Good Times and The Jeffersons

I watched them both years ago on Nick at Nite or somewhere - HATED Good Times and loved The Jeffersons

R1. What's your nationality. I feel like Good Times does not hold up well for nonblack audiences. The humor is defitinetly very specific to the black experience. And JJs crossover buffoonery which white audiences loved in the 70s is probably lost in translation years later.

Because black men love their mamas!

R2 1/2 French 1/2 American - moved to U.S. as young adult (college). I'm sure a lot of it was lost on me, but the Jeffersons was hilarious to me.

Probably something about how they wanted Helen and Willona and Thelma to be perceived.

I love the Jeffersons. i always think everyone looks older in those sitcoms. Weezy was probably only 30 but the clothes and hair was frumpy back then.

[Quote]Why were the actresses who played George Jefferson and James Evans wives old enough to be their moms.

Black don't crack. I think the average viewer wasn't aware that both actresses were that old. Their television husbands were costumed and made up to look older, so it all balanced out to the audience. Both actresses were splendid in portraying their roles, especially Isabel Sanford.

Most mature women of that era wanted hot young cock. There were huge caravans of older women who went to Woodstock just for cock, you never see that in the documentaries.

Interesting r8...the 70s were really the first time women started being more free with their sexuality

I think to accurately portray the urban black household, they needed women who didn't come off as total pushovers for their strong husbands. I guess the older actresses were more believable.

Sherman Hemsley brilliant, IRL he was absolutely nothing like George Jefferson. He was so underrated as an actor and unfortunately he won't be recognized as LGBT posthumously because he was never out; black men couldn't do that then.

SH was trans??? He was a Lesbian????!!!!!

Weezy was 58 when The Jeffersons started in 1975. George was 37.

The Jeffersons "Movin' On Up" was to 185 East 85th Street.

R11, for real?

I watch all these show in reruns and I never once noticed age differences. I liked both. Everyone did look older back then.

I'm only half kidding but I strongly believe that some focus group were consultant decided that America would only accept a black woman is a sitcom star she was seen as older and more maturely rather than young and pretty as that would have stirred up confusing feelings for their slack jawed audience

Iz played 'Flopsie' in "Birth Of A Nation".

Yeah, Isabel Sanford was born in 1917. This is Sanford when she won the Emmy in 1981, no one would have even suspected she was 64 years old.

The Mammy factor, Mammies are comforting and sweet, it goes back all the way to the plantations...look at Gone With the Wind as proof. The Mammy factor...

George Jefferson's mother reminded me of Lamb Chop.

Black don't crack!

[quote]Isabel Sanford was born in 1917. This is Sanford when she won the Emmy in 1981, no one would have even suspected she was 64 years old.

Yeah, I had no idea until much later. That was before an actor's date of birth was a few clicks away.

And casting was freer about people playing older or younger in the '70s. One of my favorite movies of that era is Nashville, and I assumed Henry Gibson was well into his fifties at least. His character is supposed to be the veteran star who's the eminence grise of the country scene, with decades in the business and a grown son (a Hank Snow or Roy Acuff type). Gibson was in his late thirties.

Fun trivia - the "Movin' on Up" theme song from the Jeffersons was co-written (and sung) by Ja'Net DuBois who played Willona on Good Times.

R21 shows back then had the best theme songs.

Bring back theme songs for shows.

Did they ever find out if Ja'Net DuBois was really Cab Calloway's daughter? Oprah or someone needs to find out. They are both historically significant African Americans in their own right.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Cab Calloway ended up in Janet Jackson's "Alright" video in 1990 before he died. Janet knows the truth!

Scandalous!

R23, We all know this. Cab is a distant relative of mine, which I guess makes Janet my cousin. It's been a family secret for years. No I will not provide anymore details.