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- Compelled to fight racial stereotypes, she insisted before accepting the series that a strong father figure be central in the show (actor John Amos).
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Sep 6, 2022 · The parental figures in "Good Times" didn't last the duration of the series. After repeated disagreements with the production staff, Amos was fired from the show. His character was written out of the series tragically, perhaps to ensure that Amos would not ever be able to come back and resume his role as James Evans.
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- “Lionel Jefferson” Helped to Create It
- It Was A Spinoff of Maude, Which Was A Spinoff of All in The Family.
- Producers Believed That Ralph Carter Would Be The Show’S Breakout Star.
- John Amos Was Deemed A "Disruptive Element."
- Esther Rolle Also Grew Disenchanted with The Series’ Evolution.
- Janet Jackson Joined The Cast, But Struggled Throughout Her Run.
- The Show Produced More Than One Teen Idol.
- Walker Recruited A Few Soon-To-Be-Famous Faces.
- Esther Rolle Returned For The Final season.
Michael Evans, who played Lionel Jefferson on All in the Familyat the time, had heard through the grapevine that CBS was interested in producing a series about a black family. He approached Norman Lear and asked if he could try his hand at pitching a script. Lear gave him the OK, and Evans collaborated with his friend, Eric Monte. They wrote a scri...
The All in the Family spinoff Maude became a ratings hit in 1972 and Lear smelled another spinoff in the making. He decided that Esther Rolle, who played Maude’s housekeeper Florida Evans, could carry a series on her own. So The Black Familypilot script was resurrected and used as the basis for the new series. But Lear was still adamant that there ...
The next actor to be hired after Rolle and Amos was 12-year-old Ralph Carter, who was cast as the youngest son, Michael. Michael was nicknamed the “Militant Midget” by James because of his outspoken views on anything to do with politics or civil rights. Producers believed that Carter would be the “breakout” character of the show, not only because h...
While Amos admired Walker as a comedian, he was unhappy about the amount of attention the J.J. character was getting versus the other two children. “Michael aspired to be a Supreme Court Justice and Thelma wanted to be a surgeon, but all the emphasis was on J.J. and his chicken hat and him saying ‘dyn-o-mite’ every third page,” he said in an interv...
Rolle was similarly disenchanted with the way J.J. was evolving. “He’s 18 and he doesn’t work,” she told EbonyMagazine in September 1975 of Walker’s character. “He can’t read and write. He doesn’t think. The show didn’t start out to be that." Fed up with the turn the series had taken, in the midst of season four she demanded a raise along with bett...
In an effort to transform Willona from sassy swinging single to a believable surrogate mother, the writers decided she needed a child of her own. They forewent the traditional nine-month gestation period and instead added Janet Jackson as Penny Gordon, an abused child who is abandoned by her birth mother and adopted by Willona. Jackson was 11 years...
Walker was the breakout star of the show, but both Carter and BernNadette Stanis (who played Thelma Evans) achieved bona fide teen idol status thanks to their exposure on Good Times, and were in steady competition with the Jackson brothers and Diana Ross in the Hollywood gossip columns. Carter launched a successful singing career during his spare t...
Walker didn’t forget his friends once his television career took off; in fact, he hired several of them who were still struggling comedians to write material for his stand-up act. Two of those pals were Jay Leno and David Letterman. Walker finagled a small guest spot on Good Times for Leno during season three. Years later, after Good Times had been...
Following the death of James Evans and Florida’s sudden move to Arizona, audience interest in Good Timesbegan to wane. Eventually, producers decided that Amos and Rolle may have been right—that losing the “family” element of the series may have lost them some viewers as well. So they went back to Rolle and asked her to return; she repeated her prev...
Mar 30, 2022 · She played a Black housekeeper who worked for Bea Arthur's character Maude Findlay, a white woman living in suburban New York. Watch the Intro to 'Good Times'. Rolle's character was so popular ...
- Tyler Sage
Rolle was nominated in 1975 for the Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Golden Globe Award for her role in Good Times. Rolle was 19 years older than the actor who played her husband James (named Henry on Maude) Evans. The James Evans character was only added after Esther Rolle fought hard for a father figure and husband to be added to the show ...
Esther Rolle left Good Times after they had made the JJ character more mature and he wasn’t “cooning” like he was in earlier seasons. The show didn’t change much when she came back.
Esther was married to Oscar Robinson from 1955-1975. Esther did not have any children of her own but her husband had a daughter, Sherley Mae Robinson, (born 1936), with his first wife, the former Elizabeth Mae Robinson.
Feb 8, 2024 · 1) The producers originally wanted Florida to raise the family on her own, but Esther Rolle argued that it was stereotypical to depict a black family with no father and insisted on having a...
