AMEN: THE DEACON AND THE MOTHER-IN-LAW (TV)
Summary
One in this comedy series about a dishonest church deacon and his relatives and friends.
Deacon Frye prepares to meet Reverend Gregory’s mother-in-law, hoping to make a good impression or else she could easily get the wedding called off. Reverend Gregory arrives with his mother, Josephine, and Deacon Frye does his best to flatter her. Thelma is frustrated that Josephine has insinuated herself into planning the wedding, seemingly deciding everything for them. While Josephine is out to lunch with Deacon Frye, Thelma attempts to reassert control over her wedding. Josephine and Deacon Frye return, and Josephine goes back to planning the wedding, disrupting Thelma’s seating arrangement chart. Thelma becomes furious at Josephine’s interference, but Deacon Frye plans to take her out to dinner and pretend that their car breaks down, forcing them to stay overnight and giving Thelma time to finalize her own wedding plans.
In their hotel room at Atlantic City, Josephine gets closer to Deacon Frye, assuming that he engineered this scenario in order to spend a weekend alone with her. Deacon Frye does not tell her the truth and goes along with her assumption. Reverend Gregory learns about this scenario and is worried about his mother’s well-being, and gets into an argument with Thelma about his mother’s behavior, which soon devolves into spiteful name-calling against each other. Reverend Gregory walks out in a fury, each of them convinced that they are not right for each other and effectively cancelling the wedding. Josephine becomes convinced that Deacon Frye has brought her away for a romantic getaway and attempts to seduce him. They are interrupted when Inga calls to tell Josephine about Thelma and Reverend Gregory’s fight, and they decide to head back to resolve the situation.
Reverend Gregory returns to ask where his mother and Deacon Frye are, and they resume their argument. They leave together to go to the hotel to pick Josephine and Deacon Frye up, although they are still angry with each other. They arrive and find the room empty, and decide to wait there for them. Soon they end up apologizing to each other for their argument, and decide to put their wedding back into motion. They very nearly become intimate with each other before Reverend Gregory realizes they should leave and hold off until they are married next week. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: January 27, 1990 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:23:12
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:62238
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; African-American Collection - Comedy
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1986-1991
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Ed. Weinberger … Executive Producer, Created by
- Arthur Julian … Executive Producer, Writer
- Eric Cohen … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Annette Sahakian … Coordinating Producer
- Shelley Jensen … Supervising Producer, Director
- Marty Nadler … Producer
- Reuben Cannon … Co-Producer
- Ken Johnston … Co-Producer
- William Daley … Co-Producer
- Jeff Kaufman … Associate Producer
- Andrae Crouch … Theme Music by
- Vanessa Bell Armstrong … Theme Music by
- Sherman Hemsley … Cast, Deacon Ernest Frye
- Clifton Davis … Cast, Reverend Reuben Gregory
- Anna Maria Horsford … Cast, Thelma Frye
- Barbara Montgomery … Cast, Cassietta Hetebrink
- Roz Ryan … Cast, Amelia Hetebrink
- Elsa Raven … Cast, Inga
- Tony T. Johnson … Cast, Chris
- Jester Hairston … Cast, Rolly Forbes
- Jane White … Cast, Josephine Gregory
- Michael Kaufman … Cast, The Bellman