I’ve been thinking about Rob Reiner lately. Mostly about one particular show he was involved in. It wasn’t one of the popular films he produced, like The Princess Bride, or When Harry Met Sally, or This Is Spinal Tap, or even the supporting role that brought him to public attention, Mike Stivic in All In The Family. No, I’ve been thinking about a short-lived sitcom he starred in from 1978 which only ran for five episodes as a summer replacement series and then sank into oblivion.
It’s a pity that it took such a horrible tragedy to motivate me to write this, but since we’re going to be remembering Reiner and his career, I’d like to bring up this this one show of his which might be forgotten.
Free Country was, in some ways, a pretty typical 1970s sitcom. You had the main character, his wife, the tiny apartment that was nevertheless as big as a studio set, the wacky neighbors. It’s main distinction was its setting. The characters were immigrants living in Turn-Of-The Century New York. Reiner played Joseph Bresner, a Lithuanian immigrant trying to make a new life in the New World. (Each episode opened and closed with a scene of the present-day Joseph, Reiner under a ton of old-guy make-up, kvetching and reminiscing like the Ghost of Archie Bunker Yet-To-Come). It was a quirky show and was probably lucky to get as much airtime as it did, but it appealed to me; partially because I liked Meathead in All In The Family, and partially because I’m a history geek and like period stuff.
I remember very little of it, but one episode in particular stuck in my mind. Joseph preparing for his citizenship hearing. He’s been driving himself and his friends crazy trying to memorize how many articles are in the Constitution and the names of the Great Lakes, (“Michigan, Superior, Erie, Ontario… what’s the fifth one????”) to pass the citizenship test. But when he comes before the courthouse, the judge tells him that court has decided to do a background check on him before granting him citizenship.
This worries Joseph, because back in the Old Country, he had been involved anti-government demonstrations, and he’s afraid his radical past will come back to bite him.
When his buddy tells him that some men from the Government were asking questions about him, Joseph asks, “What kind of questions?” “They wanted to know if you were a socialist.” “And what did you tell them?” “I told them, ‘Yes, he’s very sociable!’” This does not calm him.
Finally, Joseph appears for his final citizenship hearing and he is stressed beyond endurance. When the judge begins the proceedings, Joseph can take it no longer. He explodes in a glorious rant. He admits being an anti-government agitator in the Old Country, but that was because they had no freedom there; no justice, no hope for a better life. That was why he came to America, so that he and his wife and someday their children could experience the freedom that their old country had denied them. He’s learned the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He knows four of the Great— “HURON!” He suddenly remembered! “The fifth Great Lake is Huron!!!!!”
Finally the judge gets to finish what he was saying. “We have looked into your history and… I believe that you will make a fine citizen of the United States. Welcome to America.”
Joseph sinks back into his seat, overwhelmed. Then he turns to his wife and says, “It’s a good thing I remembered Huron!”
