GOOD TIMES!
ABC’S live airings of ’70s sitcoms try to rekindle yesterday’s TV magic
Barely six months after a sweet ratings spike (15 million viewers), with their live revival last spring of episodes of Norman Lear-produced sitcoms from the 1970s, ABC returned with another go at this strange yet entertaining form of homage — this time re-enacting an episode of Good Times along with a Christmas episode of All in the Family.
The results of this second Live in Front of a Studio Audience presentation were mostly fun to watch, if at certain moments stressful, as a few of today’s actors (and one surprise Good Times alum), occasionally struggled with the live format and the precise rhythm of old-school, multicamera comedy dialogue.
Conscious that ABC had switched from the impending House vote to impeach Trump to air the special, host Jimmy Kimmel appeared at the top of the hour (seated next to the eternally good-natured, 97-year-old Lear), and apologized for any interruptions that would surely come. “Apparently something is going on in Washington tonight,” Kimmel cracked. “There is trouble in the Nixon administration.”
Good Times went first, with a rousing rendition of the theme song performed by Black-ish’s Anthony Anderson and R&B legend Patti Labelle.
The Good Times episode chosen by ABC’S producers is one of its most remembered, from 1975, in which James and Florida Evans are at odds over an upcoming alderman election. James (Brooklyn Nine-nine’s Andre Braugher) is voting for the longtime incumbent, Fred Davis. His wife, Florida (Viola Davis, delivering the special’s most inspired performance with her take on the late Esther Rolle’s memorable role), supports a younger candidate named Jimmy Pierson (played by recent Emmy winner Jharrel Jerome).
The entire Evans family — along with their outspoken neighbour Willona (Tiffany Haddish) — is caught up in the debate, arguing about which candidate can better serve the needs of their publicly housed community. Michael (This Is Us’s Asante Blackk) and Thelma (Corinne Foxx) side with their mother. Siding with James is the boisterous older sibling, J.J., played by former Saturday Night Live cast member Jay Pharoah, who very nearly landed his impression of Jimmie Walker’s original (and at the time sensational), breakout role.
Tensions rise when Florida invites Pierson over to the apartment, just when James’ candidate, Davis, shows up. The special’s big reveal was that John Amos, the original Good Times star who played James, showed up to play Davis. As great as it was to see the 79-year-old actor, the live repartee nearly got the better of him a time or two as he reached for his lines, aided by some ad libbing from his appreciative co-stars.
Amos left Good Times after the third season; he was reportedly fired after he raised concerns that the show, which increasingly focused on J.J.’S popular antics (“Dyn-o-mite!” etc.), was treading too far into stereotypes. The writers killed off James in a car crash. The hug exchanged between Lear and Amos seemed poignant — maybe just a Hollywood hug, maybe something more significant all these years later.
After Good Times, we segued to the All in the Family episode, which was skilfully presented but carried an air of been-there-done-that. Both Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei, previously lauded for playing Archie and Edith Bunker last May, have only improved their impressions of Carroll O’connor and Jean Stapleton — especially Harrelson, with his Queens accent and Archie’s limitless prejudice. “Don’t be singing a song about Christmas in Spanish, God doesn’t want to hear that,” he admonished a short-lived character named Teresa Betancourt (Justina Machado). “The world was started by Adam and Eve, not Desi and Charo.”
The original episode first aired Dec. 25, 1976, and revolves around an unexpected visit from a young man named David (Jesse Eisenberg), an old college friend of Archie’s son-in-law and constant nemesis, Mike (Ike Barinholtz). David is a draft-dodger living in Canada who has quietly returned to New York; Archie, meanwhile, has invited his buddy Pinky Peterson (Kevin Bacon) to Christmas dinner. Pinky lost his son in the Vietnam War.
The fact Pinky and David are seated together can still create that classic, Lear-style American tension, brought to a head just as the family begins carving Edith’s turkey. Everyone expects a conflict to ruin the day, but it turns out the only conflicted person is Archie, who cannot fathom how the two men are so easily able to reconcile their perspectives.
The sets look meticulously accurate, and the actors pretty much get their lines right.
This stunt is playful but not meaningful — even when the episode topics tend to faintly resonate. Something’s still amiss; when it comes to nostalgia, something always is. If they return for a third special, I think they should go all out and take on the riskiest material of all. What I’m saying is: No Maude, no peace. The Washington Post