I woke up from a vivid dream this morning. I’d just arrived home from a business trip to California, and Kassi was very excited to show me the changes that had been made to our neighborhood in my absence. Everyone had gotten a new house, it seems, and the neighborhood itself had been newly laid out, and its boundaries expanded. Our house had been moved to the backside of the neighborhood by the creek, and the wooded area around the creek had been developed, so that our house, instead of looking out onto a wooded ravine as it would currently, was now at a “T” intersection in the middle of the larger neighborhood. We no longer had a detached house, but rather a San Francisco-style tall, narrow townhome. It was tall, three stories, and its paneled exterior was colored a light and cheery yellow. I was a little skeptical about the new floor plan, but Kassi assured me that it was well laid out on the inside and I was going to really love the changes.
You would think that in this “woke” era the comedies of Norman Lear would be better appreciated, but I don’t think his many efforts to reboot his old series are going anywhere. Not because of any politically touchy subject matter, but because he saw the humanity in all of his characters, including those like Archie Bunker who he used to illustrate everything he saw as wrong with modern American attitudes, but whom he based on his own beloved father. Modern folks aren’t interested in any of that. They don’t want subtleties, they certainly don’t want to be challenged. They only want to condemn.
This one-night revival ought to be a fine tribute with some great casting. I think Woody Harrelson is a pretty perfect pick for Archie, and Marissa Tomei as Edith will be something to watch. Wanda Sykes would have made a natural Florence, though; I wouldn’t have cast her as Weezy. I think Sherman Hemsley’s George Jefferson is even more iconic than Archie Bunker, and it’s going to be tough to do his portrayal justice.
As a Norman Lear fan I’ll want to see this, and I’ll certainly be wearing my “Shut Up Honkey” t-shirt.
