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• The Honeymooners
• Article on Cedric the Entertainer
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• Cedric the Entertainer featured on The Road to Health

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Tavis: I am pleased to welcome actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer back to this program. In addition to his role in the new comedy "The Honeymooners," he also lends his voice to the hit new animated feature "Madagascar." I just got back from Paris. They got those signs, like, everywhere. Those French kids are going crazy waiting for "Madagascar" to hit France, man.

Cedric the Entertainer: Well, that's large. I'm glad. You know, I'm glad animation is big over there.

Tavis: Yeah. It's huge.

Cedric: In French, oui, oui.

Tavis: Yeah, oui, oui. Recently he was asked by President Bush to headline the annual White House Correspondents Dinner back in Washington. I can't wait to talk about that, but first, "The Honeymooners" opened this past weekend and is of course based on the classic TV series. Here now a scene from "The Honeymooners."

Ralph Kramden: Billy. What's up? It's Ralph Kramden. How you doing? Vacation by the--Oh, OK, it's William now. Remember I loaned you $6.00? You got that?

Ed Norton: The Brooklyn Youth Program is a program to keep young little brothers like ourselves off the streets, from stealing hubcaps, and breaking in your house while you're not at home.

Ralph: Yes.

Ralph: Jamie Lincoln, remember we went on a date, and it was supposed to be Dutch, but I paid? Two blind men and a dog.

Ed: That's a nice little sweater there.

Ralph: Hey. Heeey.

Singers, singing: This is what you gotta do, This is what you gotta do, This is one thing you must do...

Tavis: Ceddy.

Cedric: What up, brother?

Tavis: Nice to see you.

Cedric: I had them lock moves on 'em. How are you doing, Tav?

Tavis: I'm doing well. How about you?

Cedric: Good, man.

Tavis: So much to talk to you about, so little time. Let me start with the "The Honeymooners." Did I read somewhere that--which wouldn't surprise me for a brother who grew up in St. Louis, 'cause in Indiana I wasn't watching "The Honeymooners" either back in the day. Had you not seen "The Honeymooners" before you did this movie?

Cedric: No, I'd never really seen the TV show. I didn't--I mean, I knew about it, of course. It was a very popular TV show, but I never really watched it until I got the role, then I got the box set and kinda started watching it from there. Just pulled out some of the things Gleason would do. But I knew about Jackie Gleason of course.

Tavis: Do you think it hurt or helped in your preparation that you-- 'cause I can see it either way, because if you'd watched every episode all your life, you might have difficulty trying to do your thing versus re-enacting what Jackie Gleason did. I can see it'd work both ways. Did it help or hurt you that you weren't all that familiar with the actual show itself?

Cedric: You know, I thought really to bring it into the modern times, I thought it was better for me not to really know that much about it, but I thought the best way to play that was to show and pay respect to the original characters like how they would develop in the sense that you were doing it for Broadway or something, like just kinda doing it live. But, you know, I thought that the interpretation for a new audience, this new audience that didn't grow up watching the show at all, the people who would really go see the movie, you want to create new characters for them, too, you know, to attach themselves to.

Tavis: Yeah. What do you make of the fact that you get a script that says we're doing "The Honeymooners" and we're basically doing it with an African American cast? What about that gets your attention? What about that makes you want to do it? That's turning that thing 180.

Cedric: Yeah, it's turning it around. Ideally for me, I thought it's a big title. It's one of, you know, the great American television sitcoms. And so I thought really, you know, when I start watching the show, I thought the best thing about it was that Jackie was kinda representing this every American, middle-American kind of guy that, you know, always dreamed of getting rich. And I thought that was a smart way to do it, was to flip it to African Americans, 'cause, you know we more or less fit in that status quo. Lot of medium folks. We ain't rich yet, you know. And then also, I thought it would have been a much simpler--I mean easier-- for a white actor to mimic Jackie Gleason. They would have found themselves doing an imitation. While, you know, being African American, I was able to kinda break away from that, but at the same time, kinda do some, you know, homage to it.

Tavis: Any similarities between Cedric and Ralph Kramden in the sense of what you just talked about in your lifetime, trying to find a bunch of quick ways to get rich?

Cedric: Oh, come on, man, you know that. All day long.

Tavis: Break me off some. Give it up. Give it up.

Cedric: I tried to sell all the fake, you know, Gucci purses and all that stuff.

Tavis: Not you.

Cedric: Come on man, it's a hustle. It's a hustle. When you're in college, you know, say you come back down, you got the Gucci bags. "Like, look, I'm selling Gucci bags." Ain't not--it's not a G on it nowhere.

Tavis: It's Ucci.

Cedric: Ucci Yamamoto. "This look like DKNY." "No, it's Gucci, but with same amount of letters." That's bad, man.

Tavis: All right, so you tried to do the get-rich thing?

Cedric: I tried to do all that stuff. I'd order a lot of those infomercials late at night, Tavis. I mean, I got 'em all. Carlton sheets. Newspaper ads. I did all of that. The Popeil pocket fisherman. I'm just like, um... I'm a sucka, man. I got all the vitamins you can get, all the weight-loss programs.

Tavis: You gotta go to sleep sooner or turn your TV off or something.

Cedric: That's the problem 'cause I'm sitting up thinking, "You know, that'll work right there. You could sell that. Everybody could use them duck callers." How many people need a duck caller? Quack quack!

Tavis: Ooh, OK, OK. All right something else to talk to you about: As we sit here right now--and this again, I just talked to Senator Mary Landrieu on the Eve of-- just taped a conversation on the eve of a historic vote in the U.S. Senate about lynchings. The Senate didn't do nothing all the years brothers were being lynched, speaking of African Americans. So they're stepping up today finally to say we were wrong for letting all y'all Negroes...

Cedric: Right.

Tavis: ...get lynched back in the day. Ain't that nice of them?

Cedric: Yeah, I mean, it is. It's so nice for them to do right now. I mean, I don't think nobody in this generation has been lynched--not since the Texas thing, but it's like one of those kinda things where you go... How do you say sorry, you know, 200 years later? Like we supposed to go, "All right, thanks, you know"? Like "sorry for lynching your great-great-grandfather." Y'all should've did something way back then. And then to have 200 people, you know--I mean, 200 resolutions. That's a lot of people saying no. I mean, there's senators sitting up there, "No. Can't do it." Like just say you're sorry. "I ain't gonna say it."

Tavis: Yeah.

Cedric: "I mean, I wish it didn't happen but I ain't gonna say I'm sorry." I mean, that's terrible, man.

Tavis: All right, well, the reason why I raised that was because we're talking to Mary Landrieu a few minutes ago on the eve of a vote as we taped that conversation, and interestingly, we had to get you while you were around the neighborhood. So we're taping this conversation for broadcast now for the audience. And we just learned, they just passed me a note, that in an hour from now, the verdict will be read in the Michael Jackson case. So I'm sure as we speak right now on television, everybody on every other channel is talking about Michael Jackson. I have not discussed the Michael Jackson case one time, 'cause there's so many other things to talk about. I've not discussed it for one anything, not one iota of a second to talk about it. But since you're here and since we know that in an hour from now as we sit here, they're gonna read this verdict, what's Michael thinking right about now?

Cedric: I know Michael's like "Y'all could have just called me in." How do you get that phone call, you know? "Hey, Michael, we know what's gonna happen to you in an hour. We'll call you back." You're sitting around the house, you're supposed to, what, eat? You're supposed to...? Michael sitting up there like, "Oh, how my hair look?" You know, he's getting his hair permed up. He gonna go-- I don't know. I don't think Michael will make it.

Tavis: So what's gonna happen? What's your sense of...?

Cedric: You know, he's been really working the back pain thing. So I'm sure he gonna get the back and go to the hospital for a minute.

Tavis: So he ain't even gonna show up for the outcome today?

Cedric: Why would you? I wouldn't. I'll have my pajamas on like he did the last time. House shoes. "I'm not gonna go to court. I know what's gonna go on." I don't know, though. You know, hopefully, they kind of broke it down. I think they kinda removed some of the bigger charges and they, you know, goin', you know, did he give him wine and drinking?

Tavis: Jesus juice.

Cedric: Jesus juice. I mean, my uncle gave me some Jesus juice. Come on, you know, our family, uncle was always like, "Drink that beer. Don't tell your mama." He ain't try to do nothin' to us. We just was drinkin'.

Tavis: Taking the Jesus juice.

Cedric: Yeah. We're 6, you know. Learn how to play spades, drink, go upstairs.

Tavis: At 6.

Cedric: Yeah. It's all part of the family ritual. Oh, Michael was teasing. "We're teachin' him how to be a Jackson."

Tavis: All right, so let me get you on the record. Again, by the time this airs, the verdict will be out. So what's your sense of what's gonna happen? if--whether he shows up or not, they gonna read that verdict. So what's gonna happen.

Cedric: Yeah, you know, ideally, I really think that, you know, they've got--I think they've broken it down to like 10 counts or so. I would imagine they're gonna try to charge him with something. You know, it's been--it's been too close to the fire, so to speak. He had too many--

Tavis: They'll get him on something, but is he going to jail?

Cedric: I don't know. I wouldn't think so. Seemed like the counts seem to be, you know, they're not going at like the hardcore child molestation thing. So it's like, did you give the kid some wine? Did try to kidnap him or hold him against his will? Those kind of things. So I think they'll find like a softer charge in one of those two and say, "All right, yeah, we can prove you gave him some wine, but, you know, we gonna smack you on the hand" Or, you know, something to that nature, I would hope.

Tavis: I know the folks thinking they're watching Court TV, analysis by Cedric the Entertainer.

Cedric: Yeah. Exactly. I never went to law school. But I do watch a lot of "Law and Order." So... I mean, that's where my expertise comes in.

Tavis: Well, that's all you gotta do these days. You watch "Law and Order," man--

Cedric: I know the law.

Tavis: Exactly. You know the law. All right, tell me right quick. I got 45 seconds to go. Tell me right quick, how was the White House Correspondents Dinner? I felt for you 'cause as good as you are, they say Laura Bush actually wrecked that night.

Cedric: Well, you know, Laura Bush, she had that inside material. She got to talk about her husband, how they sleep in the bed together. I couldn't go there. I ain't never been over to their house. They ain't gonna let me up in the White House hanging out, you know. But, you know, she had a really good set, and it was fun because, 1--it wasn't my audience and I really had to, like, just kinda get in the mind shape to handle it and talk about it. So I had a good time with it, just, you know, dealing with the energy. You've got Condoleezza there. I mainly went for the brothers though. Obama Baraka, you know. I know it's hard being the brother senator like that 'cause, you know, all the brothers from the 'hood trying to get you to pass bills for him. "Hey, dog, see if you can get a tax credit for rims and tires."

Tavis: Yeah.

Cedric: "I mean, I ain't got no house, but I got 30,000 on this Escalade. I sure could use a deduction."

Tavis: I'm unfortunately out of time. But when you see Cedric, this is what you get. What you see is what you get, and you want more of it, Go check out "The Honeymooners" in a theater near you even as we speak. Ceddy, love you, man.

Cedric: Right on, brother. I sure appreciate it, Tavis.

Tavis: That's our show tonight. Reminder: You can catch me on the radio this weekend on Public Radio International, PRI. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching. Good night from Los Angeles, and as always, keep the faith.