The Jeffersons & Good Times
Today's post is by my good friend Adam Ragan. He helped me out by discussing some of his favorite shows and films. Enjoy!
Ain’t we lucky we moved on up?
In the 1970s, there were two American sitcoms which occupied two extremes of the socioeconomic continuum. On the one end was Good Times, showcasing a family struggling to get by in project housing in Chicago and on the other end was The Jeffersons, showcasing a family who rose from poverty to the upper middle-class. What unites these shows, apart from their concurrent airdates and Norman Lear, is how they addressed through comedy the economic conditions of black families in the 1970s.
The theme songs of each show set the framework for how the shows characters were faring economically. The Jeffersons set the case that the characters had struggled for a long time but when given the opportunity to succeed or fail in business, they burst through the glass ceiling and “moved on up” to a high rise apartment, complete with a maid. Good Times’s theme operated under a tongue-in-cheek irony that, although the characters were standing in “chow lines” and getting “hastled’n hustled,” the love between the family members was the sole reason that poverty couldn’t, and wouldn’t, exact its toll in tearing the family down.
What makes these shows impactful is that, while dealing with serious topics relevant to life in the 1970s, they never lost sight of their comedic natures. It’s well known that Esther Rolle wanted to make sure the serious nature of black poverty was never overshadowed by the comedy on Good Times; yet, in watching Rolle’s performance, it’s clear that she knew how to charm and disarm through comedy even the most ardent disbeliever who might challenge the abhorrent living conditions of project housing. Marla Gibbs on The Jeffersons knew that some in the black community might challenge the notion that a black family would hire a black maid; thus, in her first appearance on the show she flawlessly delivered the line, “how come we overcame and nobody told me?!”
Beyond the comedy, there is yet another commonality binding these two programmes together: each dealt with black masculinity in up-front and vocal fashion. In the case of Good Times, John Amos’s James was a strong brother, hell-bent on taking care of his family and raising upstanding children. This stood in stark contrast to the white-majority notion that black men living in project housing were derelicts who cared little for their families and deserved their lowly socioeconomic status. Long before we as a culture had the “hand-up, not hand-out” slogan, Amos’s James was living the creed, always working to support his family. In the case of The Jeffersons, Sherman Hemsley shattered the myth that a wealthy black man might behave any differently from a wealthy white man; George Jefferson was just as entitled and removed from the yoke of poverty as any wealthy white man. Hemsley was able to show that there was no difference between white masculinity and black masculinity; it is the character of the man who occupies the body that determines the worth, not the skin colour of the man.
The Jeffersons continued that theme in the character of Tom Willis, a white man married to a black woman. This was the first such portrayal on television and Franklin Cover played the role wonderfully, often fending off racist zingers from Jefferson as much as other whites. I mention this often over-looked aspect because it had such a defining mark on me as a child watching reruns. I never understood why people couldn’t accept that Mr Willis fell in love with Mrs Willis and married her. He was white, she was black; so what? Even at an early age, I never understood why some whites and some blacks felt the races had no business falling in love. Love happens, deal with it!
These two shows have earned a place in our culture. Beyond discussing the times from which they come, they entertained then as much as they entertain now. The cast members from these shows occupy some of the top spots in television-honours lists. The characters they played are some of the most often quoted and referenced in pop-culture. The shows still air in syndication. And, perhaps more importantly, they still make us laugh forty years on. I thought I should include links to two of my favourite episodes, as well as the theme songs. Go ahead, sing along; I know you want to! Ain’t we lucky we can move on up with these shows?
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