On this day in comedy on September 29, 1976, Norman… Is That You? was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists
Based on the hit stage play of the same name this version goes for a Black cast, not Jewish and stars Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey. They portray the parents of fresh-out-the-closet, Norman. Well, the closet door was ajar and Redd peeked in. Foxx is an abandoned husband (his wife ran off with the brother-in-law) and to get his bearings he visits his son unannounced and pulls a Columbus of a discovery. Like most old-school fathers, Foxx tries to talk Norman (Michael Warren) into being a real man to the point of buying him a prostitute. But naturally by the end of this comedy attitudes have been adjusted, enlightenment and personal growth have manifest and old Redd Foxx is a more tolerant man than when he arrived uninvited on the doorstep of his grown ass son.
Directed and produced by George Schlatter, Norman . . .Is That You? co-stars Dennis Dugan, Tamara Dobson, Vernee Watson-Johnson, Jayne Meadows, George Furth, Sosimo Hernandez, Sergio Aragones and Wayland Flowers.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
