Norman Lear and Woody Harrelson on their live TV special, a collaboration with Jimmy Kimmel that enlisted a cadre of big-name stars to recreate two of Lear’s best-loved socially relevant 70s series.
When Jimmy Kimmel called Woody Harrelson to ask if he wanted to play Archie Bunker in a live version of All in the Family, Harrelson’s decision was a no-brainer.
“All in the Family was a big part of my childhood. We watched it every week. I’m a big fan of the show,” the actor said in an interview. “But I’ve got to admit it’s daunting, because Carroll O’Connor is so great. It’s kind of like wanting to take on A Streetcar Named Desire with the knowledge that obviously no one can do it better than Brando. So I don’t really want to try to do better than him. I’m trying to do my own thing.”
Harrelson is just one of the big-name stars featured in Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons, which airs Wednesday, May 22, on ABC. He’s joined by Marisa Tomei (as Edith Bunker), Ellie Kemper and Ike Barinholtz (Gloria and Mike “Meathead” Stivic), Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykes (George and Louise Jefferson), Will Ferrell and the recently announced Kerry Washington (Tom and Helen Willis), Justina Machado (Florence Johnston), Sean Hayes (Mr. Lorenzo), Anthony Anderson (Uncle Henry), Stephen Tobolowsky (Mr. Bentley), Jovan Adepo and Amber Stevens West (Lionel and Jenny Willis Jefferson), and Jackée Harry (Diane Stockwell) in recreating two episodes of the original 1970s sitcoms.
Norman Lear, who created both shows in the 1970s, will host the 90-minute special with Kimmel, while 10-time Emmy winner James Burrows will direct. Lear said that Kimmel came up with the idea—and also stressed that this is a one-shot deal. “The show isn’t coming back so much as it’s being honored with the performance,” Lear explained.
In a chat before actual rehearsals began, Harrelson said that he had been binge-watching episodes of All in the Family almost every night to prepare. And while he wouldn’t get into many specifics about what he’s bringing to the character of Archie, he did say that he’s been able to recreate Archie’s dialect—an old-fashioned “outer-borough” accent.
The accent isn’t the only thing that’s returning from the original show. Lear said that the special also meticulously recreates the Bunker and Jefferson homes, inch by inch. Even Archie’s iconic brown chair will be back—although it’s a copy of the actual chair, which remains on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Those who saw Bunker the first time around remember him best as an equal-opportunity racist, anti-feminist, conservative, and homophobe, a character who articulated the anxieties of the working class while remaining recognizably human. Sure, he learned lessons and genuinely cared for his family—but as Harrelson pointed out, modern audiences may find it difficult to look past his rougher edges. “The times are so different now—much more conservative,” he said. “In fact, there’s a lot of episodes you couldn’t do [today] because of some of the things he says back then.”
Lear, however, countered the idea that All in the Family might seem dated today, even when it came to the racist terms Archie used on-screen. The biggest challenge in mounting this live special, he said, was convincing the network that people like Archie still exist—and it’s obvious to Lear that they do.
“I think Archie, more than anything, was fearful. You know, tomorrow was changing too fast for him,” Lear said. “He’s basically afraid of change. He’s comfortable with the old car and the old ways.”
Brent Miller, an executive producer of the project and the head of production and development at Lear’s company, Act III Productions, said that the special’s creative team chose which episodes to recreate by picking two that would pair well, setting up their shared universe for viewers who aren’t necessarily familiar with All in the Family and The Jeffersons. “This is a whole new generation of people who are being introduced to these shows, so we wanted to make sure that it made sense for a one-time event, and they are definitely socially and politically relevant to the times we’re living,” he said.
But Miller and Lear wouldn’t divulge which episodes those are. “There’s no surprise in letting an audience know what they’re about to see,” said Lear.
Surprise is what both producers are after. “At a time when there’s so much out there to watch and people have kind of forgotten about ‘appointment TV,’ the reason for this event is that we hope people will watch together,” said Miller. “Families all around [the TV], like we did back then. That would be the gift of gifts—to have people watching it together.” Lear also emphasized the live aspect of the presentation, which will help it stand out in an increasingly crowded Tv landscape: “The American public may not realize it as they tune in, but they don’t get to see a lot of live, well-rehearsed material done for millions of people live. It’s very different, and it’s very brave.”
And while everyone involved stresses that the return of All in the Family and The Jeffersons really is a one-night-only sort of occasion, Lear has considered whether he would ever bring the former series back for a more sustained modern-day run, as he did with the Netflix reboot of One Day at a Time. “It depends on how I feel everything went,” he said. “I mean, in an ideal world, I would certainly consider it and be able to give the American audience those characters again. Embodied differently and played differently with those characters, it would be exciting as hell.”
