Cedric The Entertainer urbanizes a TV classic
By Bill Beene
Of the St. Louis American
In what could have been a scene out of a movie, an old friend of Cedric The Entertainer’s stopped traffic in the U. City Loop last week at the premiere of The Honeymooners and yelled, “Ced!” The brother then extended his arms as if to express, “It’s me! What’s up, dog?”
“James! What’s up, dog?” Ced yelled from the side of the Tivoli Theatre, where he was surrounded by fans during his red carpet walk.
That’s the Ced everybody knows and loves. He’s a hilarious, down-to-earth homeboy with a spry street sensibility.
And, like the late, legendary actor Jackie Gleason, who created the character of Ralph Cramden that Cedric The Entertainer reprises in his new film, which opens tomorrow, he’s a big boy with a certain lightness and grace.
But his likeness to Gleason hasn’t stopped certain detractors from frowning on Cedric The Entertainer’s role in the recreation of the 1950s sitcom.
The remake is the brainchild of Big Mama’s House producer David T. Friendly and was already in studio development when Cedric The Entertainer was offered the role.
The comedian signed on through A Bird and A Bear Entertainment, owned by Cedric and St. Louis native Eric Rhone, which co-produced the film.
Studio executives felt that Cedric The Entertainer was the actor who could bring Ralph Cramden into the new millennium, though many critics now think it shouldn’t have been touched.
“When you think about putting in an African-American cast and flipping it upside down, you’re going to have naysayers or purists who think I’m not supposed to mess with this,” Cedric The Entertainer said in a one-on-one interview with the American last week.
“But I think they’re great TV characters with great relationships, like the buddy tie between Ralph Cramden and Ed Norton and the romance between Ralph and Alice. These were important characters, so it was important to reprise them and bring new awareness to them.”
The storyline of the urban remake follows Ralph Cramden’s get-rich-quick schemes to make a good life with his wife even better. The antics of his quest for the finer things in life appear designed to appease a white audience and make for some very corny moments.
Alice is played exceptionally by Gabrielle Union. Ed is played brilliantly by comedian Mike Epps. John Leguizamo almost steals the movie, along with everything else that his character swindles in the film while helping Ralph and Ed on a “paper” chase.
Cedric The Entertainer performance’s n delivered with Gleason’s inflection and intonation n is solid.
“We wanted to pay homage to the original Ralph Cramden by giving a certain Gleason-esque thing in my performance.” Cedric The Entertainer said of conceiving the character with director John Schultz.
“Because I had to play a character already established in people’s minds, it didn’t allow me to create some unique role that people haven’t seen before, like Eddie in Barber Shop, but it did put me into a leading-man, green-lighting, Hollywood-status movie.”
Next for Cedric The Entertainer is The Cleaner, an action comedy co-starring Lucy Lui, which he describes as a comic version of The Bourne Identity. After that, he will team up with Bruce Willis in the film, Mr. Lucky.
But don’t expect Cedric The Entertainer to get too big for his britches. He said he’ll always look out for home like he did last week by hosting a movie screening here.
“It’s not about blowing up and claiming somewhere else,” he said.
“It’s great to represent your city and be able to give back in any way you can. And it’s good not to just be a figurehead, but somebody people can put their finger on.”
