ABC has lined up a pair of Emmy winners to star in its re-creation of Good Times for the second Live in Front of a Studio Audience special.
How to Get Away With Murder star Viola Davis and Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Andre Braugher will head the cast for the Good Times episode. Tiffany Haddish, When They See Us stars Asante Blackk and Jharrel Jerome, Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah and Corinne Foxx round out the ensemble.
Additionally, Black-ish star Anthony Anderson and R&B legend Patti LaBelle will perform the show’s theme song during the special.
Live in Front of a Studio Audience, set to air Wednesday on ABC, will re-create episodes of Norman Lear’s All in the Family and Good Times. It follows a successful May staging of episodes of All in the Family and The Jeffersons, which drew better than 10 million viewers for its first airing and grew to more than 12 million with delayed viewing.
Davis and Braugher will play Florida and James Evans, parents of the working-class Chicago family at the center of Good Times (Esther Rolle and John Amos played the parts in the original series, which ran from 1974-79). Pharoah will play eldest son J.J. (Jimmie Walker in the original), known for his “Dy-no-mite!” catchphrase. Foxx and Blackk will play kids Thelma and Michael Evans (Bernnadette Stanis and Ralph Carter in the original), and Haddish will play neighbor Wilona Woods, originally played by Ja’net Dubois. Jerome’s role is being kept under wraps.
Foxx’s dad, Jamie Foxx, played George Jefferson on the Jeffersons episode in May.
For All in the Family, Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei, Ellie Kemper and Ike Barinholtz will reprise their roles from the May special as, respectively, Archie and Edith Bunker, their daughter Gloria and her husband, Mike “Meathead” Stivic. Kevin Bacon, Jesse Eisenberg and Justina Machado will also star.
Live in Front of a Studio Audience comes from Kimmelot, ACT III Productions, Gary Sanchez Productions, D’Arconville, Simpson Street and Sony Pictures Television. Norman Lear, Jimmy Kimmel, Brent Miller, Kerry Washington, Will Ferrell, Justin Theroux and Jim Burrows will executive produce, with Pam Fryman and Andy Fisher set to direct.
