Stream It Or Skip It: ABC’s ‘All In The Family’ And ‘The Jeffersons’ Remakes Show How Relevant Both Shows Still Are

When Norman Lear’s All In The Family debuted in January, 1971, it was aired with a warning by CBS that the content in the show could be disturbing to viewers. That’s because it was about a family who spoke the way families of the time spoke; Archie Bunker was the old-school bigot who was scared that the world he knew was ending, fighting against his more liberal daughter and son-in-law. Four years later, The Jeffersons debuted, spinning off characters from AITF, and it was the first time a prosperous Black family were the main characters. It was also one of the first shows to have an interracial couple as regular characters. So if Lear, along with Jimmy Kimmel, felt it was time to remake some classic episodes for a new audience, who would say no? But was it any good?

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Opening Shot: Norman Lear is sitting in Archie Bunker’s chair, explaining that the audience is about to see classic episodes of All In The Family and The Jeffersons with new, all-star casts, and that the shows are especially relevant these days.

The Gist: While this seems like a mid-May ratings stunt, Lear and Jimmy Kimmel, who produced this remake special, both feel that the messages these classic sitcoms imparted are as fresh as they’ve ever been.

Both episodes represented are monumental ones in the history of each show. In the AITF episode, from 1973, Archie Bunker (Woody Harrelson) is happy to see his neighbor, Henry Jefferson (Anthony Anderson), move out of the house next door. He refuses to set foot in the Jefferson house for the goodbye party, which of course raises the ire of daughter Gloria (Ellie Kemper) and son-in-law Mike (Ike Barinholtz). Louise Jefferson (Wanda Sykes) tells Archie’s wife Edith (Marisa Tomei) that her husband, Henry’s brother George (Jamie Foxx) won’t allow an “integrated” party in his house, so Edith volunteers to do the party at her house, which makes Archie blow his top. After a couple of years of never seeing George because he refused to cross the Bunkers’ doorstep, George finally arrives, albeit reluctantly, to give a goodbye toast to his brother.

In The Jeffersons episode — with a rousing version of its classic theme song sung by Jennifer Hudson — George and Louise are in their first weeks in their Upper East Side condo. After her friend Diane (Jackee Harry), a maid in the building, is surprised and appalled to find out that Louise and George live in their apartment, George insists that they hire a maid, not just to help Louise but to show they’ve arrived. Louise refuses, but George receives support from an unlikely pair: Helen and Tom Willis (Kerry Washington and Will Ferrell); Helen especially thinks that Louise should embrace the fact that they have money and let go of the scrimping-and-saving, working-class lifestyle they had in Queens. When Louise finally gets convinced to interview a maid, a woman named Florence (surprise guest Marla Gibbs!) comes in and nails the interview. She, too, is shocked when she sees the Jeffersons and Helen Willis are owners in the building. “When we overcame, how come no one told me?”

Our Take: Lear and Kimmel were right about the timing of this special; in our very divided political and social environment, the messages both these episodes imparted are relevant. Anderson as Henry Jefferson, telling Archie that a Black president would have to be twice as smart as a white president, could have been a piece of dialogue Anderson said on black-ish. When Kemper’s Gloria says to the doubtful men in her living room that a woman should be president and that women have been discriminated against as much as any other group, that could have been something we’ve seen on Twitter before, during and after the #MeToo movement.

So mounting these remakes was a noble effort from Lear and Kimmel. And for the most part, they worked. The All In The Family episode was less successful than The Jeffersons episode, mainly because Harrelson decided to do an impression of Carroll O’Connor’s iconic performance of Archie rather than try to embody the character. The contrast between Woody’s histrionics and O’Connor’s virtuoso embodiment of Archie could be seen when the documentary that followed showed scenes from the original version of the episode.

Tomei also did an impression of Jean Stapleton’s Edith, but brought an extra bit of mischievousness to Edith that made us laugh at all of her lines. Barinholtz and Kemper were OK; they weren’t trying to do impressions of Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers, respectively, but their versions of Meathead and Gloria didn’t stand out either.

When Foxx appeared as George at the end of the AITF episode, we were afraid his performance was going to be too distracting, as well, as her nervously tried to incorporate all of Sherman Hemsley’s swagger and style in one scene. And when he flubbed a line, he broke the fourth wall and joked to the audience about it being live, not realizing that time was ticking away. But he settled down in the Jeffersons episode and realized that doing an imitation of Hemsley’s unique style would have been impossible. Sykes did a great job as Weezy because she just did it how Wanda Sykes would do it, not how Isabel Sanford would. Washington and Ferrell flubbed some lines but played the Willises in a very gleefully pompous way. Ferrell’s version of Tom was definitely different than how Franklin Cover played him, but was funny nevertheless; Washington played Helen as more regal than Roxie Roker’s version, but just as effective.

What we appreciated about both episodes is that they didn’t try to completely recreate the originals. Costumes were a bit different, and people stood in different places. There was a real effort to encourage the stars to make their performances their own, which worked for the most part. There was one issue we did have, though, which we’ll explain in a bit.

Sex and Skin: Lionel (Jovan Adepo) and Jenny (Amber Stevens West) pretend to be “doing it” in Lionel’s room, just to tick off George. Jenny even comes covered up as if she’s naked; she’s wearing clothes underneath, though.

Parting Shot: Both casts gather on the All In The Family set with Lear and Kimmel.

Sleeper Star: This is a good spot to mention the folks we haven’t already mentioned: Sean Hayes as Frank in the AITF episode was over the top, as Hayes is wont to do. And Stephen Tobolowsky played Harry Bently in the second half; as much as we love Tobolowsky, he just made us miss Paul Benedict, who always made the most of the brief scenes he was in.

Seeing the 88-year-old Gibbs appear as Florence made our night, though. And she did a great job of playing the original version of Florence, one that spoke with a more working-class patter and wasn’t asked to trade barbs with George.

Most Pilot-y Line: In The Jeffersons episode, there’s a classic argument between George and the Willises about what they say to each other during an argument. And George says the Willeses can’t fight because within five minutes Tom would call Helen the n-word. In 1975, that word made the air; in 2019, it was bleeped. In the documentary that followed the special, Washington explained the dilemma the producers had about letting that word out on the air, thinking that the bleeping was a good compromise. We’re not sure about that. We know things have changed in the past decade about our use of epithets of all types. But if the goal was to show these classics to a new audience, the word — and its impact — should have remained intact.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Live In Front Of A Studio Audience is running on Hulu right now. If you missed the live airing and are curious to see what the hubbub is all about, it’s worth checking out.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

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