A star-studded cast — including Jennifer Hudson, Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx — captivated viewers last week by remaking Norman Lear’s iconic sitcoms The Jeffersons and All in the Family for a live special on ABC.
Foxx reflected on the unique production with a number of tributes he penned on Instagram, but none of them hit quite like the nod he gave to legendary actress Marla Gibbs, who famously played outspoken maid Florence Johnston in The Jeffersons.
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons aired last Wednesday (May 22) on ABC and featured Gibbs reprising her role as Johnston. Foxx, who played George Jefferson in the remake, spoke extremely highly of Gibbs.
“As I write this caption, tears are welling up in my eyes…thinking about when she walked into that apartment and delivered those iconic lines, it was reminiscent of how she walked into all of our lives over 40 years ago and changed us forever,” he wrote on Instagram. “With her quick wit and sharp tongue, she challenged George and us as a society every day.”
He continued, “She took a character of service and turned it into a character of strength and honor…she made us laugh…she made us cry… with confidence and ease… and she made us rush to that TV with the knobs on it and tune into her soul. And now to be in her presence, I am humbled… don’t know how GOD blessed me so much, but I’ll take it… @marlagibbs4real at 88 years young you still take our breath away.”
Gibbs returned the kind words of the Oscar Award-winning actor in her own post.
“Jamie you are so sweet and talented and I am truly moved by your kind words! I love you, my family loves you…and the world Loves you!! I’m a fan of yours too and I too appreciate your contribution as an extraordinary artist and human being. Keep it up honey and let’s work together again soon,” she wrote.
Foxx summed up his experience working on the Norman Lear special with a video of the cast singing the iconic Jeffersons’ theme song and a lengthy caption.
“The way you feel after an EPIC night with ICONIC people!!” he wrote. “It was transcendent to step on to the original legendary set of ‘All in the Family’ and the ‘The Jeffersons’… it’s nothing short of a miracle wrapped in a blessing.”
Stream the Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons special on ABC or Hulu.
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Jamie Foxx looks more like the ’70s Jim Brown than George Jefferson.
the point isn’t to LOOK like him.. smh
Nice title, Devon. Leave it to blacks to be disrespectful, even to their own. No surprise there.
There goes the white man. Still hating in 2019. We disrespect our own so what? Europeans hail everyone high in their countries right ? Using the black man lack of live for his fellow as justification for the mess you’ve caused and continue to cause. Typical SUPREMACIST mentally. Just like your folks.
I think that you think you’re smarter than you really are. None of what you said made any sense. Just black rambling. How about you start speaking facts instead of that usual jim crow shit?
when have you ever accepted facts as facts? It makes you uncomfortable. Read what your fellow or you with a different name commented before reacting. It’s in your DNA to hate. It’s been passed down. Don’t worry about what I know. I have two degrees. I’m good.
You know what makes you an idiot? You have no idea what race I am. That’s your first mistake. Second, you don’t have an education, it shows. You’re still regurgitating the shit your momma and daddy taught you. Funny thing is, your own kind has probably done you wrong more than a white man has ever done in your life. You sound abd look stupid. You’re not even in the same library as me when it comes to intelligence much less the same book. People laugh at you when you talk like that because you sound like every other uneducated black person mad at something you don’t understand. Read some more, do some research, mayate. You embarass your other brothers who actually have a brain, which is not that many. Lol
Get over yourself, you insufferable idiot. We smell your troll miles away. It moves no one. Your attitude and etiquette says more about you than it does about anyone else. Sit down. Regurgitate your tired spoon fed rhetoric somewhere else (or try coming up with your own original thoughts). You might fool likeminded idiots like yourself. It wont work here.
Wow, talk about ignorance. You copy my words and reply into your own “original” reply and talk about originality and accuse me if being a troll with no basis for the accusation. Call me what you want. It doesn’t change the fact that you two are idiots and the black race is hopeless.
No basis for accusation? Sir, you show up on a hip hop site to instigate an argument with a complete stranger. You are a troll. You are the evidence. Loser. HAHAHAHA
Ok