Does anybody remember the sitcom "Hi Honey, I'm Home"? It ran on Nickelodeon in the early 1990s, and featured a family (the Nielsons) that traveled back and forth between the color 1990s and a black and white sitcom from the 1950s. The family included mom and dad, plus two teenaged children, a boy and a girl.
Anyway, the show died a quick death, but apparently someone besides myself saw the series, namely Gary Ross. Ross, a successful movie screenwriter ("Big", "Dave") makes his debut as a director with "Pleasantville". The film's basic concept has been lifted from "Hi Honey, I'm Home", but the mood has been changed from comedy to drama. As in "Back to the Future", the time traveling teenagers accidentally trigger changes to 1950s society. However, these changes are both liberating and darker in nature, dealing with themes such as sexual pleasure, hatred of those who are different, and rebellion against authority.
The story begins innocently enough. David (Tobey Maguire) is a somewhat nerdy teenager obsessed with the fifties sitcom "Pleasantville". Jennifer is his fraternal twin sister, who shuns both her brother and her studies in favor of chasing boys. Their struggling single mother is played by Jane Kaczmarek. A plot contrivance in the form of television repairman Don Knotts sends the twins into the sitcom itself, as lead characters Bud and Mary Sue Parker.
They now live in a black and white world where everything is pleasant. Dating never gets beyond holding hands, parents sleep in separate beds, the high school basketball team never loses, there are no minorities, and wives stay home to clean house and bake cookies. David and Jennifer also have new parents, Betty (Joan Allen) and George (William H. Macy). The local malt shop is run by Mr. Johnson (Jeff Daniels), and the gregarious mayor is played by J.T. Walsh (who died during post-production).
David is willing to conform to this perfectly limited world, but Jennifer's boy-hungry rebellions lead to changes in Pleasantville. Those who have explored new sensuality turn color, while those who refuse to embrace new emotions remain black and white, and are hostile to the 'coloreds'. The 'coloreds' have character changes, e.g. Betty dumps George for Mr. Johnson, who becomes a surrealistic painter. The impressive sets become a mixture of color and black and white.
Still, much of the story, even if it is a fantasy,
doesn't come together. Mr. Johnson becomes a great
painter overnight, and David gets to date the
prettiest girl in town, whom he amazingly leaves
behind. Jennifer tires of boys in favor of D.H.
Lawrence, and if there's nothing outside of
Pleasantville, just who have the basketball team
been playing all these years? Will George and
the twins starve to death after they've emptied
the olive jar? And how does David break the news
of his missing sister to his mother? (55/100)
Two modern American teenagers are sucked into their television set and end up living in a black-and-white fifties sitcom. Bewildered by their new worl...More at Family Video
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