Could Blazing Saddles or All in the Family come out today?

There would be boycotts and picket lines in Kansas City, that's for sure.

 

All in the Family would be done by Aaron Sorkin.

 

And lotsa dancing.

 

I'm not sure the question makes as much sense as we want it to.

"Blazing Saddles" and "All In The Family" were social satires produced in an age of social satire. They were very political and very much of their time - as was commercial music and fiction and every other cultural commodity that arose out of the late 60s and early 70s.

But to say that they couldn't be made today because we're "too PC" ignores shows like "The Wire" or "The Sopranos" or "South Park," or movies like "Bamboozled" or "Borat," or any of a hundred other programs that routinely work their way out of New York or Hollywood.

More complicated - could a major studio have released "Knocked Up" or "40-Year-Old Virgin" or "Anchorman" or "Bridesmaids" or any of scores of other current comedies in 1974 with anything but an 'X' rating?

 

Would a major network show All in the Family in prime time?

 

Adjusted for the times or as it was?

I'm not sure. Political satire is not much in vogue, and we're no longer a culture of shared mass entertainments. There's also the changing network television business model to consider.

That said, I see no reason why they wouldn't, if the show was attached to a big enough star and produced by someone with the cachet of a Judd Apatow or a Groening or a Parker and Stone.

 

I agree. I think the takeover of "PC culture" has been greatly exaggerated here and elsewhere.

 

You couldn't get an audience to like the Archie character. The show worked because Archie's beliefs were shown to be wrong-headed on a regular basis, but it also worked because Archie was portrayed as a good guy who was wrong-headed.
You couldn't get an audience to buy the Archie character as likeable anymore.

 

What if Tyler Perry or Chris Rock announced they wanted do a "Blazing Saddles" remake do you think a studio would say "no"?
I think the studio would say yes.

 

No way.

 

Boondocks is back for a fourth season. I'm pretty sure the whole "everything's so PC now" is really overblown.

A better question is would an "All in the Family" remake be on network TV and in primetime or would it be bumped to a cable channel or a premium cable channel like HBO?

I highly suspect given the nature of TV recycling that if broadcast executive thought a remake would be profitable, it would be done.

 

I absolutely think Blazing Saddles could be made ... but not by a major studio. It would have to be an independent film.

All In The Family could air on cable, but not on network TV.