With a Song and a Stalk
Fee-fi-fo-fum!
What in heaven’s name has happened to “The Hughleys?”
The set of the ABC “TGIF” comedy set in suburban America has been transformed into a brightly colored, fairy tale town square complete with a wooden house, a vegetable garden, a marketplace and cobblestones.
On this early Friday morning, extras are milling about the rustic surroundings. An animal trainer is carrying a meowing kitty wearing a spiked collar. An adorable black-and-white cow is mooing next to star D.L. Hughley, who is dressed in something that can best be described as Peter Pan meets the Pied Piper of Hamlin with some urban hip thrown in.
The comedy about an African American family adjusting to life in a primarily white neighborhood has traveled back in time 400 years to present an original musical version of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Entitled “Two Jacks and a Beanstalk,” the episode finds the Hughleys as the poor family who must sell their beloved cow Bessie for money and their white neighbors, Sally (Marietta De Prima) and Dave (Eric Allan Kramer), as the rich giants living atop the beanstalk.
“It is not really like ‘Annie’ or ‘Cinderella,”’ points out Hughley, referring to the hit “Wonderful World of Disney” TV musicals.
“We have our edge to this. It’s more like ‘The Wiz.’ ”
Hughley, a popular stand-up comedian, hates musicals, but realized the possibilities of the concept.
“We have a great staff of writers,” Hughley says. “What I found is a lot of times, when people have shows they only do shows they want to do. So that really pigeonholes the writers. They can’t get a broad scope. Everybody got behind this. Even though it’s not my favorite thing to do, it is really bright and funny.”
Executive producer Matt Wickline, who is making his directorial debut with this episode, calls his cast to the set. Hughley takes the cow by its head and the dancers and extras get into place. When Wickline calls for action, Hughley puts on a pair of sunglasses and lip syncs to a doo-wop number “I’ll Miss Bessie.”
“Jonathan Wolff and Paul Buckley wrote all of these songs,” says Hughley. “They are very easy to sing. I did most of my own singing except for this number. I had a stunt singer. But I am the worst dancer ever. I think any grown man who can dance has too much time on their hands.”
The episode was Wickline’s idea. “It wasn’t specifically the idea of doing a musical, as the idea of doing a parody of the big Disney extravaganzas,” he says. “I wondered if we could do our ‘Hughley’ version of that.” And Jack and the Beanstalk was the perfect fairy tale fit, he thought.
“It just seemed clear that Dave and Sally would be the giants and the whole family would go up and battle them and, in the end, they would invite them into the neighborhood when they were small.”
Series producers Billy Van Zandt and Jane Millmore wrote the episode and some of the lyrics, with Wickline pitching in some lyrics too.
The episode manages to squeeze in eight songs--six of them featuring dance numbers. “It was insane,” Wickline says. “It was at the edge of what is possible to do on a sitcom budget and with one week of production.” At the “Hughleys,” it cost about $1 million an episode, the “Jack” edition ran about 10% more.
Wolff, who wrote the catchy music for “Seinfeld,” says this isn’t the first time a producer has pitched the idea of doing an all-musical episode. “But it is the first time I have ever seen it pulled off,” he says.
Buckley penned most of the music because Wolff’s wife went into labor with their twin sons at the same time the score was needed.
“The cast had such a great attitude,” Wolff says. “There were a couple of true singing performers. Marietta, her background is musical theater. Elise Neal (who plays Hughley’s wife) is a fine singer. And Eric--what a great attitude.”
Choreographer Marguerite Derricks, who did the Gap’s popular “Go-Go” commercial, had one day to create the dance numbers. “With sitcoms, a big amount of time to have with the cast is an hour,” she says of teaching them the routines.
Thankfully, Derricks says, she was hired before Christmas, so she spent the entire holiday time thinking about the episode. “It haunted me, literally. I had kind of rough tracks of music at that point and the script as well. That really saved me.”
Each dance routine lasts about a minute. There’s one straight out of Bob Fosse that turns into a swing number. “There’s another one that Elise did with D.L. which is kind of a sassy jazz number,” she says. “The finale is this big musical piece. “
And wait, there may be another “Hughleys” musical in the pipeline. “This was so much fun,” concludes Wickline, “I think everyone will want to do it again.”
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“The Hughleys” airs Friday at 9:30 p.m. on ABC. The network has rated the episode TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).
