227 after thoughts

Lester is kinda grumpy to Mary

Pearl (Helen Martin) was hilarious.

Pearl was a Datalounger. Along with Mother Jefferson.

Pearl had nasty old leathery pussy

Mother Jefferson Mother Fucker

[quote]Pearl had nasty old leathery pussy

Like I said, a Datalounger.

Calvin waited for Lester in the basement every day after school.

Pearl shit all day long. In her pants

Brenda was fugly

Mary Jenkins was a bitch to EVERYONE. Even that little ho, Alexandria.

Love 227!

I'm now realizing Jackee was wearing wigs....though it was very realistic because her hair got bigger and longer as the series went on but I'm pretty sure it was always a wig.

Mary's wigs would change a lot; I preferred her bigger, asymmetrical ones like in the OP pic; sometimes they were just short and too matronly. But sometimes in alter seasons she'd wear her natural hair and it looked nice!

Mary needed a lot of styling to not look too Frau like Florence

Hey, don't forget me -- the black, female, fat Cousin Oliver of the show.

Jackee was the breakout star of 227.

Sandra and Pearl were the only good things about that show really. Marla and Hal in particular both deserved better material and were better elsewhere. Mary's sayings were usually even dated back then.

Sandra looked pretty dumpy and matronly in the first season. I guess after that they got a higher budget and starting styling her hair and clothes in a much better way. I think Jackee slimmed down some too, which helped.

Mary was a joyless nag who couldn't stand anyone around her finding happiness or enjoyment in anything. Most every plot involves her doing something to interfere with someone doing something she disapproves.

Did Pearl do anything besides sit at her window all day, gossipping and fingering her crusty old pussy?

Jackee seemed to really get in better shape in S2-4, as the made her bigger.

Her wardrobe seemed to be custom made for her: it was almost always a red, green or blue, tight fitting outfit, sometimes with leopard or feather embellishment at the sleeves or collars.

And, always, ALWAYS a a crinoline-type flare out at the waist, sually a 2-piece where the bottom of the top would flare out above the skirt.

I enjoyed the whole ensemble cast. Even bitch Mary Jenkins. Though last season or two sucked

[quote] Jackee seemed to really get in better shape in S2-4, as THEY made her HAIR/WIG bigger.

sorry for the typos

R17 she once dated and became engaged to a man. Mary was in true form and a total cunt about the whole thing.

^^^ That was a touching episode. Pearl actually married him and at the end of the episode... SPOILERS>>>>>>>>>

We learn that he was dying and Pearl did it to make him happy.

It was amazing that they tried to push Rose as the top secondary character when even in the pilot it was obvious that all the interest was with Sandra. Almost as if Marla knew that she could be the star with Rose as her sidekick but would be nudged aside with Jackee.

Wasn't Jakee added after the pilot?

Rose had zero personality or memorable personality traits or characteristics. A bland, blank canvas of a character.

R25 just described 99% of all sit com characters

[quote]Wasn't Jakee added after the pilot?

It was based on a play and, I believe, the Sandra character was always there. In the play, Lester was fucking Sandra.

Pearl wanted Lester to soak his meat inside of her dried up poon

It was designed to be Marla's show, top to bottom. Her follow up to The Jeffersons that Checking In wasn't. She was co-producer and found the play and done it onstage. And it did run its 5 seasons (practically required for syndication back then to become an afterschool or late night perennial). But then the supporting cast started stealing the show, and Marla was always conscious of the show having its own morality and a dash of religion.

After her Emmy win (Marla STILL doesn't have one), Jackee's solo starring series flopped. The pilot was aired and they didn't go to series.

Two things I loved about the show: all the ladies had their musical side, and when they'd sing, especially together, that was fun. Like The Golden Girls musical numbers are fun. As opposed to the drudgery of Dixie-d in numbers on Designing Women or Nancy Dussault boring us to death with her club act on Too Close for Comfort or the writers being lazy on Petticoat Junction.

And 227 had ACTORS. All the adult principals in the first years of the show could really, really act and so it had depth to the acting and reality in their lives and behavior that not every sitcom had, at least at first.

What about the white guy? As a kid his character confused me.

R291 is legit retarded.

Pearl was apparently a nasty cunt in real life too. There's a good interview somewhere with Jackee Harry where she goes on about her. She also said Alaina Reed was also not the nicest person and bitter about not having more success.

Countess Vaughn, the Cousin Oliver of 227, said someone on the cast made comments behind her back that she either overheard or somehow got back to her. I'd bet it was Pearl too.

My favorite episode was when Pee Wee Herman guest starred, and he and Sandra were being held hostage by a robber in a toy store. Pee Wee saved the day. He had great chemistry with Jackee.

I was surprised by how quickly the show fell off a cliff in season 4. Barely watchable.

I went on a binge this summer of 227 but could only make it through about 15 episodes. And then I went back to The Jeffersons, which I had very vaguely remembered as a child.

It was like whiplash. On The Jeffersons, Marla was hilarious. On 227, she was given virtually nothing to work with.

Mary was a dour character but Marla could be funny. Jackee was hilarious. All the raves were deserving.

I got the sense that Mary and Rose were supposed to be like Lucy and Ethel, but it never really panned out, so Sandra's role was increased.

I can't watch anything with Regina King and not immediately see (and hear) her shitty acting as Brenda. Still can't believe she's an Oscar winner.

Mary!

It was really awful when they brought on that skinny white geek who was a rapper and tried to act black with speaking ebonics and wearing a clock around his neck and Africa clothing.

Downright offensive actually.

Didn't Rose have a daughter in the first season who hung out with Brenda? Then the girl disappeared by the start of the second season never to be mentioned again?

Those old sitcoms would strike a vein of gold with someone like Sandra (or Fonzie or Urkel) and then pivot the entire show to that character in the most ruinous way possible.

Everything about this show was so one dimensional. Gibbs' "Mary" barely even qualified as a character, there was nothing there.

True 43, Mary Wilson brought much more depth playing a different character named Mary on 227.

She was mentioned a few times, r41, but the actress did disappear. Marla Gibbs spoke about the situation in an interview. The actress was from the east coast and supposedly she and her mother did not like living in California separated from the rest of their family. She asked to be released from her contract and it was granted.

I never slayed more pussy in Hollywood as when I was starring on 227.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Mary, Jackee and Rose ALL had lots of musical talent.

Rose would sometimes play the piano too.

Marle (Mary) sings the opening song which is GREAT but her solo songs on the show were never quite as good.

Jackee really had a. great voice. Wish they used it more. Here Mary and Sandra "are showing Pearl" how to sing one of the best numbers from The Wiz!!!

OT, but it's been fun watching Gibbs and Harry playing mother and daughter on Days of our Lives the last few years.

I’m watching season 2 on Tubi right now

227 is so comforting

Fun fact: Jackee was a high school history teacher before she got into acting.

Marla Gibbs is 91

Maaaaaarrrrryyyyyyyy, does my pussy stink? I have a date tonight.

Sandra is right, everyone else is Wrong. I agree with her 100 percent

A fantastic acceptance speech

[Quote]Pearl was apparently a nasty cunt in real life too. There's a good interview somewhere with Jackee Harry where she goes on about her. She also said Alaina Reed was also not the nicest person and bitter about not having more success.

R32, it was in this interview (Alaina Reed at the beginning, Helen Martin at 8:31). "That old bitch!" is what she said about Helen. Jackée was spilling the tea about everyone!

There are three parts to this "Look At Huh" interview, and all are worthy of viewing.

This and Amen were so meh. But at least Amen had eye candy and a great theme song.

Helen Martin instigated a lot of shit between Marla and Jackee. She was also supposedly the one who told Countess Vaughn she was too fat.

Alaina was the one who had to play peacemaker.

Alaina met her true love towards the end of the shows run, when he guest starred on the show playing a cop. They were married for only a year or two before he passed away of AIDS.

The core cast remains very close to each other.

[quote]This and Amen were so meh. But at least Amen had eye candy and a great theme song.

You have a problem with the 227 theme song??? What's wrong with you 'chile??!

Amen sucked because of that overgrown daughter who acted like a baby

Helen Martin was a tough, old-school type that had been around forever in the business, back when there were few parts for black actresses and had to work hard for the little she did get. I can see why it really irked her when Jackee, who hadn't been in the business for all that long at that point becoming the star of the show almost instantly.

Paul Winfield did it first and is buried alongside his husband at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills

Marla, of all people, should have understood why the Sandra character became so big. But I get it, Marla finally gets to be #1 on the call sheet, and she gets upstaged. I'm glad they worked their shit out. And every set has a Helen Martin.

[quote] And every set has a Helen Martin.

Kind of like every workplace has a shit-stirring busybody. Everybody knows people like this.

^^I’m one of them

227 is a comedy about Marla Gibbs and her family

227 consists of 3 prime numbers which, when added together, equals 11 - another prime number. If you add the digits 1 and 1 together, you get a prime number.

Marla Gibbs was on to som3thing.

What id Lester do for a living?

They all lived in the heart of DC and (even back then) rent was exorbitant and had to have been at least $1500/month in mid-80s dollars.

I really liked Marla's apartment.

IIRC, Lester was a construction worker.

R69, probably not that high in the working class neighborhood in which they lived. DC has always had a solid black middle class but gentrification hadn't happen yet in the most urban city south of the Maxon dixon line. It was 1987, the crack epidemic was just unfolding.

I'm assuming, if the show had continued, Pearl would have lost Calvin to crack.

R64 so why didn’t she help create a stinger character for herself? If she had so much say in the show (which I didn’t even know) she should have known better.

Pearl was Mother J redux. I never really watched the show all that much but I DO remember those promos well r67.

R67 R74 I remember the version "2-2-7 is the place to be, with Marla Gibbs and her family." It's funny what sticks in the brain.

Marla was pretty magnanimous about Jackée's contribution to the show, crediting her with its success (30 years later)

[quote]The real star, though, may have been Jackée Harry as man-hungry Sandra Clark, who purred “Maaary” when addressing Gibbs’ character and stole scenes with her comedic edge. She was so good that she won an Emmy Award for best supporting actress in a comedy for the role.

[quote]“I credit her with the success of the show because she was somebody that was easy to write for,” Gibbs said.

[quote]"I just came in and I wanted to be something different, so I had my girlfriend's voice, Valjean Dean, from high school and Mae West and Lucille Ball. I just put them all together," Harry said about her audition during a 2010 "227" reunion on TODAY.

Jackée was married to "bi" hairdresser Elgin Charles Williams for a few years and they adopted a kid together.

Regina was still green as an actress on 227.

I was shocked to see her in Poetic Justice a few years after 227 finished its run, and there was Regina cussing. But she had really improved as an actress

"and there was Regina cussing"

Should have heard me when my son brought home a twink.

[quote]why didn’t she help create a stinger character for herself?

She thought she had a strong character, but sitcoms are tricky. Sometimes the Fonz/JJ/Urkel/Alex P. Keaton/Uncle Joe/Christine Baransky comes in and the audience falls in love and the show, to survive, pivots.

[Quote]I was shocked to see her in Poetic Justice a few years after 227 finished its run, and there was Regina cussing.

It shocked me, too. In fact, I was angered by it, because I didn't want to see Regina King playing such a role. That's how typecast she was to me as sweet Brenda. But I look at it now, and see how excellent she was in it.

R77, you have the tea? In public interviews she always seem to embrace him and support LGB rights 100. I know she lost him tragically; he committed suicide during covid I think.

R79 she is a brilliant in Poetic Justic. Her and Pac performances are so good it really highlighted Janet as the weak link. I know her acting was criticized but it's not that she's bad she just seems phony opposite such naturals.

Lester was a construction worker and at some point started his own company.

Their rent was under $1000 cuz in an early season they are looking at apartments in the classifieds and Mary is shocked that other ones are like $1200 or something like that. They might have even mentioned paying $800 or something.

I always thought that Jackee was a lezzy.

Also, was Amen really that great a theme song or was it what we got to see Sherman Hemsley do the George Jefferson walk for a full minute and a half?

And if you weren’t convinced he was gay after watching The Jeffersons, well hello.

Never realized the cast of AMEN was loaded with so many gays...

Sherman Hemsley, Clifton Davis, Jester Hairston...

I love seeing these two former costars getting drunk on the air with Andy Cohen. After all these years, they still get along.

[Quote]Jester Hairston

R85 You may not know, but he starred as the butler during the infamous slap scene in The Heat Of The Night. I love his facial expressions throughout the scene. I'm glad he got a good TV role in Amen. He was very talented, being both a composer and actor throughout his life.

I bet that Jester Hairston had a HUGE black chocolate stick!!! Gay as a goose!!!!

R85, Clifton Davis isn't gay.

What black couple (or, in the case of Rhoda, what Jewish couple) gives their daughter an Irish name like Brenda?

Do you know any black people R90? I have two Aunt Brenda's.

[quote]I bet that Jester Hairston had a HUGE black chocolate stick!!! Gay as a goose!!!!

He did actually.

Loved to dip in white twink butts.

R91,??????. You know how many black Brenda's I grew up with. Many black people have English/Irish names. The whole afro-centric naming phenomenon didn't start until the 80s.

227 and Amen were Saturday night staples for me. I really enjoyed both shows.

It's true, they really were comfort shows. We don't really have those kinds of shows anymore.

Tell if I got the lineup right R94:

227 at 8

Amen at 8:30

Golden Girls at 9

Empty Nest at 9:30

Hunter at 10

👍 yes

R74 Marla Gibbs was Executive producer of 227.

Sometimes I see a thread title such as this one, and I know I've found my people.

What did Sondra do for a living? Was she a whore?

A receptionist

R95 stealth Golden Girls thread !!

Saaaandra switched jobs a lot. Receptionist. In S1 or S2 Lester hires her to be his company's receptionist (before he starts his own).

At one point she tries to be a cop too.

I wanted to Lester to own my teenage ass.

Love 227. I rewatched it recently when it FINALLY came to streaming. All that was ever available was the first season DVD. From Mary to Sandra to Pearl to Rose to Lester to Brenda, even Calvin - it consistently makes me laugh. If Marla Gibbs was unexpectedly upstaged and played the straight woman in HER sitcom, so be it -- it worked brilliantly. Sandra Clark is a treasure.

Sandra’s pussy stunk!!

Brenda listened to records in 1986. She went over to Tiffany's apartment to listen to "L.L. COOL J." she said his name emphatically.

Jackee said that she and Alaina Reed were very close up until she died.

Marla hated Jackee back then.

Also, I love Countess Vaughn on "The Parkers." I watch it on Pluto on my off days. Katt Williams outted the actor who plays Professor Oglevee.

The black guy from Dream On??

He was hot.

[quote]at least Amen had eye candy and a great theme song.

After listening to both I think Amen wins.

As someone who aspires to be in the industry and thinking back I grew up with Jackee on Sister Sister. The woman has perfect comedic timing. She really does a good job of acting in these little B sitcom plots. She's charismatic as fuck, and really played up her curvaceous sexy personna.

[quote]I grew up with Jackee on Sister Sister

I grew up with Alaina on Sesame Street.

I used to love 227. That was on during my Sesame Street viewing days and at a very young age realized that Rose and Olivia were the same person, but had no idea how she could be on two shows at the same time. My dad loved Jackée, so we could watch it.

Now was Countess Rose’s daughter or was that Kia Goodwin?

I never liked Amen, I don’t know why. My mom liked it and I always remember her pointing out Sherman Helmsley doing the George Jefferson walk going walking into the church on the opening credits.

[quote] That was on during my Sesame Street viewing days and at a very young age realized that Rose and Olivia were the same person, but had no idea how she could be on two shows at the same time.

Same here.

R115 Kia Godwin was Rose's daughter who went upstairs and never came back down. Countess' character was a genius, live-in student who attended college.

Jackee was so good. Even the way she would look at people while delivering lines is so entertaining. I don't blame Marla Gibbs for being pissed. She really took over EVERY scene and had amazing comedic timing.

Did anyone else notice that Sandra would always say hi to Lester? It felt ad-libbed but natural because she would do it in the middle of a conversation when he walked into the room.

I actually think Amen is better than The Jefferson. It really found its groove once they moved the focus from Decon Frye to Thelma and the Reverand. Anna Maria Horsford is the Jackee of that show.

"DehhhhhDEEEEEE!"

"OH Wooben!"

One of my favorite 30 Rock jokes is when Jack asks Tracy “what did I tell you not to do?” and Tracy goes “that 227 movie, New Jackée City?”

R120, Ahahahaha. I love 30 rock. Greatest sitcom ever.

R119. I loved her heavy NY accent. Maybe because I sometimes talk like that 😱

Anna Maria Horsford was hysterical on Amen. She had scenes that were pure comic gold.

Clifton Davis was my first man crush. Still is beautiful.

Amen had some great moments. Sherman Helmsley and Nell Carter wrestling was one.

R123 Speaking of...Sherman Helmsley and Telma Hopkins wrestling in court. Also, Jackee's appearance as Thelma's HS friend was funny as hell.

We need a Thelma Hopkins thread.

Done, r125.

Anna Maria has a smelly snatch!

[quote] "And, always, ALWAYS a a crinoline-type flare out at the waist, sually a 2-piece where the bottom of the top would flare out above the skirt."

That's called a peplum, R18.

I enjoy Sondra Clark

Mary Jenkins is a bitch to everybody

227 is my fave rerun

Pearl Shay slays

Maaaaarrrrrrryyyyyyyy!

Mary was a miserable bitch to every character

My mother called it “Two Hundred Twenty Seven” instead of “Two Two Seven”. I don’t think she ever watched it. I just think she knew it because “the maid from The Jeffersons” was on it.

Was it a good show, a positive show?

Remember when Mamie from “The Young and the Restless” played the mother of a drug dealing teen who was stabbed to death at the end of the episode and it just ends with no applause?

I liked Alaina Reed though she didn’t do much. Her later years seemed to have her playing sassy front desk person in not even guest starring roles. She played a sassy DMV employee in “A Different World” and a sassy hospital employee on “Friends.”