Sunday, May 26, 2019

Classics Reborn: Live in Front of a Studio Audience: All in The Family & The Jeffersons (2019)

Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has admitted to the world he is a fan of Norman Lear's family of sitcoms from the 70's, so much so that he & Lear co-hosted and produced Live in Front of a Studio Audience: All in The Family & The Jeffersons, which drew 10.4 million viewers on Wedneday night. The special, was encored last night, and a behind the scenes special followed both nights.

All in The Family recreated what amounted to a transitional episode in the series, as Henry Jefferson (Mel Stewart in the original series) was being written out to make room for Henry's brother, George (Sherman Hemsley).

The casting was, for lack of a better description, eclectic. Woody Harrelson (ex-True Detective, Cheers) plopped into Carroll O'Connor's legendary easy chair as bigoted, narrow minded Archie, Ellie Klemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) played Gloria, Ike Barinholz (ex-The Mindy Project, MadTV) hit note after note as Mike "Meathead" Stivic, and Oscar winner Marisa Tomei (to be seen next in "Spider-Man: Far From Home") returned to television (her resume includes A Different World & As The World Turns), and somehow made naive, good natured Edith look hot. Anthony Anderson (black-ish, To Tell The Truth) played Henry, with Grammy & Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (Beat Shazam) as George. Jamie even got the famous George Jefferson walk on point. It was in this part of the show that Jamie ended up forgetting a line and improvising for a few seconds.

Emmy winner James Burrows was brought in to direct both episodes, and had he gotten a cameo, the audience would've popped for him as much as everyone else.

Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) filled Vincent Gardenia's role as Frank Lorenzo, but came off like the second coming of Charles Nelson Reilly, albeit unintentionally. Wanda Sykes (who has recurred on black-ish) played Louise Jefferson, and gave one of the best performances of her career.

To effect the transition to The Jeffersons, Grammy & Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson sang "Movin' On Up", the show's theme song, originally recorded by Good Times' Ja'net DuBois......



The Jeffersons was a remake of the pilot, which introduced Florence (Marla Gibbs) into the mix, and oh, did the audience pop when Florence appeared. Co-executive producer Will Ferrell & Kerry Washington (ex-Scandal) played Tom & Helen Willis. Ferrell and his Funny or Die partner, Adam McKay, were among the executive producers, and this gave Ferrell an opportunity to return to his salad days on Saturday Night Live.

There were a couple of downers. Stephen Tobolowski, signed to play Harry Bentley (Paul Benedict in the original series), was way older than the character was written to be. Sad to say, time has not been kind to Jackee Harry (ex-Sister, Sister), and that's just being kind.

Having not seen the original episodes when they first aired actually was a benefit, as, despite the time warp, there was a certain freshness to both. I can imagine a certain residence in Washington had this on DVR.

Rating: A.

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