This week is the second live special. This time it’s All in the Family and Good Times. They are calling this a holiday special. Because of the additional actors for the All in the Family episode (Kevin Bacon, Jesse Eisenberg and Justina Machado) they are probably doing The Draft Dodger. If so, I’m not sure how many people will understand the anger of Archie Bunker at a draft dodger.
Watched it on Hulu tonight. Initial thoughts:
I liked that the impeachment vote, which was taking place while the show was airing, was mentioned. That felt really appropriate and… just perfect.
I liked Woody’s Archie better this time around, he didn’t seem so harsh, except when he need to be during the verbal explosion at dinner. I absolutely love Marisa Tomei as Edith, which, who’da thunk? But she’s great in that role. Jesse Eisenberg nailed the role of David, and Kevin Bacon really played Eugene Roche’s character solidly. It seems that character was meant to merely be a backdrop to the Archie and David collision, and Bacon did that really well. Overall, the main actors seemed more comfortable in their roles this time around. Woody and Marisa just seemed to be having fun most of the episode.
The Good Times didn’t translate as well, imo. There seemed to be a few missed cues and lines. Viola Davis, however, was great as Florida. I thought Jay Pharoah was terrible as JJ, but I can’t imagine anyone doing that character well. It was cool seeing John Amos play the old-school alderman. And the episode itself wasn’t all that interesting. I used to watch this show every day after school on the local UHF channel when I was a kid and loved it. That being said, the only two episodes that really stand out in my memory are: the one where Florida goes back to school, and the one where Willona discovers Penny’s mom is abusing her. I’d probably have personally liked one of those better, but that’s just a personal thing I suppose.
Up next: Will we see “Maude?” The abortion episode perhaps?!? If so, who could pull off Bea Arthur?
I didn’t see the first special, which ticked me off, as I had been looking forward to it.
And I missed the Good Times episode, this time around, so…I’m batting .250 on seeing these. >_<
Pretty solid show, I thought, though it took a while to get used to Harrelson’s aping O’Connor. (I thought Tomei worked well from the start despite copping Stapleton’s style, though.)
I really liked the retro-style spots for other shows and kind of wish they’d leaned into it for the show proper, doing it in 4:3 instead of 16:9.
Last time they did this, they rebroadcast later in the week. Are they going to do that again? I was going to watch but didn’t want to wait while I sat through talking heads blathering on about the impeachment vote. We wound up watching Star Trek reruns instead.
I generally agree, except I found her imitation of Jean Stapleton’s bouncing gait off-putting. It looked natural (while still being goofy) when Stapleton did it, but with Tomei’s different body shape it looked very forced and unnatural - more like a prance.
For the Good Times segment I remember John Amos bringing kind of a simmering intense undercurrent to the character that Andre Braugher didn’t capture. And Jay Pharaoh did a terrible Jimmy Walker impersonation, although taking that role he couldn’t really do anything but an impersonation. But it seemed very wooden.
I recently bought the series. The day before the episode I watched The Draft Dodger (guessing correctly what episode they were going to show). It had Archie saying, 'I don’t wanna talk about that Goddamned war no more". I didn’t remember that and looked it up and they edited it to “rotten damn war”, which is what I remembered. I was curious what they would do and payed attention to what he says. He said “rotten damn”.
They also bleeped out a derogatory term for Chinese like they did for the “n word” in the first episode, but they left in other slurs. I guess the Chinese one is worse than other ones.
I saw the AITF part live, after the impeachment vote. I watched the Good Times episode yesterday.
Woody Harrelson plays Archie with an entirely different undertone than Carroll O’Connor brought to the part. Both of them play blue-collar, but O’Connor’s Archie came off as someone who as scared because his days on the loading dock were coming to an end and is trying desperately to hang on to everything he had gotten over the years, while Harrelson comes off as just a grumpy middle-aged guy.
Agreed that Viola Davis was the best thing about the Good Times episode, with Jay Pharaoh at the other end.
Conchata Ferrell is a little old to play the menopausal Maude, but Melissa McCarthy can load the proper level of sarcasm into her delivery.
I thought the Good Times redo was absolutely HORRIBLE. Painful to watch. It was embarrassing for all involved. Then again, the original was a pretty lousy show.
As for AITF, I agree with your take on Harrelson, that he played Archie as dumb and bigoted, but with none of the heart and nuance that O’Conner brought to the role. I realize it’s not fair to compare one actor who brought the role to life over a decade to a new guy who is kinda forced to imitate the original. But I’ve been watching a lot of episodes of AITF recently, and I’m just amazed watching Carroll O’Conner as Archie. He made the character likeable at the same time as despicable, sympathetic at the same time as caustic. And funny while not being clownish. He portrayed Archie as angry and bewildered at the world changing around him, with redeeming qualities to go along with his shortcomings.
I won’t watch any of these Normal Lear live redos again.
If you want someone who’s the right age — and who racked up Golden Globes and Emmys aplenty as a sarcastic feminist who rolls her eyes hard while making snarky comments as the one sane woman surrounded by idiots — there’s Tina Fey.
I could totally see Tina saying “God’ll get you for that, Walter.”
I’m watching this week’s episode now (so much for the live event) and am a little confused by Theresa. I’m old enough that we watched most of All In The Family as it originally aired but don’t remember her or why she was in the house.
I think she rented Mike and Gloria’s room for a few episodes.
Theresa was a boarder the Bunkers took in after Mike and Gloria moved next door. I think Archie had been temporarily laid off and they were looking for a few extra bucks at the time. She was there for about a half-season.