1974-1979 (132 Episodes)

As you can tell from posts like this one, saluting Diahann Carroll for her ground breaking role in Julia, and this one about Hattie McDaniel for her pioneering role in Beulah, I have a deep appreciation for vintage TV. For no particular reason at all, I was recently humming the infectious Good Times theme song and decided to commemorate the show.

As JJ (Jimmie Walker) would say, “Good Times is the story of a happenin’ Black family trying to make it in the Chicago get’toe.” (*claps, then points both index fingers outward*) DYNOMITE!

Good Times was a groundbreaking TV series because it was the first time America got a glimpse of what urban life was like for low income families (kind of). Of course it was a comedy series, so things were sometimes presented lightheartedly, but there were deep moments, too. Remember when JJ got shot? Or how about when James died? (Dayum! Dayum! Dayum!)

On the brighter side, Wilona Woods’ (Ja’Net DuBois) fashion was to die for, and I loved the endless jokes about “Buffalo Butt” and “Ned the Wino.” Growing up in Harlem during the 80s, I’ve seen quite a few real life Neds in my time. I may not have been there in the ’70s but I love watching Good Times re-runs.

Facts:
Good Times was a spin off of the 1971 TV series, Maude, where Esther Rolle played “Florida Evans,” maid to Maude, a well-to-do liberal woman living in Tuckahoe, NY with her fourth husband.

Ja’Net Dubois (Wilona Evans) wrote and helped sing the theme song.

In later episodes, Janet Jackson played “Penny,” Wilona’s adopted daughter.

The projects they lived in were based on Chicago’s notorious Cabrini-Green.

Esther Rolle (Florida Evans) and John Amos (James Evans) often butted heads with the producers of the show because they didn’t like the depiction of JJ’s (Jimmie Walker) character. They thought he was a coon. Despite the fact that the Evanses were poor and lived in the projects, they were a positive family. Rolle and Amos thought JJ’s antics, which began to become the primary focus of the show, were the converse of the overall wholesome Evans image. At the end of the 1975-1976 season, John Amos was so fed up that he quit the show and producers decided to kill off  his character. Subsequently, Rolle became furious because JJ was the man of the house, and threatened to quit but was dissuaded by producers who promised to give her a new husband—auto-repair shop owner Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn). When JJ’s character did not change for the better, Rolle left. Producers explained her away by saying that she and her husband were on a honeymoon (while Wilona stayed and watched over the family). Rolle eventually came back (about 12 episodes later) to the cast without her husband whose absence—in typical sitcom fashion—was never explained.

Source: www.bn.com

TAGS: Esther Rolle, Florida Evans, Jimmie Walker, JJ, John Amos, Wilona

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