Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 10, 1994 TAG: 9404120013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Tom Shales
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lear's latest, ``704 Hauser,'' premiering Monday night on WDBJ-Channel 7, is set in the house in Queens, N.Y., where Archie and Edith Bunker once lived. Ernest and Rose Cumberbatch, an African-American couple, live there now. Whereas Archie the archconservative once quarreled with his liberal son-in-law Mike, liberal-minded Ernest now bickers with his conservative 23-year-old son, Goodie.
Unfortunately, most resemblances to ``All in the Family'' end there. ``704 Hauser'' isn't a sitcom so much as a seminar. There is nearly interminable colloquy about issues of the day and little of what might pass for engaging entertainment.
Goodie and his father quarrel not only over racial matters and politics but also over Goodie's choice of a girlfriend: a young Jewish woman named Cherlyn Markowitz. In one episode, Ernest tries to fix Goodie up with a black woman but the plot falls through. ``I wanted you to have a little taste of sweet potato pie before you settled for matzo balls,'' dad tells son.
Lear, who co-wrote and directed (harshly) the premiere, has made a career of courting controversy. But ``704 Hauser'' seems less controversial than embarrassing. The characters are unpleasant and their constant arguing is rarely funny, more often annoying.
In three different episodes made available for preview, the conflicts are essentially the same, dad (and sometimes mom) railing against Goodie's choice of a girlfriend, and Goodie trying to poke holes in his father's political opinions. At least Archie Bunker had a wide range of prejudices and half-baked notions; the Cumberbatches seem locked in the same argument for eternity.
After listening to them bicker over and over about Goodie's Jewish girlfriend, you may find yourself asking, ``Can't these people get around this, and get on to something else?'' They seem totally defined by their opinions. ``I don't believe people are one-dimensional,'' Cherlyn says; unfortunately, on this show, they are.
Old pro John Amos does what he can to breathe life into the role of proud papa Ernest, and Lynn Godfrey is appealing as Rose insofar as the script will allow. As Goodie and Cherlyn, both T.E. Russell and Maura Tierney seem uncomfortable, and who can blame them?
Most of the action in ``704 Hauser'' takes place in the living room, with an occasional visit to the kitchen, the bedroom or the front porch. The program feels suffocatingly claustrophobic. Characters talk about having just returned from a hockey game, a church service or a department store, but the audience is confined to the house.
``All in the Family'' was taped that way, too, but that was 20 years ago. And what happened in the Bunker household was so compelling that a visitor never felt confined.
``704 Hauser'' seems especially anachronistic when compared to ``South Central,'' a brilliant new Fox sitcom about a black family fighting for its life in the inner city of Los Angeles. On ``South Central,'' the characters seem like real people, not just spokesmen for various views.
In the ``704 Hauser'' premiere, Goodie appears on ``Face the Nation'' and makes derogatory references to his father. In another episode, after Ernest complains that a white security guard followed him around a store simply because he is black, Goodie takes the side of the security guard and tells his father ``the man was just doing his job.''
A son this disloyal to his own father and this blinded by ideology cannot possibly be a sympathetic character. But Ernest with his braying and bellowing isn't very sympathetic, either. For this show, sympathy is in short supply.
``704 Hauser'' is not a nice place to visit, and you wouldn't want to live there, either.
by CNB