I watched all of it and wondered what the point was.
I think the point was to honor–actually, glorify and even canonize–Norman Lear.
Yes, he did some groundbreaking TV. I loved The Jeffersons (original) and recognized its contributions to ending discrimination in the U.S.
I also know that Sherman Hemsley was a Christian man who later, in the 1980s, produced an amazing show called “Amen” that literally preached the Gospel every week, and featured a real ordained pastor as the lead character.
But I also recognize that Norman Lear’s programs were the beginning of the end of “wholesome” family-friendly TV, where a Mom and a Dad were happily married and raising lively but obedient children, and all were glad to be Americans and no one swore or had sex outside of marriage (which is the norm now on almost all TV shows) or campaigned for legalizing evil acts.
And Norman Lear’s programs often proclaimed evil to be “good” and misled many Americans into relativism; e.g., the abortion episode of “Maude.” Maude also glorified the idea of the “spineless, impotent” husband and the strong but oppressed wife being held back from accomplishing her real ambitions. A lot of us drank that KoolAid, too. Nothing wrong with a woman having dreams, goals, and ambitions, but when men are denigrated in the process, and marriage is lowered on the list of priorities, the family suffers, and the entire fabric of society is weakened and eventually rips.
It’s interesting that the “retro” TV channels are so popular nowadays, and many people are watching George and Gracie instead of “New Amsterdam.”
IMO, the remakes of the Lear shows were simply imitations done by “impressionists” who impersonated the characters in the original shows. The remakes didn’t have the impact that they had back then because the society that existed back then doesn’t exist now.
The whole context of societal discrimination supported by existing laws, Women’s Lib, the aftermath of the VietNam war, the “Cold War” and worldwide communism, Watergate, Patty Hearst kidnapping, the Charles Manson murder spree, the popularity of the occult and Satanism , the Jesus People and their Christian rock music, and for Catholics, the implementation of Vatican II–so many differences from today.
Times are always different–times were different in the 1970s than they were in the 1950s, and so on, back to the beginning of time. And times are very different today, with abortion on demand considered a “right,” gay “marriage” and all the other gender-bending issues, massive student loans (back then, we could still work our way through college with a job at a local fast food restaurant!), and above all else, the ability to be connect 24/7 to the entire world through the internet–it’s all so different, and the Norman Lear shows seem “quaint.” They do serve to show us how we got here, but not the remakes–they just showed us how actors can mimic other actors, and how make-up artists can make any actor look like any character.
tvline.com
