Watching it right now. I’ll take it as an homage, but it really isn’t that good. Only Wanda Sykes as Louise Jefferson really sold me. It feels like the rest of them are doing impersonations, not characters.
If you look at the originals now, you see the real strength was the acting chops of O’Connor and Stapleton, and the comic timing of Marla Gibbs. And Sherman Hensley didn’t just strut around, he strutted around like angry man with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove to the world.
They sure as hell just bleeped the Jefferson-Willis exchange, which proves you still can’t get away with what Lear got away with 45 years ago.
I agree. Really with everything you said. It was cool seeing it done again, but nobody except Wanda Sykes really pulled it off. I’m a Woody Harrelson fan and if he read the phone book I would probably watch it, but he didn’t really capture Archie.
Jamie Foxx was just goofing off and trying to walk and mimic Jefferson and he really took the whole breaking the 4th wall thing too far.
And the whole bleeping out “nigger” was just too much. They let all kinds of obscene and vulgar crap on TV now; they cannot use that word once in a retro perspective?
All that said, and as silly as it sounds, I enjoyed it.
—Whatever happened to the good old days when kids was scared to death of their parents?–Archie Bunker
Maybe this is just my own personal dislike of Jamie Foxx, but I immediately thought he blew that line on purpose just so he could break the fourth wall and be the one every is talking about today. I rewatched a few times and it did not look real to me. And every headline about the show is about him, so…
I enjoyed it. I was afraid it was going to be the characters dealing with current events. So glad it wasn’t. I get enough of that every day! I loved that they had the original sets.
I was annoyed at the bleeping of the “N” word but it was ok to say “honky” and “WOP”.
Jamie Foxx certainly has the acting skill to play George Jefferson any way he wanted. Looking over his background, I see some stand-up experience, but nothing about live theater. Maybe his instinct took him back to his standup days, where, when you goofed, you tried to make it funny.
But I’m still being overly charitable, because I don’t think he got who George Jefferson was.
I think what hurt it was the actors are just too well known. I KNEW that was Will Ferrel and Woody Harrison. The guy playing George Jefferson, was too tall to pull it off and the way he exaggerated Sherman Helmsely made it look more like a spoof.
I don’t disagree, but, on the other hand, Sykes seemed to stumble over her lines several times, especially during the Jeffersons segment. That said, she might well have had the most lines of any of the actors, across the two segments, being in a substantial portion of the All in the Family segment, as well.
I thought everyone did great for a one-off. They were essentially doing a one-time play, so it’s not like they were getting into these characters’ heads. They were just playing them as they were originally played. Tomei was amazing, as were Sykes and Foxx. They actually game me exactly what I wanted from this: Modern-day actors nailing those characters, even if they were little more than impersonations.
The one thing that stood out to me: I really appreciate Carol O’Connor much more now. He was able to deliver those lines and play that character with so much heart and charm (which I always knew, but it became even more stark seeing someone else attempt the character). Now I love Woody, but those same lines being delivered by him often just came across as harsh, overly aggressive and mean. I rarely felt that with Carol’s Archie.
Right. You always got the impression that the original Archie was a loveable guy who was just a product of his times. He was also of below-average intellect and never considered how he was being mean to his wife; he just did what he saw others do and thought that it was to be expected that he have fresh toast for breakfast and a cold beer in his hand when he came home from work. He also passed on what he was taught that you just didn’t have social events with the “coloreds.” But you never got the impression that there was hatred or animosity there.
Woody as Archie couldn’t pull off that sort of thing and he just came across as a dick when he yelled at Edith.
I really enjoyed this presentation. I liked it because of pure nostalgia, I liked it because of the fun cast,and I liked that they didn’t change the script. They did bleep out the N- word, but that didn’t make a big difference to me.
I thought that Harrelson and Foxx were trying too hard to mimic O’Connor and Helmlsey’s speech and mannerisms and it came off as parody. I wished they would have played them a little straighter with a little O’Connor and Helmlsey thrown in. I thought everyone else was great.
