Archie Bunker and George Jefferson are getting a casting makeover, but they’ll be saying the same things that entertained (and outraged) millions when first uttered in the 1970s.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and groundbreaking TV producer Norman Lear are reviving the two classic characters Wednesday, with Woody Harrelson as Archie and Jamie Foxx as George, in ABC’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons’” (8 EDT/PDT). Kimmel and Lear will host the 90-minute special, which will feature an episode of each series from the original script.
The star-studded cast also includes Marisa Tomei, Wanda Sykes, Kerry Washington, Will Ferrell, Anthony Anderson, Ellie Kemper, Sean Hayes and Justina Machado, who starred in Netflix’s recently canceled adaptation of another Lear classic, “One Day at a Time.”
“Woody and Jamie were the first people we asked, and they both agreed immediately,” Kimmel says. “I texted them, and within a minute, I got a text back saying, ‘Yes, I’m in. I want to do this.”
Scheduling issues were the only consideration, he says, joking: “It just shows that when they say no to me for other things, they’re saying no because they don’t like me.”
Kimmel, a TV fan and the host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” hopes the special reintroduces comedies that entertained as they dealt with serious and controversial issues, including race, prejudice, sexual assault and social inequality, that are still debated today.
“For me, the inspiration is the work of Norman Lear and the great television shows that I want to make sure are not forgotten by a new generation,” he says. “They’re important shows, just as important as anything in our culture. I think television is seen as less than that sometimes, but to me and my family, these are shows we love and learned from.”
Kimmel, Lear and ABC won’t say which episodes of “All in the Family,” which featured Carroll O’Connor as Archie and aired on CBS from 1971-79, and spinoff “The Jeffersons (1975-85) will be staged, but they’re expected to be “Henry’s Farewell,” a 1973 “Family” episode that includes the first appearance of Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson, and “A Friend in Need,” the 1975 “Jeffersons” premiere.
Kimmel and Lear plan no changes in the original scripts, which included bigoted and sexist language and may still draw opposition today, making ABC censors nervous.
How does Lear respond to critics who say his hot-button shows couldn’t be revived as series today?
“You’re wrong,” he says. “There may be some segments of the culture that will have a different reaction than we experienced in the ‘70s, but that wants to be discussed also. Let’s learn more about them,” Lear says.
Kimmel and Lear, who will introduce the special and talk afterward, acknowledge they can’t top the original actors, but they’re proud to have a top-notch cast and director: James Burrows, the preeminent sitcom master known for his work on “Cheers,” “Will & Grace,” “Frasier” and “Friends.”
Lear also is a fan of the studio-audience sitcom, a venerable format sometimes criticized as stale but one that still attracts large audiences, as “The Big Bang Theory” proved.
“There is nothing like a live audience and actors who live off the reaction to the last thing they said,” he says. “It’s a chemistry that one can’t find any other way.”
How did it all come about?
“I was thinking about these live (TV) musicals and whether there were other ways you could do the same thing. And then I started thinking about television shows,” Kimmel says. “Doing it live makes it appointment television and adds a level of excitement (for) the actors and director that you might not have if you know (there’s) a safety net. I think it will be more of a must-watch moment.”
Besides his production and hosting duties, Kimmel is enjoying the project simply as a TV fan.
“For me to be able to work with Norman and this unbelievable cast he has attracted is something that is very exciting,” he says. “And also just fun.”
