You are right that the nosy super is about the only thing the show could borrow that would really mark is as ODAAT, and not a generic multi-generational family with a reused title. But if they are in a big old house like the one Julie, Barbara and their husbands rented, you could have a nosy owner/landlord, and that wouldn't be quite as bad, especially if you made the house in need of repairs, so they actually are calling him a lot. You could also change him to a nosy neighbor. Nosy neighbors were a stand-by in television for decades, and they are significantly less creepy than a super who keeps letting himself in with his pass-key.
I watched only a couple eps of the most recent (gawd-awful) OC, but I couldn't believe how horrible Matthew Perry was, and he is a very funny guy. Maybe he was badly directed, but I saw him interviewed before the show, and I got the sense that he was the driving force behind the remake, and could do what he wanted. He claimed he was Oscar in real life, and not fussy like his Chandler character. Doesn't matter. Lots of people suck at playing themselves, and the more they can latch onto quirks and other character business, the more they can throw themselves into the character. People, even actors, are shy about baring their actual selves. If fact, most actors relish being someone else, and don't want to be themselves (in front of an audience, anyway).
Part of the problem with it is the same problem that at shot-for-shot ODAAT remake would have: divorce isn't news anymore. Two single, straight men approaching, but not quite middle-aged, and not grieving over early widowerhood, were novelties when OC came out, just as a non-widow, single woman with teenaged daughters was when ODAAT came out. There really weren't places set up for people like Oscar and Felix to live in, in New York. So-called "Bachelor apartments" were places for young men, and usually had maid service and very small kitchen areas with the idea that the men ate out a lot, and tended to be in areas that were noisy and kept you up late. Other than that, there were efficiency apartments for young couples, and apartments for families. So two older, divorced men sharing an apartment designed for either a young family, or a much older couple with a second bedroom intended as a guest room, or a study, made a lot of sense.
Now New York is full of ideal places for older single people. There are lots of divorced people, and lots of people never-married in their thirties who will still get married, plus lots of people who just may never marry, and it's OK now. Plus, couples who share a bedroom, and want something upscale, and don't intend to have children, and that's much more acceptable now than it once was.
Divorce isn't shocking anymore, and people in divorced families don't lack for support anymore (compared to negative support in 1970). Barbara and Julie wouldn't be in a minority by living in a one-parent household, and Ed could never pull his "I can't pay child support," because the state would probably be taking it from his checks and paying it for him as a matter of course (I'm from Indiana, and it's pretty unusual that this doesn't happen, even in amicable divorces). People would probably assume Ann is divorced since she had one last name, and her children another, and it would shock no one, albeit, even if she'd never been married to Ed, that still wouldn't shock very many people. (If the ODAAT premiered tonight, Barbara and Julie would be about the age of the baby Ross and Rachel had on Friends).
reply
share