TV Reunions
I recently saw The Odd Couple: Together Again, a 1993 TV movie. It stars the original TV leads, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. None of the other original cast are around except a short appearance from Penny Marshall. (We do get Jerry Adler as Murray and Toni Kalem as Felix's daughter--both now best known for their work on The Sopranos.)
The plot has Oscar recovering from throat surgery (Jack Klugman really had surgery to remove his cancer) and Felix's daughter getting married.
It's dreadful. Sitcom reunions always are.
It's one thing to get everyone back to discuss the old show, but trying to create a new episode always fails.
First, a sitcom that works usually captures the people (in front of and behind the camera) and a moment in time when things are clicking. It's hard to get that spirit back.
Second, these reunion episodes try to be bigger than an average episode. They open up the show, with more scenes--often outdoors--rather than sticking to the old sets. (Green Acres had gloriously fake outdoor sets--seeing Eddie Albert in a real field in the GA reunion was sickening.) And they have stories that are too big, and try to move the characters beyond where they used to be.
Third, and the biggest problem--they're not comedies so much as nostalgia fests. The show isn't about funny moments so much as warm ones.
Better not to have them at all.
posted by LAGuy @ 1:03 AM
6 Comments:
The worst reunion I recall seeing was for the Dick Van Dyke show. In addition to the difficulties you cited, I also think these shows suffer from reflecting the changed status of the individual stars.
Most good sitcoms involve ensemble casts, and critical to their success are the sort of equal prominance given several characters. In the original series, Rob and Laura and Buddy and Sally were more or less equals, with the dentist (Jerry?) and his wife Millie on a second tier along with Mel and Carl Reiner.
In the reuinion, it was all about Mary Tyler Moore (Laura) who probably is the most powerful figure in show business from the show. The other characters, even Dick Van Dyke, sort of hovered about her, and it was distressing. Of course, the other problem with this reunion was they had waited too long, and many of the characters were unavailable (Buddy - dead, Jerry - dead, Sally - looked dead).
I think some reunions could be successful - Cheers or Friends come to mind. But a reuinion of MASH or Seinfeld or 3rd Rock would be horrible.
My favorite reunions were of 1950s TV shows that were done in the late 70s/early 80s. Specifically I'm thinking of Leave It To Beaver and Fathers Knows Best. Actually they were fairly poor-to-mediocre as TV episodes but they fascinating comments on American society as seen through Hollywood - the idea being that the all-American families of the 50s were hollow rotting structures. As I recall (and this is all from memory), they was lots of divorce, Wally suffered from a pre-Viagra era erectile dysfunction, all of Robert Wagner's kids were separated or divorced & lonely and had issues communicating with pops and Beaver- fat with bad hair (even for the 70s)- is very worried about his effeminate son who would rather play dress up than baseball. Ward is Dead. My guess is that this was believed to be "subtle" at the time. Of course they tacked on a happy ending to both but that wasn't the real point.
Honorable mention-Return to Gilligan's Island in 1978 or 79 (an older Mary Ann and a scab Ginger)- I got blown off for the Junior Prom and ended up watching this w/ my parents on a Friday night (and they, being the age I am now, fell asleep halfway through). Its truly amazing I am alive today.
Father Knows Best starred Robert Young. Or had Jane Wyatt divorced him and married Robert Wagner in the missing years?
My guess is these 70s/80s reunions were not being "subtle," but were taking advantage of the new openness on TV and trying to be what the writers mistakenly thought was relevant. I seem to recall one of the two (!) Dobie Gillis reunions--neither could get Tuesday Weld or Warren Beatty, by the way--had a plot about their small town being economically destroyed.
Speaking of Bob Denver, I remember watching the Gilligan's Island reunion. The castaways are saved but learn that society has changed so much it's hard for them to adjust. And somehow, by the end, they're stuck back on the island again. I wanted to punch out the TV set--I'd been waiting all my life for them to be rescued. I much preferred the second reunion, where the island is a tropical resort, and the climax is a basketball game between the Harlem Globestrotters and robots.
One made up name or another- I meant Marcus Welby
NEGUY
I agree with all that's being said, but I still feel that after the Red Sox won the world series, they should have shot another episode of Cheers. No one was happier that the "curse" ended than Boston guys who sat around in bars like that.
One special that had the right idea was "The Monkees" - where nothing was changed. The guys still lived in the house and were still looking for gigs. Again the idea was good, but they just couldn't capture the magic of the original. Perhaps, as LA Guy suggests, such magic is unrecapturable, but I honestly think they could have come closer.
A Cheers get-together might have been fun--the cast is still pretty much intact and capable. And the Red Sox winning the World Series would work (as opposed to a "special" episode where someone gets married, or has died, or they're selling the bar or holding an intervention). Of course, considering how the cast was at the after-party of the finale, I guess the reunion would just be Norm and the gang drinking themselves silly.
The Monkees reunion was the brainchild of Mike Nesmith. It had a great concept, but it might have been better if someone else had written and directed. Also, no one was doing music any more like the Monkees did in the 60s, not even the Monkees.
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