***SPOILERS***
First, I'll give my rating for the series overall - ********* 9 out of ten stars. I've taken away 1 , for the dip in quality this series suffered after season 3. You'll read why in a bit.
In February of 1974, a really great sitcom (with dramatic overtones) premiered on CBS. It was a TV first, a show about an African-American family living in the Chicago Projects in the 1970's.
Created by Norman Lear & Mike Evans as a spin-off of "Maude", once again Lear (with Evans) was able to strike the right chord with viewers and especially with the African American community.
Not since this show, have I seen a situation comedy directly talk about the struggles of inner-city families. (Well,there was Fox's "South Central" in 1994 but was not renewed after it's first season.)
John Amos as James (Henry?) Evans Sr. Was the ultimate father figure for this family and acted as any father should in this setting, to keep his family together and his kids from going down the wrong paths in life, which in the surrounding elements, can be all too easy.
Esther Rolle was a wonderful no nonsense mother figure who was on the same page as her husband when it came to their kids upbringing. Esther Rolle and John Amos were strong believers that this show have 2 sensible, mature and fair but firm parents .
Ralph Carter as Michael Evans. A young but very bright young man for his age but stuck in a school system that doesn't meet his academic needs. He is also very much a militant type , which his parents aren't fond of but understand where it comes from, but try to keep Michael in check on it.
His character's name is the same as the show's founder Mike Evans (best known as Lionel Jefferson on "All In The Family" & "The Jeffersons". (Mike Evans passed away December 14th, 2006).
Thelma is a young girl of 16 or 17 and has to deal with the dangers of being a young woman in the streets of the ghetto. She is strong but at the same time, a sweet girl looking for her prince to take her out of the ghetto.
She is always having words with J. J. , her brother , who makles fun of her looks , but she's just as vocal in her responses back at him.
The Evans's neighbor Wilona Woods works in a neighborhood boutique (clothing ctore) and is a divorcee' , with an active dating life. She never beats around the bush about anything, always saying exactly what she means. Which helps her be a great friend to the Evans family, in every sense of that word.
She later ended up adopting an abused little girl Penny Gordon (played by a then 10 year old Janet Jackson). The actual acts of viloence were not shown on camera but , Penny's abusive mother would not only hit ad beat Penny but (and this was a very unnerving sight) we see her pick up an electric clothes iron and walk twords her , Penny begging her not to do it.
Wilona and the Evans family get wind of what's happening and contact all the proper authorites but Penny's mother runs off.
Her mother is played by Totie Fields , the real life Mom of "Facts of Life" / "Living Single" actress Kim Fields. Kim actually would guest in the final season as well.
Jimmie Walker as James Evans Jr. , is the typical (in early years almost streotypical) young wise-cracking, jive-talking kind of young man who does not take life seriously enough. Yet at the same time, is a gifted artist who can paint wonderful things on canvas or even a wall mural.
One of his best shows, J. J. (against his will) is being forced to join up with a gang, by it's leader "Mad Dog" ,that is trying to 'recruit' members , so they'll have greater numbers in a street fight, against a rival gang.
Dad , James confronts Mad Dog on the street. Mad Dog attempts to shoot James but J. J. saves his Dad by getting in front of him. (I'll save the rest for you to see.) There's also the show where J. J. almost unknowingly, falls in with a group of criminals who sell illegal drugs.
Finally is Nathan Bookman, their building super-intendant. Bookman is a constant target by Wilona and the Evans kids for his being grossly overwieght. (Unfortunately we see him in a "fat person" sterotype always heavily eating).
For many episodes , he and his wife are more like an enemy to the Evans's (and other tenants). Later on , it seems that Bookman and the Evans's have found a way to co-exist together and Bookman ceases his threats to evict them.
The battles between CBS and the shows two lead adults are well known. It was always an uphill battle for Rolle & Amos. It resulted in John's being written out of the show and fired.
After the demise of the James Evans character, in that ill fated trip to Mississippi and the car accident....the show lost a good deal of it's stability. John had the last laugh, having scored a prime role as adult Kunta Kintae in the ABC Mini-Series "Roots". Later, after a drought in his career, would get many roles in movies.
Many viewers departed the show, though. Esther Rolle actually left for an entire season, not wanting to play second fiddle any longer to J. J.'s smart-aleck "Dyno-mites" and likely angry with CBS over letting John go. (Her character quite unbelievably, gets married to a man named Carl and they head of to Arizona for a year).
Citing the writers' overall lack of quality storylines. She would only return after securing a guarantee that the writers would even things out and get back to making scripts that were of good quality and plausible. Also getting J. J. to act his age.
The final season brought the character Keith. A young, soon to be , Pro - Football player. He and Thelma meet, fall in love and eventually marry. When Keith accidentally trips over J. J.'s foot at the end of the ceremony, breaking his knee, he ends up living with the Evans's.
With this addition and Rolle back in the series, the episodes were the best they'd been in sometime and while that's great, it wasn't enough to keep the series alive.
On August 1st, 1979 the show came to an end, with the family & Wilona and Penny, able to leave the projects for a better life. Florida already had employement as a school bus driver, J. J. the artist had sold an idea to a comic book company , Michael was to move into his own place and live on campus at college.
Wilona's financial outlook changed as well , so she found her & Penny a new place to live uptown. Keith's knee fully recovers and he's also signed a contract with the Chicago Bears.
Allowing Thelma and he to afford a new place. Thelma also made it known she was going to have a baby and that she wanted Florida to come live with them and leave the old place behind.
As it turned out, Wilona and Penny's place was the 'very' same building Keith & Thelma were going to live in! Meaning, Florida and Wilona wouldn't have to be miles away from each other after all.
Some might feel it wasn't the most plausible of endings, but for those of us who came to know the Evans family, to leave this without a conclusion would have been unfair to all of us who stayed to the end...as well as the Evans deserved a happy ending.
Would be great if any real life familes in a poverty situation could have such a wonderful outcome in their lives as well. (END)
First, I'll give my rating for the series overall - ********* 9 out of ten stars. I've taken away 1 , for the dip in quality this series suffered after season 3. You'll read why in a bit.
In February of 1974, a really great sitcom (with dramatic overtones) premiered on CBS. It was a TV first, a show about an African-American family living in the Chicago Projects in the 1970's.
Created by Norman Lear & Mike Evans as a spin-off of "Maude", once again Lear (with Evans) was able to strike the right chord with viewers and especially with the African American community.
Not since this show, have I seen a situation comedy directly talk about the struggles of inner-city families. (Well,there was Fox's "South Central" in 1994 but was not renewed after it's first season.)
John Amos as James (Henry?) Evans Sr. Was the ultimate father figure for this family and acted as any father should in this setting, to keep his family together and his kids from going down the wrong paths in life, which in the surrounding elements, can be all too easy.
Esther Rolle was a wonderful no nonsense mother figure who was on the same page as her husband when it came to their kids upbringing. Esther Rolle and John Amos were strong believers that this show have 2 sensible, mature and fair but firm parents .
Ralph Carter as Michael Evans. A young but very bright young man for his age but stuck in a school system that doesn't meet his academic needs. He is also very much a militant type , which his parents aren't fond of but understand where it comes from, but try to keep Michael in check on it.
His character's name is the same as the show's founder Mike Evans (best known as Lionel Jefferson on "All In The Family" & "The Jeffersons". (Mike Evans passed away December 14th, 2006).
Thelma is a young girl of 16 or 17 and has to deal with the dangers of being a young woman in the streets of the ghetto. She is strong but at the same time, a sweet girl looking for her prince to take her out of the ghetto.
She is always having words with J. J. , her brother , who makles fun of her looks , but she's just as vocal in her responses back at him.
The Evans's neighbor Wilona Woods works in a neighborhood boutique (clothing ctore) and is a divorcee' , with an active dating life. She never beats around the bush about anything, always saying exactly what she means. Which helps her be a great friend to the Evans family, in every sense of that word.
She later ended up adopting an abused little girl Penny Gordon (played by a then 10 year old Janet Jackson). The actual acts of viloence were not shown on camera but , Penny's abusive mother would not only hit ad beat Penny but (and this was a very unnerving sight) we see her pick up an electric clothes iron and walk twords her , Penny begging her not to do it.
Wilona and the Evans family get wind of what's happening and contact all the proper authorites but Penny's mother runs off.
Her mother is played by Totie Fields , the real life Mom of "Facts of Life" / "Living Single" actress Kim Fields. Kim actually would guest in the final season as well.
Jimmie Walker as James Evans Jr. , is the typical (in early years almost streotypical) young wise-cracking, jive-talking kind of young man who does not take life seriously enough. Yet at the same time, is a gifted artist who can paint wonderful things on canvas or even a wall mural.
One of his best shows, J. J. (against his will) is being forced to join up with a gang, by it's leader "Mad Dog" ,that is trying to 'recruit' members , so they'll have greater numbers in a street fight, against a rival gang.
Dad , James confronts Mad Dog on the street. Mad Dog attempts to shoot James but J. J. saves his Dad by getting in front of him. (I'll save the rest for you to see.) There's also the show where J. J. almost unknowingly, falls in with a group of criminals who sell illegal drugs.
Finally is Nathan Bookman, their building super-intendant. Bookman is a constant target by Wilona and the Evans kids for his being grossly overwieght. (Unfortunately we see him in a "fat person" sterotype always heavily eating).
For many episodes , he and his wife are more like an enemy to the Evans's (and other tenants). Later on , it seems that Bookman and the Evans's have found a way to co-exist together and Bookman ceases his threats to evict them.
The battles between CBS and the shows two lead adults are well known. It was always an uphill battle for Rolle & Amos. It resulted in John's being written out of the show and fired.
After the demise of the James Evans character, in that ill fated trip to Mississippi and the car accident....the show lost a good deal of it's stability. John had the last laugh, having scored a prime role as adult Kunta Kintae in the ABC Mini-Series "Roots". Later, after a drought in his career, would get many roles in movies.
Many viewers departed the show, though. Esther Rolle actually left for an entire season, not wanting to play second fiddle any longer to J. J.'s smart-aleck "Dyno-mites" and likely angry with CBS over letting John go. (Her character quite unbelievably, gets married to a man named Carl and they head of to Arizona for a year).
Citing the writers' overall lack of quality storylines. She would only return after securing a guarantee that the writers would even things out and get back to making scripts that were of good quality and plausible. Also getting J. J. to act his age.
The final season brought the character Keith. A young, soon to be , Pro - Football player. He and Thelma meet, fall in love and eventually marry. When Keith accidentally trips over J. J.'s foot at the end of the ceremony, breaking his knee, he ends up living with the Evans's.
With this addition and Rolle back in the series, the episodes were the best they'd been in sometime and while that's great, it wasn't enough to keep the series alive.
On August 1st, 1979 the show came to an end, with the family & Wilona and Penny, able to leave the projects for a better life. Florida already had employement as a school bus driver, J. J. the artist had sold an idea to a comic book company , Michael was to move into his own place and live on campus at college.
Wilona's financial outlook changed as well , so she found her & Penny a new place to live uptown. Keith's knee fully recovers and he's also signed a contract with the Chicago Bears.
Allowing Thelma and he to afford a new place. Thelma also made it known she was going to have a baby and that she wanted Florida to come live with them and leave the old place behind.
As it turned out, Wilona and Penny's place was the 'very' same building Keith & Thelma were going to live in! Meaning, Florida and Wilona wouldn't have to be miles away from each other after all.
Some might feel it wasn't the most plausible of endings, but for those of us who came to know the Evans family, to leave this without a conclusion would have been unfair to all of us who stayed to the end...as well as the Evans deserved a happy ending.
Would be great if any real life familes in a poverty situation could have such a wonderful outcome in their lives as well. (END)