Kimmel, celeb friends to re-create classic TV
Two sitcom classics are being honored by Jimmy Kimmel next month, when he teams up with TV icon Norman Lear to bring “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” back to life “for one night only,” the latenight host announced.
The special event, scheduled to air May 22 on ABC, will be broadcast “live in front of a studio audience,” Kimmel said.
The production features considerable star-power, as Woody Harrelson will play Archie Bunker and Marisa Tomei will portray Edith Bunker. Jamie Foxx will play George Jefferson, while Wanda Sykes takes on the role of Louise Jefferson. Ellie Kemper, Justina Machado and Will Ferrell also will appear, ABC said, with more stars to be announced. Sitcom veteran James Burrows will direct the 90-minute special.
The special comes four decades after “All in the Family” — about a working class family in Queens — went off air following a nine-season run from 1971 to 1979. The series is considered groundbreaking due to the way it addressed racism and other social topics, using the bigoted Archie (played by Carroll O’Connor) as an example of what not to be.
“The Jeffersons” was a spinoff of that show that aired for 11 seasons between 1975 and 1985 and for years was the longest-running sitcom to feature a primarily African-American cast. It also featured the TV rarity of an interracial couple.
People say “these two shows were meant for the ’70s and would not work today,” said Lear, 96, who created both series. “We disagree with them and are here to prove ... the timelessness of human nature.”