bunker, Oscar winner and two-time nominee Jamie Foxx as George Jefferson, and crackerjack comedian Wanda Sykes as Louise Jefferson.
Sykes has local ties as she was a part-time resident of Media and once played Miss Hannigan in “Annie” at the Media Theatre. “The Jeffersons” will be part of a big week for her, as the day before it airs, May 21, Netflix launches her special stand-up comedy program, “Wanda Sykes: Not Normal.”
To my mind, the casting favors “The Jeffersons.”
Harrelson and Tomei are wonderful actors. They prove it every time they get a chance. Their theater careers are a match for their movie and TV work.
In spite of that, I have a hard time envisioning them as Archie and Edith Bunker.
That may be, in Martha Stewart parlance, a good thing. We may get two well-known characters who are conceived in a different way.
One of my fears is of a parody, whether intended or not. A tribute to Mr. O’Connor and Miss Stapleton would be in order. Doing their roles as they did them would not.
Tomei will have the greatest challenge. Jean Stapleton made Edith unique. You can see other women in her, but no one was quite a copy of Edith Bunker. The voice and the running yet stumbling walk will be difficult to resist. They’re imbedded in our vision of who Edith is. Miss Stapleton, of all the principals in the great Norman Lear and Grant Tinker shows of the ’70s, gave the most detailed performance but was so canny about it, she didn’t seem to be performing at all. Edith Bunker sprang from her. She seemed so real. And the range of emotion Miss Stapleton could project and generate from a loving audience who had to empathize with Edith is a miracle of great acting.
Harrelson has more room to veer from Carroll O’Connor, who played Archie in two series and had several, but fewer, deep-etched mannerisms and vocal tricks than Miss Stapleton’s Edith.
Playing Sally Struthers’s part as the Bunkers’ daughter, Gloria Stivic, is Ellie Kemper, who starred as Netflix’s “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and played Erin, the receptionist on “The Office.” Casting for Rob Reiner’s part, Mike Stivic, has not been announced.
“The Jeffersons” is one of several series that derived from “All in the Family.”
You hear about the Bunkers’ neighbor, George Jefferson, and not in the most flattering terms, before you see him. It’s from “All in the Family” you learn that George got the money to open his dry cleaning stores from a car accident.
While I have trouble seeing Harrelson and Tomei as Archie and Edith, I see Jamie Foxx fitting George like a glove and Wanda Sykes putting a patented stamp on Ouisie, who is the least delineated of the four leads from the Lear shows.
The only worry I have from Foxx is overdoing.
Foxx has proved multiple times he is a fine actor. His Oscar-earning portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 film, “Ray,” is one of the greatest from any of the biopics that have proliferated in this century.
Lately, though, Foxx seems to be vying for awards and calling attention to himself and his characters rather than just playing them, as he did in “Ray” and his other 2004 gem, “Collateral.”
George is a character who demands some size.
One irony from the original series is Sherman Hemsley, so quiet and unassertive off stage, brought such flamboyance and bombast to George.
Flamboyance and bombast come to Jamie Foxx naturally. Unlike Mr. Hemsley, a native of Philadelphia who had to muster those traits, Foxx will have to control them.
Again, the cast of this special should have fun but within limits. You want the discipline, even in the playing of large characters, as you saw in Messrs. O’Connor and Hemsley, who could be big but kept things real.
The casting of Wanda Sykes, I think, is the most inspired.
I have an affection for Isabel Sanford, who I got to see on stage, as I did O’Connor, Stapleton, and Hemsley. She had a likeability, and she gave a shrewd, intelligent cast to Ouisie.
While making her character as solid as the other actors did, she did not imprint Ouisie on the mind or create as fixed an image as, say, Hemsley did with George, or even Roxie Roker (yes, Lenny Kravitz’s mother) did as deluxe-apartment-in-the-sky upstairs neighbor, Helen Willis. (And what about Zara Cully as George’s mother?)
Sykes has a free-wheeling delivery that can revitalize Ouisie in a positive way. This is the one part in which you don’t have to worry about parody, imitation, or outsizing, because Sykes is at liberty to create. She’s taking over a strong presence instead of an icon. I look forward to seeing her alongside Foxx. Her participation excites me the most of any.
As with Foxx, I’m leery about Will Ferrell.
Sure, he’s a deft comedian who has saved some movies by being good while others around him are foundering. (See “Hairspray” as an example.) He also has the “imitation” bug. He may try to comment on his character rather than simply playing him.
Tom Willis is enough of a stiff, so he may not need embellishment.
No casting has been announced for Helen Willis, or the Jefferson or Willis offspring. In addition to Foxx, Sykes, and Ferrell, it is known that Justina Machado, from Netflix’s just-cancelled “One Day at a Time,” will be playing the Jefferson’s maid, Florence, played by Marla Gibbs, who later starred in her own series, “227.”
Even though the creature on my left shoulder is telling me it might be better to leave classics alone and enjoy them in rerun, its twin on my right shoulder is saying it may be fun to see what Lear and Kimmel do with an update.
There is one lasting fear. “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” were direct in their comedy and commentary, but they didn’t pander or overextend. Being too broad and too pointed, so much so that humor loses its effect from the heavy-handedness, is a major problem in today’s scripts. Archie Bunker and George Jefferson, like Maude Findlay, could be arch and outspoken, but they acted in a context, and there were buffers, head-on from Mike Stivic and Helen Willis, and more subtle from Edith and Ouisie. Foxx and Ferrell, in particular, like to act out and self-consciously comment on their material.
I would be sad, and irritated, if “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” are reduced to politically correct pap without the courage with which Lear endowed the original series. Even an overplaying of the characters would be better than that.
There’s a question whether Lear or Kimmel can resist. I hope they do. I’m so excited. I’d hate for the result to be a disappointment.
Smith helped break racial barriers
Once upon a time, black performers did not get a fair shake on television and radio.
“The Jeffersons” and its spinoffs, and certainly “The Cosby Show,” changed things to a degree, but before them, it was unusual to see a program with a black lead or major minority character, especially one early shows such as “Amos and Andy” and “Beulah” were criticized for what was considered stereotypical portrayals.
Variety entertainers fared the same as actors. People’s Light & Theatre Company, a few seasons ago, mounted a show about what happened to an acclaimed program headed by Nat King Cole. It couldn’t garner sponsors in the South and encountered small audiences in regions known for their prejudice.
Josephine Baker was one of the major stars of her time. She rebelled against the treatment she received in the United States by going to Paris and becoming the headliner of a famous revue spoken of to this day.
With all of her prodigious talent, and international reputation as a premier entertainer, Miss Baker could not get a foothold on American television, not even as a guest. That old bromide, “The audience will reject….” was applied to her.
One star stood up. She had a famously popular radio program, on which she, “The Songbird of the South” sang to the delight of the American public. Her golden voice and conversational ability transcended an issue about her weight, an issue that stymied her early career. This woman’s radio show featured the comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and Henny Youngman.
Her show was so popular, it transferred to television in that medium’s early days.
This host could insist on the guests she wanted.
One of those was Josephine Baker.
That woman is Kate Smith, who is now being besmirched for singing some allegedly biased songs in a musical in which she was a contract player who didn’t and couldn’t select her material.
When do we say “no” to uproar focusing on one incident in a person’s career instead of an entire career? Or life?
