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We can all stand a little John Amos and family at 704 Hauser

(Washington Afro-American) Janice F. Brown; 04-16-1994

We can all stand a little John Amos and family at '704 Hauser. Street' ..  John Amos and his family in Archie Bunker's old house at 704 Hauser Street.

Frankly, we couldn't stand Archie Bunker, his frumpy wife or Meathead. In fact, this is one critic who didn't watch Norman Lear's "All in the Family" and wouldn't watch unless Sherman Hemsley or Lionel, the family next door were on...in the early days before they got their own show, "The Jeffersons."

Judging from reviews this week in "Variety" and the daily media... you are going to be given the impression that this show is "not funny...stale" and if you get uptight seeing a White girl "kissing...slobbering" over a Black man...urging him to have sex with her in his mother' s house...you can bet some White critics are going to be upset as well as some Black sistahs! Of course, it depends on whose ox is being gored. Some critics raved over TV shows like "Queen" where the Massa was raping the slave girls?

If you can get past the opening scenes, you'll fall apart as John Amos jumps all over his son and his Mom takes it personally. "704 Hauser," which premiered Monday, is set in the same Queens, N.Y. residence that Archie Bunker's family resided in Norman Lear's "All in the Family." Previously associated with Lear on "Good Times" (a spinoff of "Maude, " which was a spinoff of "All in the Family,") John Amos stars as Ernie Cumberbatch, an auto mechanic, Vietnam veteran, ex-civil rights fighter and a Democrat.

He is often at odds with his wife, Rose, Lynnie Godfrey, known for her stage roles in musicals such as "Eubie." You have to have hysterics as Amos describes woman and men who get "happy" in church. You can tell the writer of the skit, is not a regular church person raised in the church... southern, northern, western or otherwise. By the time most folks get to California they pretend they don't know their own grandmothers. Rose, plays her role with dignity. She keeps a firm hand on her household without being a "mammy" or a "doormat."

Son, Thurgood Cumberbatch...named for Thurgood Marshall, but nicknamed Goodie, is not another "Meathead." He's the local chief of the Young Republicans and the program is built around the fact that he's being interviewed on "Face the Nation" (with the program's host, newsman Bob Schieffer, appearing as himself).

This is the reason his White-Jewish girlfriend is at his house in the first place. Cherlyn Markowitz (Moira Tierney) is a fresh new comic and you'll see her character hanging around stagedoors, football stadiums and NBA stage doors.

Goodie thinks his father is a bigot and "misses the point" on many issues. Here's a typical exchange:

Goodie: "You're a bigot!"
Amos: "A Black man can't be a bigot!"
Goodie: "Tell that to a Korean, Dad!"

Or, how about when Cherlyn and Amos were into it, hot and heavy and she countered she was going to call him the "D" word. The family reacted in horror... blurting out "darkey?" until she calmly answers, "No...Dad! ".

For a change... we all can stand a little laughter. Hope Norman Lear will hang in there with John Amos ...the same as he did with Archie Bunker.