At a spry 96-years-old, Norman Lear has proved that the career of a television pioneer is never really over. After creating or co-creating classic TV programs from the ’70s and 80’s such as “All in the Family,” “Good Times,” “Maude” and “The Jeffersons,” Lear segued to movie producing and political advocacy. In 2017 he returned to television with Netflix’s modern-day version of “One Day At A Time.” And while the future of that series appears to still be in limbo, Lear is far from done. In April, Jimmy Kimmel announced he was teaming up with Lear for a special, “Live In Front Of A Studio Audience.” A one-night event that showcased two episodes from classic Lear sitcoms, “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons.” Not only was the live broadcast met with positive notices, but the stellar ratings perked the attention of ABC.
The first 30 minutes of the special restaged the “Family” episode “Henry’s Farewell” which originally aired on Oct. 20, 1973. The parts of Archie Bunker and his wife Edith were played by Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei while Ike Barinholtz was Meathead and Ellie Kemper took on the role of the Bunker’s daughter, Gloria. Sean Hayes stopped by as their neighbor Mr. Frank Lorenzo, but the gist of the episode was to introduce their neighbors, The Jeffersons. Henry Jefferson, Anthony Anderson, was moving to another part of the New York metro area and George Jefferson, Jamie Foxx, refused to let his wife Louise, Wanda Sykes, have an interracial party in their home. Before Edith knows it, she’s mistakenly volunteered to host the event which puts Archie on a collision course with George, who has never set foot in the Bunker’s house on purpose.
The second 30 minutes began with Jennifer Hudson blowing the roof off with a rendition of “The Jefferson’s” classic sitcom theme song “Moving On Up.” The episode selected “A Friend In Need, the premiere from Jan 18, 1975, found Louise and George getting settled in their new upper east side apartment. Diane, Jackée Harry, a maid for many of the apartments in the building, is shocked to discover Louise isn’t a maid herself. Louise has no interest in getting any domestic help but George insists and eventually, they consider hiring Florence Johnston, Marla Gibbs recreating her iconic role. Throughout the episode, the Jeffersons’ strange neighbor Mr. Harry Bently portrayed by a stellar Stephen Tobolowsky, is introduced as well as Helen and Tom Willis, a surprise pairing of Kerry Washington and Will Ferrell.
Jumping on the phone last week, Lear said that the process of bringing “Live” to the small screen was much quicker than many might expect and that using an episode of “Family” to introduce “The Jeffersons” just made too much sense. He notes, “It all feels so much faster than the several weeks it was. It kind of zoomed for me.”
Brent Miller, who spearheads Lear’s Act III Productions added, ” We spent some time reviewing all of the episodes and thinking about how best to introduce these shows to a whole new generation of people. Actually several generations of people who weren’t familiar with them or who had maybe heard of them but didn’t know them the way maybe our parents did.”
The cast, which featured two Oscar winners and a slew of Emmy winners and nominees, was remarkable with only Foxx flubbing a line during the live telecast (which actually turned out to be a memorable moment). Lear jokes that he came up with all the good ideas but said they were “extraordinarily lucky” too.
“I mean Wanda Sykes. It was so glorious,” Lear says. “And I don’t remember whose idea that was, Brent, do you?”
Miller replies, “Wanda came directly from Jimmy. That was his idea. I mean, truthfully, it was a collaboration between Norman and Jimmy and I and also the casting team at Sony, Dawn Steinberg and Delia Frankel. You know, we all kind of talked about various options, but it was ultimately Norman that said yes or no to a person before we would go out to them. And if he agreed then we would make that call. And there wasn’t one actor that turned us down.”
What was so remarkable about these episodes of television was how prevalent many of the issues the Bunkers and Jeffersons were discussing forty years ago are still part of our national discourse.
“You know, my bumper sticker reads, ‘Just another version of you.’ And it’s been there for I don’t know how many years,” Lear says. “We’re versions of one another. It occurs to us in the writing, especially if it isn’t a topical subject, it’s a human subject, it’s a family subject. And nothing changes, you know. We’re the same people and we are versions of one another. And relationship-wise, what went on 20 years ago goes on today. And the proof of it is in that pudding.”
Miller agrees with Lear’s answer adding, “What you’ve always done so brilliantly, and I think that [we’ve all been] impacted by you are trying to do which is to stimulate and create conversation. And I think, the Kenya Barris‘ of the world and, the Ryan Murphys, and you know, Shonda Rhimes, and all of these people, they’re standing on Norman’s shoulders.”
One of the more remarkable performances among the ensemble came from Tomei, who made the gutsy choice of trying to incorporate some of Jean Stapleton‘s original mannerisms and vocal affectations for Edith into her performance. It could have gone terribly wrong, but instead ended up demonstrating the considerable range of Tomei’s talent.
“That was entirely Marisa,” Lear says. “That was a choice she made, and it turned out to be brilliant. She just went with everything she felt and remembered about Stapleton’s version of Edith.”
“We really wanted to make sure that all the actors have the creative freedom to bring these roles, to be able to make these roles themselves. And really, and do whatever they needed to step into those shoes,” Miller says. “And she is an actor that really works hard in figuring out, as she goes through her process, what she wants to do to make it work. And she was incredible.”
Karyn Burke, ABC’s president, recently noted publicly that over 22 million people had watched the hour live and on ABC’s streaming platforms since it’s May 25 premiere. The network would like to make it an event franchise and Miller says they are talking about revisiting other works in Lear’s vault.
“I think that the sky’s the limit when it comes to which shows we would choose. I mean, Norman has a very extensive library, both the 70s and the 80s included,” Miller notes. “And I think that there’s a room for all of it. Especially if we can turn this into a brand, which I know ultimately is what Jimmy wanted to do when he thought of the title, ‘Live in Front of a Studio Audience.'”
“Live in Front of a Studio Audience” is available to view on ABC’s streaming app or on ABC.com.