The opening montage of “Good Times” is, to me, unforgettable.
Chicago’s urban decay is forever seared in the memory of anyone who saw the program, even more so for those that watched the show during its first run. If you missed an episode in those days — must watch TV — you had to wait for the summer for re-runs. Now, not so much; but it has taken many, many years to get to good Times on demand. Although Good Times was a comedy, the subject matter — child abuse, drug addiction, alcoholism, gang violence, racism, seniors forced to eat pet food to survive — forced Americans to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
Of course, we did not have Critical Race Theory or even the now widely used term “redlining” in common parlance in the early to mid-70s. Redlining was still in its early stage of being accepted as a concept after it was coined in the 1960s by sociologist John McKnight, even though it was the dominant reality in Chicago housing projects like Cabrini-Greene, featured in the opening credits. Fifty years on, Cabrini-Green is no more. “Chicago’s Cabrini-Green, arguably the best known of the housing projects and the setting for the CBS sitcom Good Times, didn’t start coming down until 1995; the last tower block was razed in 2011,” wrote Ned Cramer for Architect magazine. Embedded in the narrative of the show, from opening to closing credits, were the effects of racial discrimination in housing.
The influence of Good Times endures, however, celebrated, this last weekend, with a marathon weekend on TVOne. Few noticed. Ah, God bless the United States of Amnesia — the phrase coined by the almost entirely forgotten Gore Vidal …
Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans, “Good Times” first aired on CBS on Feb. 8, 1974. The first episode aired roughly one decade after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and four years after then-Nixon advisor Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who would eventually become a US Senator, counselled a course of “benign neglect” for the administration to steer on the issue of race. At the time, realistic shows depicting working class two parent black households were non-existent.
Monte created and wrote for such canonical 70s sitcoms as The Jeffersons and What’s Happening. Mike Evans — for whom the youngest son on the show is named — eventually became the first Lionel on The Jeffersons. He ultimately left that show after season one to devote more time to writing for Maude, which, after the fashion of Norman Lear productions, also became a hit. You see, Florida Evans, the Evans family matriarch, was Maude Findlay's housekeeper. Such are the synergies of Norman Lear productions.
It was Norman Lear, whose clout at CBS was without question after All in the Family, that brought Good times to the Tiffany network. “The reality of Lear, a white man, being responsible for bringing a fuller picture of Black lives to American TV screens was a product of the era, when most doors were still closed to Black producers and creators,” wrote Jonathan Abrams and Christopher Kuo for the Times. “Some characters in his shows were the source of flare-ups, particularly when some Black cast members complained about stereotypical portrayals, which are still debated today.”
Indeed. Both John Amos and Esther Rolle, lead characters, left the program before the final season because of disputes about the writing. “Well, let’s go outside then,” is how Amos described his disputes with the white writers on the show to Vlad TV. At the end of season 3, in 1976, John Amos left Good Times because of creative differences with the writing staff, many of whom had never been in public housing. “I left because I was told that my services were no longer needed because I had become a 'disruptive element,’” he told the Archive of American television. By 1977, Esther Rolle, one of the founding members of the Negro Ensemble Company, left the show as well because of the way Jimmy Walker’s character, JJ Evans was written.
What can be said about Norman Lear that has not already been written? “He changed the face of television,” Amos, who long ago set aside his differences with Lear, told Vlad TV. “He changed it for the better … (Lear) had 7 shows in the Top 10.” Lear, who died at age 101 at the end of last year, was “woke” frankly decades before the term woke was cancelled.
When I first came to America in the 70s as a kid I watched Good Times every week. Even then, it was one of the rarest of the rare — a story of an African-American family in the inner city. As an African by way of Canada it fascinated me. It was gritty at times, but also joyful. The cramped, 2 bedroom apartment space shared by the family and their neighbor, Willona, by television standards — was a palpable force. It shielded the family from the forces of violence and racism on the Chicago streets and in the benignly neglectful halls of government.
The last surviving members of the cast are the Evans children — Jimmy Walker, Bern Nadette Stanis and Ralph Carter — as well as John Amos, who at age 83, is in declining phyical and mental health. Amos, who played James Evans, Senior, made great efforts during his run with the show, to appear as a blameless example of Black fatherhood. As I noted at the beginning, there was not much of that on network television at the time. He is, unfortunately at present, undergoing very public family distress involving his two adult children. From Gary Baum of THR:
Each of the kids — he a music video director and editor, she an entertainment executive turned medicinal healer — believes they’re innocent and the other is nefarious. Their 83-year-old father, who has in the past toggled his trust between his offspring while making clear he loves them both, detests that his family life has become gossip fodder. “Whatever we’re going through is our business, not the business of the public,” he says. Yet the warring siblings, in their attempts to vanquish each other, have shown a common willingness to trump that desire for privacy by leveraging social media platforms and, in their dealings with THR, by putting forward confidential documentation to press their respective cases — even if it might undercut or embarrass their father.
One last note in closing. Janet Jackson, who played Millicent “Penny” Gordon, did not attend the reunion. She was on the show from 1977-1979 and is a part of the show’s history. Could it have hurt her to join in? Would it really have been a backwards career move for the five-time Grammy winner to appear on the show? Good Times meant so much — and, imho, still means much — to so many people. And yet it came and went, the social media hashtag #GoodTimesGolden50 barely used. It just seems like such a missed opportunity. Alas. Still, the Yiddish have a saying: Ha Mavin, Yavin — those who know, know. And those who are familiar with the exquisite pleasure of a Good Times rerun after a long day, understand.
“Takeaway #1: Immigration is not a silver bullet issue for Republicans (as many in the party have cast it). Rather than hiding from the situation as the border, Suozzi leaned into it — embracing the bipartisan Senate deal on immigration. ‘If I was in Congress, I would absolutely support it,’ Suozzi said. ‘It’s what people want and people deserve action on this crisis, at this time.’ Pilip, on the other hand, said she was opposed to the deal — calling it a ‘non starter’ that ‘simply puts into law the invasion currently happening at our southern border.’ Pilip’s rhetoric, you probably noticed, echoes that of Trump himself — who not only opposed the Senate immigration compromise but also spends 15 minutes (at least) in every one of his stump speeches painting a dark picture of the border. To be clear, Trump isn’t going to stop doing that. And just because Suozzi won on Tuesday doesn’t mean immigration isn’t a major problem for President Biden. It is — as evidence by new Gallup polling that shows, among people who disapprove of the job Biden is doing, immigration is the leading issue cause of that unhappiness. But, what Suozzi’s win reveals is that at least some voters are persuadable on the issue of immigration — and that Democrats have to play offense (be FOR something) rather than just take GOP incoming on it.” (Cilizza)
“Trump makes a mockery of the notion of America as a nation of laws. He has nothing but scorn for tax-paying, parking ticket-paying, waiting-their-turn-in-line chumps. A spoiled nepo-baby who went bankrupt young to the tune of $900 million, a Mark Burnett reality show businessman, he built his actual career blowing off invoices from vendors and legal norms, often stiffing lawyers who got him out of trouble. An endless supply of lawyers are still eager to test their skills on behalf of the oligarchy’s waterboy. Even if he doesn’t pay, the free advertising is better than the Better Call Saul billboard. In Servants of the Damned, New York Times financial writer David Enrich tracked how one of the country’s biggest law firms signed on with Trump. Mega firm Jones Day reaped nearly $20 million in campaign spending in 2020. ‘Trump was a golden ticket’ for the firm, as early as 2016, when Jones Day was already a ‘go-to firm for Republicans, mainstream and fringe alike.’ I remember Jones Day hosting parties at the Cleveland nominating convention, while battalions of cops recruited from other states patrolled the streets outside in fear of riots provoked by the race-baiter.” (Nina Burleigh/American Freakshow)
“New York Democrats, including former Rep. Tom Suozzi, took a step toward redeeming themselves for their role in the party’s loss of House control in 2022 Tuesday night. State party leaders fumbled at least five House seats they should have held, including Suozzi’s, after the Long Island Democrat ran a feeble race to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul. That left the seat open for serial fabulist George Santos to lie his way into Congress. But it turns out the GOP’s ineptitude in vetting Santos gave Democrats an early chance to get the seat back, after the House expelled Santos last December. And Tom Suozzi did it in a special election Tuesday night, beating a Nassau County Republican legislator, Mazi Pilip (technically a registered Democrat), who was almost as unvetted as Santos – and surely less entertaining.” (Joan Walsh/The Nation)