The Arts and Media Think Tank Presents LIT: All In The Family /The Jeffersons Live On ABC Review

Last night (May 23, 2019) ABC put together a cast of some of sit coms and sketch comedy's heavy hitters to revisit The Jeffersons and The Bunkers.

Spoiler alert...It was a good try , but fell short of the mark for several reasons.
Still over all I would give the one hour-live showcase of All In The Family and The Jeffersons passing grades.

Instead of getting great writers to tackle 21st century problems....the producers go to two of my favorite scripts from the shows.

In the case of All In The Family ...Henry's Farewell. The original show marked the very first appearance of George Jefferson (played by Sherman Hemsley.) However, why I always loved this episode is because Mel Stewart as George's brother Henry was featured. When ever Henry Jefferson and Archie Bunker got into discussions of God, Santa Claus or anything....the ideology was always breath taking and funny.

In the case of The Jeffersons they revisited the first episode A Friend In Need.
I loved early episodes of The Jeffersons as a kid because of the insults. I love the early episodes now because of the subject matter that people sill don't like to discuss... like inter-racial dating/marriage.

Over all I give both efforts a C.

I was excited about the prospect of watching these shows in prime time but disappointed with the product. To be fair I don't know if I could have been satisfied.

Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker just didn't work.
His Queens, NY accent sounded high school production quality. I guess I am glad he tried. I know it was live television so I am thinking after his nerves settled he got better. He did much better after the first commercial break.

Marisa Tomei as Edith Bunker did not get better. No only was she and Woody cast wrongly in these roles. The less said about Tomei's "Edith" the better.

Wand Sykes as "Weezy" Jefferson-One of the stronger performances...but over all shows why the casting was off. Sykes is a great stand up comic...while Isabel Sanford was an accomplished actress with decades of experience before she came to All In The Family. It may be unfair in asking Sykes to be comparable with one night in an iconic role on live TV...however. I could see the difference in the presentations. Still I am giving Sykes a B-.

Jaime Fox as George Jefferson....nope. I was grossly disappointed with his cartooning the iconic character. I won't say much more.

Anthony Anderson was actually great. He did not try and recapture Mel Stewart's performance as Henry Jefferson. He let he situation come to him.

Also great was the surprise cameo by Marla Gibb.

Here is what I would suggest.

A. Go to youtube or Dailymotion and watch the original shows.

B. If they do this again...and I think they should. They should follow the way One Day At a Time is presented on Netflix. Same set as the original...21st century problems that still are rarely touched even on cable. One Day At A Time on Neflix gets consistent A level performances from their cast and crew.

C. Two Words "ROC" Live!

D. Perhaps next time if not an update or new scripts? Then just rebroadcast the original shows in Prime Time much like CBS does with The Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy!