|
Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Jimmy Kimmel will present a live 90-minute primetime event paying tribute to Norman Lear’s groundbreaking comedy series All in the Family and The Jeffersons on ABC. An original episode from each iconic Lear comedy will be re-created; Jimmy Burrows is directing the live special. Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All In The Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons’ will air Wednesday, May 22, 8-9:30 PM ET. Woody Harrelson will play Archie Bunker role; Marisa Tomei will play his wife Edith in the recreation of All In The Family. Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykes take the roles of George and Louise Jefferson in the All in the Family spinoff, The Jeffersons. ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke, meanwhile, declared the network “honored” to partner with “our brilliant friend Jimmy Kimmel and trailblazer Norman Lear” in the live TV project, agreeing with Lear that the two series are “as culturally relevant today as they’ve ever been.” She forecast it will be “the can’t-miss television event” of the year, if not the decade, while Sony Pictures Television Studios president Jeff Frost and co-presidents Chris Parnell and Jason Clodfelter called it an “exciting new format.” All in the Family shaped political and social conversations in American homes in the post-civil rights era. From 1971 through 1979, the series about conservative working class Archie Bunker, his liberal son-in-law and daughter, and his wife Edith tackled such hot-button topics as women’s rights, racism, and homosexuality. The success of All in the Family led to introduction of The Jeffersons, which ran from 1975 to 1985 – the first television series to feature an interracial couple. It would go on to be one of the longest running African American shows on TV, following George and Louise Jefferson as they moved to the East Side and showcased what it was like to be successful in a predominantly white world. The show is credited with shifting conversations about race and class, paving the way for other African American actors and TV series. Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All In The Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons’ is being produced by Smoking Baby Productions, ACT III Productions, Gary Sanchez Productions and Sony Pictures Television. Ellie Kemper will play Gloria Stivic, Will Ferrell will appear as Tom Willis and Justina Machado is set to play Florence Johnston, with more all-casting announcements to come. Kimmel and Lear host; the project teams them with exec producers Brent Miller, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Justin Theroux. “The fact that a group of Oscar winners eagerly agreed to play these iconic characters is testament to the greatness of these shows and their creator, Norman Lear,” Kimmel said, calling the project a “dream come true.” People have said the two series were of the 70’s and “would not work today,” Lear said of his two TV-landscape-changing comedies. “We disagree with them and are here to prove, with two great casts depicting of All In The Family and The Jeffersons, the timelessness of human nature,” Lear continued, adding, “I cannot wait to see what these glorious performers make in our time of these indelible characters.” Last July, SPT announced a new deal with Lear and his Act III Productions, noting it had an “option to re-imagine titles from his extensive library including All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Maude and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, to name a few.” |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Sure, I’ll watch it. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
I will watch it, but I highly doubt a show like All In the Family would make it in today's world. I was a kid when the show aired, but I remember Archie saying words like ***, queer, spade, diego, among other things. There's no way you could away with saying those things now.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Yeah, kind of a cool idea but I do wonder if they’ll censor the language for modern times. I kind of get that they’d want to, but then it defeats the purpose of it being a recreation as like it or not the politically incorrect language used by Archie was a big part of the show as that was his character. Audiences now days are probably too sensitive and won’t realize that the show was a satire and the way Archie acted was supposed to make him look dumb and closed minded. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
I'll watch.
Spoiler:
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mike86
(Post 13536440)
Yeah, kind of a cool idea but I do wonder if they’ll censor the language for modern times. I kind of get that they’d want to, but then it defeats the purpose of it being a recreation as like it or not the politically incorrect language used by Archie was a big part of the show as that was his character. Audiences now days are probably too sensitive and won’t realize that the show was a satire and the way Archie acted was supposed to make him look dumb and closed minded. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mike86
(Post 13536440)
Yeah, kind of a cool idea but I do wonder if they’ll censor the language for modern times. At any rate, I'll definitely check it out when it airs. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Maybe it'll be the episode of All in the Family that The Jeffersons spun off from and the pilot episode of The Jeffersons. It would kind of make sense as a way to tie the two episodes together. The only thing doing that is part of the chemistry of the two casts (paricularly Archie and George) would be lost without their history.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Are they going to do a specific old script of each series, or will it be a kind of a hybrid or greatest hits? |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Better casting would have been to gender swap Archie and cast Rosanne. Now THAT would be bold tv. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Whatever happened to George's brother Henry? :sad:
Man, I loved both of those shows, they were among my favorites when growing up, I tuned in every week. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mabuse
(Post 13536776)
Are they going to do a specific old script of each series, or will it be a kind of a hybrid or greatest hits? |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
So is Foxx supposed to do an impersonation of Sherman Hemsley? Because without him there is no The Jeffersons. But if he does it will probably come off like an In Living Color sketch.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
They should do the All in the Family episode with Sammy Davis Jr. They could just have Billy Crystal play him.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Bill Needle
(Post 13536854)
So is Foxx supposed to do an impersonation of Sherman Hemsley? Because without him there is no The Jeffersons. But if he does it will probably come off like an In Living Color sketch.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Harrelson feels like a weird choice for Archie to me. Archie was an older grandpa type character who was out of shape.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mike86
(Post 13537050)
Harrelson feels like a weird choice for Archie to me. Archie was an older grandpa type character who was out of shape.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Groucho
(Post 13537121)
Harrelson is 10 years older than O'Connor was when he first took the role.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mike86
(Post 13537050)
Harrelson feels like a weird choice for Archie to me. Archie was an older grandpa type character who was out of shape.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Shannon Nutt
(Post 13537464)
Take a look at Harrelson in KINGPIN. He can pull it off, and KINGPIN was over 20 years ago.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
<iframe width="676" height="380" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QPY8fnQb5OM" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
... |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Groucho
(Post 13537121)
Harrelson is 10 years older than O'Connor was when he first took the role.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Thanks for the bump. I knew it was coming up soon but need to set my DVR. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Yes, thanks for the bump, set the YouTubeTV DVR.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Really promoting this on one of the lesser known streaming channels. Can't recall which channel but I was watching an older episode of "American Pickers" and every commercial, and there were plenty, had a spot promoting this.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Looks to be an aftershow too simply called All About All in the Family/The Jeffersons that runs for a half hour. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
I'll be curious to see which "All In The Family" script they use, -whether it will be one specific episode or a mash-up of one or two presented as a single piece. There was an episode in Season One (I think) where Edith and Louise Jefferson (who began as neighbors) wanted to get Archie and George together for a meal and hijinks ensued.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
It’s supposed to be a script from each show so I don’t think it’ll be a mashup. Noticed the listing for this is an hour and a half though, so maybe they are adding elements from other episodes. Considering that both shows were half an hour and probably only around 22-25 minutes each. That gives a lot of extra time even factoring in commercials. Maybe the fact that it’s live they’re allowing some more room to work with though too. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mike86
(Post 13554192)
It’s supposed to be a script from each show so I don’t think it’ll be a mashup. Noticed the listing for this is an hour and a half though, so maybe they are adding elements from other episodes. Considering that both shows were half an hour and probably only around 22-25 minutes each. That gives a lot of extra time even factoring in commercials. Maybe the fact that it’s live they’re allowing some more room to work with though too. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by DWilson
(Post 13554215)
I was wondering if there's one iconic episode they'll be aiming at, -it would be hard to single out one storyline that stands out on it's own for this type of showcase (I doubt they'll go too heavy since the promos are playing it for laughs). I was never a fan of "The Jeffersons", so I'm not sure what their stand-out episode was. I remember re-visiting "Family"'s first season on DVD some years ago, and the complete episodes felt "long" compared to today's sitcoms (and not just because they were actually about four minutes longer).
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mike86
(Post 13554235)
I mean there really aren't that many stand out arcs. All in the Family episodes at least were usually focused on an issue of the time (race, women's rights, religion, or other political topics). The arcs are more with the characters and how they live with each other. Really not sure what episodes they'll go with.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Over the last month at work, I've listened to about a hundred episodes of All In The Family and The Jeffersons (they work perfectly as radio plays, there's only been a couple occasions I had to check the video to understand some information that was presented visually).
All In The Family was a much better show than The Jeffersons, but All In The Family never had better episodes (in my opinion) after the Jeffersons moved away. They were the perfect characters to interact with the Bunkers, and nothing made me laugh harder than Archie and George mixing it up. If I had to pick a favourite episode, it would hands down be Lionel's engagement party. I think it's interesting how much value Norman Lear placed on Sherman Hemsley as an actor. When All In The Family started, Sherman Hemsley was doing a play on Broadway and didn't want to leave in the middle of the run. Norman Lear wanted him so badly to play George, that instead of casting another actor, for the first couple seasons George was referred to but never seen. The character of George's brother was created to accompany Louise. Finally, after the play ended Hemsley joined the show. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
The Jeffersons was quite a bit different in style compared with All in the Family. Much more of a standard sitcom with less emphasis on the social commentary/satire. I liked both but preferred All in the Family. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by Mike86
(Post 13554313)
The Jeffersons was quite a bit different in style compared with All in the Family. Much more of a standard sitcom with less emphasis on the social commentary/satire. I liked both but preferred All in the Family. |
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by JimRochester
(Post 13554367)
George Jefferson was supposed to be the black version of Archie Bunker but they definitely downplayed his bigotry compared to Bunker's. He was often presumptive of whites but not nearly as insulting if I remember correctly. They went for more standard fare since it was on commercial TV and still had to appeal to all audiences. It will be interesting but tough for other actors to pull off iconic characters. Nobody but nobody could have pulled off a Barney Fife and no one played the Music Man better than Robert Preston.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Thanks for the reminder, I would have completely forgotten, and it's in 15 min! Pfewwwwww! :)
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Tomai is fantastic in this so far.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Forgot all about this. Fortunately, I can PVR the west coast feed. Can't wait to watch it.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
Originally Posted by DthRdrX
(Post 13554442)
Tomai is fantastic in this so far.
|
re: Live In Front Of A Studio Audience (ABC)
OK - so thoughts so far, 22 minutes in:
- Tomei is, indeed, doing a phenom job in impersonating Jean Stapleton - Woody is a little shaky as Archie - He's overacting a bit too much, is sometimes channeling Carroll O'Connor, but is mostly doing his own interpretation, and is going in and out of a Queens accent - Ike Barnolholtz is wooden as Meathead - Ellie Kemper is good as Gloria - Jamie Foxx is overdoing George Jefferson, but is probably the best choice to play George Jefferson. He's already flubbed once. |
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:12 PM. |
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.