This spin-off really isn't as bad compared to others that were popular throughout the late 70s/early 80s. If you're a fan of the original Sanford and Son, you might enjoy this. Redd Foxx was still hilarious. Unfortunately, Demond Wilson declined the offer to reprise his role as Lamont, so the storyline was written to have him leaving California to work on a pipeline in Alaska. Not like it was far-fetched. Lamont had to move out at some point. The only downside to the show, was it kind of stopped making sense later on in the series. Then again, it started out that way in the pilot episode. Just like other spin-offs, Sanford isn't without its inconsistencies and lack of logic. Lamont sends a guy he's working with, Cal (Dennis Burkley), who's white and from Texas, to visit Fred. Why didn't he go see Fred himself? That is his father, after all. Cal ends up moving in and becoming Fred's business partner. That's awful extreme. How do you go from visiting someone's parent for them, to quitting your job and living with them? Despite having insulted him a million times in previous years, Fred hires Rollo (Nathaniel Taylor) to make deliveries. Donna is no longer in the picture. That wasn't a surprise anyway, considering she revealed to Fred that another man proposed to her in season 5. He gets emotional, as he comes to the realization that he truly doesn't want to marry her, because he's still deeply in love with Elizabeth, his deceased wife, so that was the end of their engagement/relationship. He starts dating another woman, Evelyn (Marguerite RaClara). Her brother, Winston (Percy Rodriguez) and her maid, Clara (Cathy Cooper), don't like Fred, seeing him as beneath Evelyn due to him living in Watts and managing a junkyard. By the second season, Sanford was showing signs of potentially getting canceled, as it was moved from Saturday to Friday nights. It was no wonder. The show had started going on a major decline. They eliminated one of the central characters, and additional characters were dropped out of nowhere. Rollo, Winston, Cissy, and Clara were written out of the story, and the scripts weren't adjusted with the other characters giving reasons for why. Woodrow, Aunt Esther's (LaWanda Page) husband, died, which leads her to move in with Fred and Cal to because she fears that Fred will be a negative influence on her son, Cliff (Clinton Derricks-Carroll), who's also living with them. He's in college, so how can anyone be a negative influence on him? He's an adult. And besides, what happened to Daniel??? The teenager her and Woodrow adopted 5 years before. That was dumb to have another actor replace him. Not to mention, as much as her and Fred couldn't stand each other, they're living together? This really must be set in an alternate universe. Some of the episodes are idiotic, like when Fred finds out he was actually married to Aunt Esther, leading to him, Aunt Esther, and Cal making the 27 hour drive to Missouri so they can get a divorce. My thing is, why even do a spin-off if it's just going to be outrageous anyway? I know many actors and actresses love what they do, but I wonder if they had ever felt like a project was a waste of time. This show isn't necessarily bad. The first season is alright, but it starts going downhill by the second.
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