oakhillfound

While I was never a huge fan of the original television series, I found myself growing more and more nostalgic for it with each frame of this wretched remake. Having been a fan of Cedric the Entertainer in some of his other venues, I was terribly disappointed that his Ralph Kramden never seemed to have the spark of the original. Gleason, to his credit, always seemed to have the slow burn and the eventual eruption down to a science. The Ed Norton character always seemed the sweetly naive friend with the droll sense of humor-- all of which fails miserably in this remake. I wonder if this film would have been more successful if the studio just jettisoned the original characters and gave us a fresh batch. There was just too much baggage from the original series. (On her worst day, Gabrielle Union would be no match for the sarcastic put-downs of Audrey Meadows.) Watch the original on DVD instead. You'll thank me later.

This would be a great addition to any music lover's DVD collection if the shows would be released in that format. My memories recall some very early appearances by Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, and Kris Kristofferson. This show began as a summer replacement for "The Hollywood Palace" (!) and was successful enough to be brought back the following winter after another fall debacle at then-hapless ABC. According to Cash biographers, network interference was the reason the show was canceled after its second full year. When you consider much of the junk that existed in the ABC schedule, that's a horrifying testimony to just how mismanaged the network was at the time. It would be great to see this show again.