२३ मे, २०१९

Progress: "ABC censored out a number of racially charged words that had been used in the original episodes."

I'm reading "What you missed on ABC's live version of 'All in the Family' and 'The Jeffersons.'"

The headline is right. I missed it. I was interested enough to have blogged about it when I read about it a while back, but I didn't notice it was on, so I missed it. Like old-time TV! You have to keep track of when it's on. Now, I could have DVR'd it if I'd noticed it was about to be on, but it wasn't promoted enough for me to see that, even though I'm on line every day, reading many MSM news sites (as well as Facebook and Twitter). I'd have checked it out, and I am checking out articles about it, including the above-linked report on "What [I] missed." #1, I missed the censorship.
In the "All in the Family" episode, which aired first, the Bunkers played host to the Jefferson family after Edith (Marisa Tomei) accidentally volunteered to have her home be the site of a going away party. Archie (Woody Harrelson) is annoyed by the idea of having a black family in his home. What unraveled was a discussion about race and privilege, with Archie on the defensive as his son-in-law and daughter (Ike Barinholtz and Ellie Kemper) tried, as always, to educate him on the new world order. The script was performed exactly as it had been written for a 1973 episode called "Henry's Farewell."
... except that Jamie Foxx (as George) screwed up his lines and broke character to say "It's live." Mm. Yeah. It was live, but it wasn't "Saturday Night Live." You had time to practice your lines, and you're inviting us to watch a prime-time live-TV event. Maybe that's why the show wasn't promoted enough for me to notice in time to tune in.

Look at how Entertainment Weekly fawningly covers Foxx: "Jamie Foxx Hilariously Flubs Line in Live 'All in the Family' Remake and Recovers Like a Champ." I'm sure the actors who didn't screw up appreciate that this is what's getting the coverage:

४५ टिप्पण्या:

wendybar म्हणाले...

Meh!!???!!! Don't really care.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

I threw out the TV before All in the Family started so missed the entire phenomenon. Woody Harrelson is hugely talented though - look at the outtakes track on Edge of Seventeen (2016), how quickly he can transition from out of frame back into frame, itself a comic performance.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

They can't be too racially charged if they were aired in the original episodes.

Not safe-space compliant, is all. Differs from racially charged owing to faked outrage as a power play.

Birkel म्हणाले...

Orwell would be proud.

Censorship is progress.

War is peace.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Attack the candid. That's from latin for white.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Latin candidum "white; pure; sincere, honest, upright,"

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Originally candid meant seeing only the good in people

With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough;—one meets it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of every body’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone

- Pride and Prejudice

Jeff Brokaw म्हणाले...

All in the Family was incredibly edgy even for that time when people did not lose their shit over every little thing. No censoring required, because our culture was strong enough to deal with it. We could hear opinions we didn’t like on a TV show and turn to another channel.

Somehow we survived.

“Progress” when referring to today’s times should always be used ironically and in scare quotes.

Jaq म्हणाले...

I don’t get lectured on my retrograde values nearly enough, so I am sorry I missed it.

Woody Harrelson’s “Lost in London” is pretty good, and supposedly a true story about one night in his life.

“Who’s the natural born killer, Woody?”
“You are, you’re the natural born killer."

Sally327 म्हणाले...

This reminds me of the climactic scene in the movie "Tootsie" where the soap opera show has to be done live because of a problem with the tape and that leads to the big reveal, for those in the movie, not for the rest of us. Except that was all scripted in the movie, which is also being remade by the way. I assume Foxx's flub wasn't scripted, except who knows these days, it's all so contrived.


Jeff Weimer म्हणाले...

That flub completely wiped out the punchline to a joke.

The whole thing probably would have seemed fine, except they showed clips from the original airings and that did the new version no favors. the original jokes shown landed better, they were more expressive to sell them, and it confirmed my suspicion that Woody and Jamie (and Marisa Tomei) were trying too hard - they were attempting to play the actors playing the characters. Wanda Sykes was the best of the top 4, she played it understated and inhabited the role effortlessly. All in all, the AitF episode felt forced.

The Jeffersons was much better. Jamie settled down a bit and it helped immensely. Even Will Ferrell turned in a good performance. The best was that one of the original actresses (Marla Gibbs) reprised her role of Florence from the original and killed it with her lines, even though they were delivered quite differently, as the younger her was more expressive and the much older character was befittingly understated in her delivery. Having her was apparently a surprise for everyone that Kimmell arranged, another actress was announced for the role.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

I hope Pugsley appears more often than in the original series, I really liked his wacky inventions.

WK म्हणाले...

Television as a medium has always been used by progressives to introduce and promote an “idea” and allow it to gain visibility and acceptance in larger society. A few examples: Soap; Barney Miller; Bosom Buddies; Will and Grace; Transparent...... many more. The shows bring into your home an idea you may not easily be exposed to and the repetition builds acceptance. The only reason I can think that they are remaking All in the Family and The Jeffersons is to show younger generations how racist and resistant to change past recent generations were. And that the younger progressive view is better.

अनामित म्हणाले...

So what were these "racially charged words"? "The"? "And"? "It"? "Cauliflower"?

Nobody: I don’t get lectured on my retrograde values nearly enough, so I am sorry I missed it.

What's funny about didactic television is when a large chunk of the audience sympathizes with the "bigot", and everybody hates the SJW.

Seeing Red म्हणाले...

It was boring. The Jeffersons part was better.

TJM म्हणाले...

Can't risk offending the perpetually offended class

Michael Fitzgerald म्हणाले...

Fucking prog Democrat party members longing for the heady days of the early seventies when the yippies were the heroes, Nixon was under siege, and television first showed progs how to harangue and harass normal Americans with social justice politics.

Was anyone clamoring, asking for, or even wondering about a live contemporary imitation of old television programs? This shit is fucking pablum for rotten old hippies to celebrate their wasted youths while they dribble piss into their dirty diapers.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Hollywood should die.

wendybar म्हणाले...

Then they missed the point of the whole show. Dummies.

gspencer म्हणाले...

Ya didn't miss nothing.

Mr. O. Possum म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Mr. O. Possum म्हणाले...

Get ready for hundreds and thousands of old TV shows, movies, books, and who knows what to utterly disappear from the digital world. Unless you have DVDs of the shows mentioned here, the original content will completely vanish. Modern-day bowdlerization.

Amadeus 48 म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Amadeus 48 म्हणाले...

I have no words.

Birches म्हणाले...

Huh. I received a lot of advertising for this online. I had no interest because all the ads stressed how "important" the episodes were. Meh.

wild chicken म्हणाले...

Geeze that video was dark

Birches म्हणाले...

They won't even say what the words were. For all I know, it could have been the ok gesture.

Wilbur म्हणाले...

Words cannot express the level of disdain in which I hold all of these "show business" people. And Lear especially.

But pleeeese keep on watching their shows and movies, folks. Now more than ever, they need the money to support their leftist politician pals.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

All in the Family is extremely dangerous....to snowflakes.

sean म्हणाले...

I remember the sixties, when Prof. Althouse and I were young, and how scornful we were of the Victorians, who censored (or bowdlerized, if you prefer to confine the word censorship to government activity) Shakespeare in order to suit their more modern sensibilities. We seem to have come full circle. (Not that Norman Lear is exactly Shakespeare.)

Narr म्हणाले...

Wife and I missed vast chunks of late 70s-early 80s TV (we lived without). I do remember AITF but never watched the other one; it's trite now to say, but a lot of the audience were watching Archie because he spoke for them.

Unknown, above, is correct, we're seeing the beginnings of a cleansing of popular culture. Information is increasingly being defined as "that which is available online" and when Googog, Faceborg, and their ilk have achieved their goals, well . . . you think book burnings are impressive, wait till hundreds and thousands of years of human history and culture can be obliterated at PC corporate whim.

Narr
All for the children, of course

PM म्हणाले...

WK @7:31

Walk-off homer.

HoodlumDoodlum म्हणाले...

I guess I don't understand the point: if they censored the language of the original then why do it at all? I thought the idea was to inspire frisson from saying naughty things with the understanding that those ideas are now being criticized. The whole point of the original was to criticize racism in a comedic and humane way...if your "remake" can't even replicate that without implicitly calling the original ITSELF racist (because it used words that we now find unacceptable even in that context) then, like, what is the point?

Seems stupid.

bagoh20 म्हणाले...

All in the Family was edgie and courageous decades ago. What would be edgy and courageous today would be to take the bigotry and foolishness of modern SJWs to task and mock it. There is almost none of that today. Roseanne tried, and you seen what happened to her.

Bill Peschel म्हणाले...

Censoring All in the Family? Talk about missing the point.

Or maybe that was the point. Progressives are in charge, and this is how they show they rule.

Kelly म्हणाले...

Deadpool breaking the fourth wall is much funnier and better timed.

Fen म्हणाले...

I thought the idea was to inspire frisson from saying naughty things with the understanding that those ideas are now being criticized. The whole point of the original was to criticize racism in a comedic and humane way.

Yah, it's going to be hysterical when Hollywood revokes all the awards of those actors, writers, producers, directors who pushed caricatures of Whites to slime us Deplorables.

A Sum of All Fears replaced muslim terrorists with white nationalists as the villian, because shut up. In 10 years it will be pulled from the shelves for promoting nazis and Tom Clancy will be MemoryHoled.

Fen म्हणाले...

"...the stupid years..." - Heinlein

Known Unknown म्हणाले...

"Hollywood should die."

Hollywood is dead. They just don't know it yet.

Known Unknown म्हणाले...

I found a solution to this problem.

elkh1 म्हणाले...

Hence, bigots are coated with a pc veneer.

Anthony म्हणाले...

Very good recovery. Most actors these days don't have any live or improv experience and just start laughing. Watching old bloopers one can tell who did stand-up or vaudeville by the way they handled screwups.

But yeah, today's AITF/TJ's would really consist of doofussy progs trying to deal with reality.

Eddie Murphy's "The PJs" was way ahead of its time.

Marc in Eugene म्हणाले...

Known Unknown's 'solution' reminded me how obnoxious Rob Reiner's Mike was.

Jim at म्हणाले...

Or one could still watch all the original episodes on MEtv, AntennaTV or any number of channels running old-time television.

Nothing censored. Not even the 'N' word.

DeepRunner म्हणाले...

Yeah, the original "All In The Family" was funny because the actors made it funny. Meathead ended up being Mike Stivic in real life (although he did give us Spinal Tap and Princess Bride, so not ALL bad), but people watched for Archie and Edith, especially Archie's politically-incorrect views on things. And George Jefferson was as much of a bigot when it came to the Willises. When I heard about the live shows, I had zero interest in watching. In Safe Space America, I figure the real show would be too triggering.