"It's not about the movies"
"Men in Black II" (2002), Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
I’ll have to admit that when I settled into my seat at the multiplex to view “Men In Black II” it was with more trepidation than anticipation. After all, the history of sequels is littered with the bones of all the high hopes of actors and directors alike trying to strike gold the second time around. In reality, the sequel almost never lives up to the original. I know there are exceptions of course (“Weekend at Bernie’s II” comes to mind), but pound for pound, most sequels beg the question, “What were they thinking?”
In
fact, producers’ thinking patterns have been brought into question numerous
times in the entertainment world. They
just don’t want to give up a good (i.e.; money-making) thing when they have
it. The gluttony is scattered
throughout the history of films and television.
Take,
for instance, “My Three Sons”. This
was a fairly innocuous bit of TV fluff that debuted in the early sixties.
The premise was simple. It followed the weekly trials of a widower,
played by former movie idol/bad guy, Fred MacMurray, trying to raise his three
boys, Mike, Robby and Chip. Back in
those days, for some reason, there was a proliferation of widowers on TV.
The reason for this was that by the early 1960s, television writers had
already explored every nuance of spousal communication and all they had been
able to come up with was:
Husband:
“Honey, I’m home!”
Wife:
“Is
that you, dear? I’m in the
kitchen.”
So by the time “My Three Sons” went into development, they just decided to throw in the towel and eliminate the wife altogether.
To
balance out this cockeyed picture, TV writers usually added a sexually
non-threatening female presence as a counterpoint to the heavily testosteronized
cast. For instance, on “The
Courtship of Eddie’s Father”, the “fairer” sex was represented by an
Asian maid and “The Andy Griffith Show” had its doting Aunt Bee.
“My Three Sons” chose to rebel against convention and go with grumpy, but lovable, males. William Frawley was signed to play “Bub” the matronly but masculine uncle. After the actor passed away during the show’s second season, he was replaced by William Demarest, who had recently received the coveted Hair Club for Men Lifetime achievement award for the worst comb-over of all time. Demarest played another irascible curmudgeon with a heart of gold, “Uncle Charlie”.
The
show was a huge success with the viewers and its popularity grew in leaps and
bounds. Normally, the plot
developments and the ultimate length of the show would have been influenced, of
course, by the maturation of the children.
“My Three Sons” originally had the estimated shelf life of only a few
years. The producers realized they
had a major hit on their hands, however, so when faced with the prospect of
growing boys, they decided to “tweak” the format.
Tim
Considine, who played, Mike, the oldest son, left after the second season.
In order to remain true to the show’s title, a new boy was
“adopted”. His name was Ernie
and although it was never openly admitted, it was common knowledge among
Hollywood insiders that Ernie had been abducted from another TV family, “Ozzie
and Harriet”. Since that show had
already been on TV for several years and it’s popularity was in decline, the
police looked the other way.
The
show continued with its replacement sibling without even skipping a beat and
eventually nobody even mentioned the prodigal older son anymore.
As the boys grew steadily out of their parts, the writers kept coming up
with adjustments that were even more absurd.
Through various plot devices, the producers were able to keep milking
their cash cow well into the early 1970s. Eventually,
the two older boys got married, staying in the same house, of course.
One of the daughters-in-law gave birth to a litter of triplets, all boys,
and it was déjà vu all over again.
“Men
In Black II” obviously doesn’t have this problem.
For one thing, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are not playing widowed
fathers of boys. However, the
threat of unanticipated change is always present.
The producers must remain aware of the fact that there are many things
that could influence the prospect of future installments of the Men In Black
saga. But I suppose if one of
the featured players passed away, the franchise could be continued with another
actor. I wonder if William
Demarest is still available.