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Good Times

PittsburghTiger

By PittsburghTiger
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PittsburghTiger

PittsburghTiger 6167

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Great show. Watching episode 5 from the first season in 1974. Michael got suspended because he told the teacher that George Washington was a racist because he owned slaves.

Two of the better parents in all of sitcom history. The secondary characters were solid too. JJ was great in the early seasons and then they turned him into a moron. Sort of how they turned Radar from a schemer to a baby in M.A.S.H.

Some of the stuff you could get away with back then on TV was amazing. Michael educates Mr. Evans on some of the black men who contributed to America's founding, all the way back to sailing with Columbus:

 "A Spook sailed with Columbus?, Mr. Evans said. "He did the rowing didn't he? Next Columbus Day I'm taking off work."

Mrs. Evans walks in the room

"Baby, did you know a Spook sailed with Columbus?"

Mrs. Evans then tells Michael about how important it is to stay in school, Mr Evans supports Mrs. Evans and Michael agrees to apologize to the teacher after Mr. Evans apologizes for initially wanting to give him a whooping.

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kopp0e

kopp0e 1135

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4 hours ago, BornOrange said:

Yeah, they could have had a great show with John Amos and Esther Rolle as the parents....but they sold out for DY-NO-MITE.

I'm thinking there is a threshold of what the average person is willing to become "socially educated" upon, when flicking through channels for a situational comedy show...

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

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I never really liked it.  Dad was always pissed off and yelling.  Michael was a fucking beatdown.  Thelma and J.J. were always insulting each other and it got old.  And what's with that neighbor (Winona or whomever) that always barged over?

What I did like was the feud sort of that was going on.  Kind of the Robert Reed "this shit sucks, I'm a serious ACTOR!!!" type of thing.  John Amos became disillusioned with the show, thought it was too slapstick for his "serious" talents (and he is a very talented actor), but most of all incensed that they went out and hired a "fucking... COMEDIAN" for a role, and even worse, that... godamn COMEDIAN started stealing the show!  He apparently didn't much the goofy, light story lines and wanted more serious social issues written in, but mostly he didn't dig Jimmie Walker's "shucking and jiving" character.  But that character was largely responsible for the show's big ratings.  Audiences didn't want to tune in to see some soliloquy on social justice (although of course the show had a lot of social issues as plots), they wanted to see humor.  And Walker was the most talented in those terms.  Even uber-lib creator Norman Lear had to wrestle with Amos a number of times over the nature of what the show was best.

Walker's retaliation was, "fuck you, John.  They wanted to appeal to a mass audience and, John, it's a comedy.  I never intended to be, or presented myself, as an actor.  I'm a comedian doing comedy.  And you know what? The audience loves it and loves me.  I didn't ask for the role or style, but I played it well.  You think it's all too "immature"? Then go elsewhere and continue your "acting" career.

And that's kind of what happened.  Lear and the producers got tired of Amos' threats and rants over the tone of the show, so they booted him.  In the long run, I sided with Walker (after watching a show about Good Times).  Walker did what he was hired to do, and did it well.  Amos was misguided in his conception of what it was - and wasn't.

That said, I never watched it all that much - it was just too much insult me-insult you dialogue.  When the comedian (and actually talented singer) Johnny Brown came off of Laugh-In to the show, it was okay (he sort of replaced Amos as the older male lead) but all in all, the show was just never something I watched.

As for the spin-off, yeah it was a spin-off of Maude.  But Maude was itself a spin-off of All In The Family (I think Maude was Archie's cousin or something).  So really it can be linked to AITF.

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Lhorn

Lhorn 4904

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Posted (edited)
On ‎7‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 9:23 AM, Pokoloco said:

Thelma was strong to quite strong. Still looks good.

Agreed.  Looked her up on the internet recently and she still looked very good.

Love the show.  Great characters, social relevant, etc.  Got to looking up the show's back ground a few years ago and found it interesting that the housing project was based on or supposed to be Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project.  The last of it was finally demolished a few years ago.  It's literally like a mile away from "Chicago's Gold Coast."  Interesting that such poverty and such wealth existed in such close proximity.   I looked it up on google maps and I think there is a Target store there now.

Also interesting that Mike Evans, the original Lionel from the Jeffersons and All in the Family left the Jefferson's to work as writer and co-creator of Good Times.

 

Edited by Lhorn
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