Live in Front of a Studio Audience

My thoughts on the All in the Family and The Jeffersons episodes that aired live this week.

We all know I am a classic TV junkie. I grew up in front of the TV. I know TV actors and their credits like sports fans memorize their favorite teams and players stats. I do that with actors' credits and their awards.

So as you can probably guess, I was excited to watch Live in Front of a Studio Audience on ABC this past week. What did I think? Loved it! I am hoping we will see more based not he ratings for this one.

I loved the audience reactions. They were loud and not sweetened like today's sitcoms. These days, the three-camera sitcoms are still shot in front of a live studio audience, but then they "fix" or "sweeten" the audience reactions in post production. So they sound muted, to me anyway. Often times, if the audience doesn't laugh where the producers want a laugh, they will add one in. In the Norman Lear days (the 1970s), the audiences were loud and boisterous, especially on his shows. They would applaud and go nuts over some of the lines.

I've read many articles and interviews where younger television viewers don't like the live studio audiences. They call it canned laughter, which it is not.  But we've got a whole generation now raised on the single camera comedies like The Office and Modern Family. They don't like the studio audience shows. To me, that's what a sitcom is!

On to the show...Loved Marissa Tomei as Edith. Loved Woody Harrelson as Archie Bunker. They were great, Trust to the characters while bringing their own spin to them. Ellie Kemper and Ike Barinholtz were good to although they didn't have as much to do. And frankly they are a little old to be playing the children of Marsisa Tomei and Woody Harrelson.  But I am quibbling here.

Tomei was a hoot as Edith. Loved her high pitched voice and the running around. Harrelson got the vernacular and dialect of Archie down just right. And not importantly, they were not imitating the threat Jean Stapleton and Carroll O'Connor.

Jamie Foxx was hilarious as George Jefferson. I loved how he had the swagger and the mannerisms of George. However, to me, he was doing an impression of Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson as opposed to bringing his own take to the character. He was doing a sketch character. And that makes sense since he got his start on In Living Color. And I wasn't too thrilled with how he broke the fourth wall and pointed out his flubbed line instead of just repeating the line and going on as one does on stage. But that's just me.  It was funny to see Woody Harrelson break and turn his back to the audience when that happened. And Marissa Tomei just stayed in character as Edith, you could see she was stifling a laugh but staying as Edith. It does make live TV fun, but again really?

For me, the highlight of the night was the appearance of Marla Gibbs as Florence. I jumped out of my seat and cheered when they opened the door and revealed her. YESSS!!! And double bonus whammy for us classic TV fans, she was reunited with her 227 co-star Jackee!

Oh! And how fabulous was Jennifer Hudson singing The Jeffersons theme song!?

All in all I loved the night and I hope we get some more. That's TV!

Grease Live!

Last night was Grease Live! on FOX.  This was their first attempt at a live musical after NBC has given us 3 over the last couple of years. The main difference between Grease and NBC's telecasts was that there was a live audience. However, like NBC's live musicals, Grease was shot like a movie as opposed to a stage production and in this case used the Warner Brothers soundstage and backlot to keep the show moving. As a result, the "live audience" was not sitting in a fixed audience or bleachers. They were scattered throughout the locations and integrated into the scenes.

For instance, the opening took place outside, (right after the rain I might add) , and had people standing behind ropes cheering on the opening number. The same held true for the cheerleading tryout scene which was outside in front of the school building. In the gym, the audience members were in the bleachers as in Hand Jive too. The extras in the front rows of the bleachers were dressed in period (sort of) but everyone behind them was just  regular modern audience. The audience cheered at everything. It did add to the "Live" excitement of this event.

And it was an "Event" in every sense of the word. In fact it was a spectacular. Did you know that in the 1950s that is what the big TV specials were called, Spectaculars? Look it up. This production was an amazing feat. They used multiple sets, soundstages, and outdoor locations in and around the Warner Brothers Burbank lot. It was an incredible production and they pulled it off. Kudos to the amazing camera work. It was seamless. Because, ladies and gentleman, the truth of the matter is this was NOT just a filmed stage production. As I've said with The Wiz Live, this was hybrid of movie and stage.

In the case of Grease Live, this was even more true.  Why is that? Because they matched the movie almost scene for scene and shot for shot. This was NOT the stage version of Grease. Why? Because the movie is so beloved and iconic. And its what people expect. But the movie strayed far from the original Broadway play. Grease the Broadway musical started out in Chicago, moved to Off-Broadway and then to Broadway becoming the longest running Broadway show of all time running a then record 8 years (1972 to 1980). It was smaller, raunchier and grittier. It was not the sunny nostalgic look back at the 1950s that the movie was. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But subsequent revivals of the show now interpolate scenes and songs from the movie. I would love to see someone do the original version of Grease just to experience it the way it was originally intended.

Back to last night's show.  An amazing feat to pull off.  I was on a thread on fb with some friends where we were being snarky and dishing so many things. So I will use this to be positive. Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo. OMG. When she sang "There Are Worse Things I Could Do", she nailed it. NAILED IT! Especially considering her father passed away the night before. Proof that the show must go on. Kudos to her. Loved Keke Palmer as Marty singing Freddy My Love. I loved the transition from her bedroom to the USO stage. I rewound and played it back to catch the costume and set change again. The same with the Greased Lightning transition. So well done.

Loved that they Didi Conn was the waitress with the "new" Frenchy. Although I was not a fan of the song they gave Carly Rae Jepson to sing right before Teen Angel. It didn't fit in with the style of the rest of the show.  I also loved what they did with Those Magic Changes. That montage was very well put together. And this is a prime example of the movie vs. stage. You can't do that onstage. Its an editing thing that can only be done in movies. But they found a way to do this. Awesome.

Hand Jive. Wow. So much going on. And think about this. Think about the logistics of filming this in a way so that the audience isn't aware of how its being done. But imagine all the cameras on that stage. All the crew holding those cameras. Running in and out of the dancers, or being lifted above the soundstage simultaneously. And all out of sight.

I read some complaining about the ages of the actors being too old. So? What else is new? So were the actors in the movie. They were mostly in their late 20s. Olivia Newton John and Stockard Channing were over 30. Get over it!

Loved Blanche played by Haneefah Wood. Why isn's she listed on the imdv page for this? At least not last night during the airing. She was a scene stealer. And considering most of her scenes were opposite one of my faves, Ana Gasteyer, thats saying something.

This was a big, fun, splashy event night of television. And I hope there is more to come. Well there is in fact. FOX is doing Rocky Horror at some point and then NBC is doing Hairspray in December.  Let's hope NBC livens up Hairspray with some audience.