re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

They are doing holiday episodes which will air on December 18th on ABC.


https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/live...-december.html

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

It's very odd that these are just about ten days away and there have been no cast announcements.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Yeah, I hope they mix it up. I admire Woody Harrelson, he's clearly a very talented actor capable of diverse things, but he made a terrible Archie.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

I bet they bring back the entire cast from last time which will be a shame. Harrelson was terrible.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

oh boy. I guess the next reveal will be who is cast in "Good Times". Jimmy Walker's character will get the most focus, and I could see them casting a "personality" who will no doubt camp it up rather than an actor who might "interpret" the role in an interesting way. Or perhaps I'll be wrong.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

I'm fine with the All in the Family cast returning. Yeah, Woody was a little off, but I always like him and Marissa Tomei was amazing. Will be watching for sure.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Apparently I'm in the minority, because I felt Tomei just turned in a broad impression of Jean Stapleton's flighty demeanor. Of course, I wanted to see something more grounded and creative, like seeing actors re-interpreting roles as is done when reviving some beloved Broadway play.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

I never watched Good Times at all really so that doesn’t have quite as much appeal to me. Still will watch this though. I’m fine with the same cast returning for the All in the Family portion.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

I should probably watch some Good Times again. My age was in single digits during its run, and while I watched, it was just to hear Jimmie JJ Walker say "Dyn-o-mite!"

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

The other shoe drops....Live in Front of a Studio Audience: All in the Family and Good Times just announced a star-studded cast of actors who will portray the Evans Family during the Dec. 18 airing on ABC.

Viola Davis and Andre Braugher will bring to life Florida and James Evans, originally played by Esther Rolle and John Amos on the hit Norman Lear series Good Times, which debuted in 1974. Dy-no-mite and out of sight J.J. Evans, originally played by Jimmie Walker, will be played by Jay Pharoah. His younger siblings Thelma (originally played by BernNadette Stanis) and Michael (Ralph Carter), will be played by Corinne Fox and Asante Blackk.

Comedian Tiffany Haddish will play the fashionable, nosey neighbor Willona Woods (Ja’net DuBois).

Jharrel Jerome will also be part of the cast, but his role is as yet unknown. There are two main male characters from Good Times that have not been announced as of yet. Could he be playing building superintendent a.k.a. Buffalo Butt Nathan Bookman (Johnny Brown)? Or maybe Thelma’s husband, Keith Anderson (Ben Powers)?

The majority of the series’ original cast members are still alive, with the exception of Rolle and Carter. Marla Gibbs surprised everyone who watched the first Live in Front of a Studio Audience, where she reprised the role of The Jefferson’s maid Florence Johnston.

And since Mr. Lear loves surprises, wild card appearances could include Janet Jackson, who played Willona’s adopted daughter Penny on the series and for a Saturday Night Live skit in 2013; Debbie Allen, who played J.J.’s drug-addicted girlfriend Diana Buchanan; Kim Fields, who played Penny’s friend Kim; and Kim’s mom Chip Fields, who played Penny’s birth mother.

The legendary Patti LaBelle, fresh off her stint on The Masked Singer, and black-ish star Anthony Anderson will perform a special musical number for audiences.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Andre Braugher immediately changed this to "must-see"

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk...62e55326fe.gif

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Wow, that is some sweet casting there.

Didn't realize that John Amos was still alive. He outlived his character by forty years!

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

He still works. He's reprising his role in Coming to America.

My initial thought for the stunt casting was Jimmie Walker for Bookman.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Wow, that Good Times casting. Wow.

I'm guessing this got scheduled for Wednesday to compete against the Survivor finale on CBS?

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

There's also "The Masked Singer" 2-hour finale that night.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Was never into Good Times but Andre Braugher is some great casting.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Jay Pharoah as JJ is pathetic.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Yeah, he was really bad. It's not like Walker was a great actor, but he brought a lot of charisma to the part. Pharoah didn't bring anything. I have always been a huge John Amos fan (in part because I grew up with Good Times) so it pains me to say that doing a live show at his age was probably a bad idea.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

The old style commercials were great.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

haven't seen All in Family part yet, but thought Good Times was dull and uninteresting. actors had no charisma or spunk...

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Didn't like Good Times at all. Was surprised by so many flubbed lines. I see local theater a lot, and the amateur actors there are more convincing than these highly paid professionals. Yes, even Andre Braugher.

All in the Family was significantly better. To me the highlights were Barinholtz and especially Jesse Eisenberg. But yeah, I wish Harrelson and Tomei would tone down the aping of Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton.

You know, I'd love an All in the Family with a time jump. Take the Archie Bunker 70s character, and suddenly catapult him to the 21st century. "Didn't need no welfare state, everybody pulled his weight". Archie would be laid off from the plant due to overseas outsourcing, have to take a lower paying job due to his lack of advanced education, no longer be able to own a suburban NY home, and struggle to pay off bills from a hospital stay. Oh wait, they're already doing that on The Conners. Never mind.

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

Jay Pharoah was AWFUL. I thought everyone else was okay (and it was really nice they included John Amos, although I don't know why Kimmel didn't have him back out when he introduced the rest of the original cast).

I thought Woody was MUCH better this time as Archie than he was last time around. I think he got the memo about his first performance. And Tomei deserves some kind of special award for her making BOTH Edith Bunker and Aunt May sexy. :)

Re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
 

By modern standards I doubt the acting on 1970s Good Times would be considered very good, but the actors really upped the energy and played big to the studio audience, also they just played the scenes faster. Amos didn't help things, but this cast approached it all wrong. I think Haddish was on the right page, but even she was tamped down compared to the original Wilona.