Sid Dorfman Movies

Mel (Vic Tayback) wants trophy-winning ballplayer Jolene (Celia Weston) as pitcher for his softball team. Jolene, however, wants no part of this set-up. It isn't that she is afraid of losing; no, she's terrified that she might win. The reason? Well, it seems that the star player on the opposing team is Jolene's current boyfriend Buzz (John Bedford Lloyd). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Assured that the character played by her co-star Jimmie Walker, brash, budding inner-city artist J.J. Evans, had become more mature and responsible during her year-long absence, actress Esther Rolle agreed to return to the role of J.J.'s mom, Florida Evans, as Good Times launched its sixth season. Conspicuous by his absence was Moses Gunn as Florida's second husband, Carl Dixon, whom she ostensibly married at the end of season four -- and with whom she'd been living in Arizona while "missing in action" throughout season five. When Florida made her comeback to the Evanses' tiny Chicago apartment, it was minus Carl, with no explanation given as to what had happened to him; indeed, it was if Carl had never existed. The series' scripters contrived to bring Florida back into the Evans fold by having her invited to the wedding of her daughter, Thelma (BernNadette Stanis), and up-and-coming, award-winning football flash Keith Anderson, played by new Good Times regular Ben Powers. It was hoped that Keith's impending contract with the Chicago Bears would enable the Evanses to at last leave the Projects and move into more attractive surroundings. Alas, no sooner had Thelma and Keith said "I do," than Keith tripped and broke his knee, thereby effectively squashing any hopes he had for a pro football career. Thus did Keith move into the increasingly crowded Evans apartment, contributing to the family's meager finances by working as a cab driver. Since Keith could only work a few hours a day, and J.J. had just been fired by the ad agency where he worked, former maid Florida had to go job-hunting, landing a part-time position as a school bus driver. J.J.'s efforts to make ends meet caused him to cross paths more than once with brutish neighborhood loan shark "Sweet Daddy" Williams, played by Theodore Wilson, a formerly recurring character who graduated that season to semi-regular status.

As for the other cast members, younger brother Michael Evans (Ralph Carter) continued to seek out his niche in the world; neighbor Willona (Ja'net Dubois) was relatively content in her new role as single adoptive mother to the precocious Penny (Janet Jackson); and usurious landlord Bookman (Johnny Brown) continued to pinch as many pennies as possible in maintaining the Evans apartment. Beginning the season in a "death" time slot opposite NBC's Saturday-night league leader, CHiPs, Good Times continued to lose viewers at an alarming rate. Having already gone on a brief hiatus in November 1978, the series left the air entirely in December, resurfacing in May 1979, only so that the remaining episode could be played off, thereby avoiding a total loss of CBS' investment. In a Wednesday-night time slot that was no more beneficial than its previous Saturday berth, the series died a quiet death on August 1, 1979, with one of the most outrageously unrealistic "happy" endings in TV series history: To make a long story short, everything turned out all right. Only 21 of the 24 episodes filmed for the 1978-1979 season were telecast by CBS; the three "orphaned" episodes would not be seen until Good Times entered local syndication in the fall of 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the second half of Good Times' sixth-season opener, the Evans kids are celebrating the return of their mother, Florida (Esther Rolle), who has come back to attend the wedding between her daughter, Thelma (BernNadette Stanis), and up-and-coming football player Keith Anderson (Ben Powers). The combination of the impending nuptials and Keith's anticipated big-bucks contract with the Chicago Bears does not prevent Thelma from having second thoughts about tying the knot. And another crisis is looming on the horizon: Having lost his job, Thelma's brother J.J. (Jimmie Walker) may not be able to afford a big wedding. Originally telecast as a single one-hour episode, "Florida's Homecoming" has since been re-edited as two half-hours for syndication purposes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Richard Ward returns in the role of Henry Evans, the father of the late James Evans. Convinced that his newest invention will earn him millions, Grandpa Henry begins neglecting his longtime live-in fiancée, Lena (Paulene Myers), who finally walks out. The Evans kids combine forces to bring Henry and Lena back together -- and to convince Henry that marriage is not as horrible a notion as he believes it to be. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Just as season four of Good Times was marked by the defection of actor John Amos as James Evans, so too was the series' fifth season distinguished by the conspicuous absence of another leading character. Having already gone on record over the dissatisfaction with the direction in which the series had gone -- that is, from a positive depiction of a closely knit inner-city family headed by a strong male parental figure to a somewhat stereotypical portrait of a fatherless ghetto clan dominated by the buffoonish behavior of the family's oldest son -- Esther Rolle (aka Florida Evans) decided to follow Amos' lead. Citing "illness," Rolle was off the Good Times cast list as of September 1977. Her character's sudden disappearance was neatly compensated for by explaining that, after a whirlwind courtship, Florida had married the irascible but lovable Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn), and had moved with her new husband to Arizona. The three Evans children -- J.J. (Jimmie Walker), Thelma (BernNadette Stanis), and Michael (Ralph Carter) -- had stayed behind in the family's tiny Chicago apartment, with the tacit understanding that Florida's longtime friend and neighbor Willona Woods (Ja'net DuBois) would drop in from time to time to make sure the kids were doing well. While J.J. was still the prankish "Dy-no-mite Kid," his sudden ascension to head of the Evans household had thrust maturity and responsibility upon him; he even landed a semi-steady job as an ad agency artist. In other words, J.J. began behaving less like a sitcom clown and more like a genuine human being -- precisely what Esther Rolle had been demanding for years. It was this metamorphosis as much as anything else that persuaded Rolle to return to the series at the outset of season six. To counteract the depletion of the basic Good Times ensemble, the producers contrived to add a brand new character and to build up an older one. A very young Janet Jackson was added to the cast as 13-year-old Penny Gordon, the product of an abusive home. Taking pity on Penny, the childless (and husbandless) Willona adopted the girl, thereby opening up a whole new realm of plot possibilities. In addition, the Evans' penny-pinching landlord Nathan Bookman (played by Johnny Brown) was promoted from recurring character to full regular. Theoretically, the time-honored ritual of cast additions and deletions is supposed to breathe new life into old sitcoms (look what that ritual did for M*A*S*H). Unfortunately, Good Times showed few signs of resuscitation. Although the series still had a loyal coterie of fans, it continued to plummet in the ratings, losing out to ABC's Eight is Enough on Wednesday nights, then to NBC's Little House on the Prairie when Good Times moved to Mondays in mid-season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and B.J. (Mike Farrell) generously shell out $40 so that the camp's Korean ping-pong champ Cho Lin (Richard Narita) can purchase a wedding ring for his sweetheart Soony (Sachito Penny Lee). Cynical Frank (Larry Linville) is certain that Cho Lin will abscond with the cash and never be seen again--and for a while, it looks like Frank is right. Meanwhile, ailing Lt. Col. Becket (Frank Maxwell) demands to be released from post-op so he can expedite a promotion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Season four of Good Times marked the first of the series' significant cast changes -- or, to be more precise, cast deletions. Long disenchanted with the way in which the series had devolved from the weekly saga of a poor but indomitable ghetto family into a vehicle for the brash buffoonery of Jimmie Walker (aka J.J. Evans), actor John Amos, who had played Evans family patriarch James from the outset of the show in January 1974, quit the series outright. Amos' abrupt departure prompted the series' producers to exhume a script that had initially been written for another Norman Lear TV sitcom, All in the Family. Originally conceived to compensate for the possible defection of series star Carroll O'Connor, the script, as written, showed the members of Bunker household -- mother Edith, daughter Gloria, and son-in-law Mike -- coping with the accidental death of bumptious bigot Archie Bunker. As it happened, O'Connor remained with All in the Family, and thus this pivotal script went unfilmed -- until John Amos quit Good Times. Undergoing a hasty rewrite, the script emerged as the two-part opener for Good Times' fourth season; it was thus James Evans, and not Archie Bunker, who was killed in a traffic accident while on an out-of-town trip. Esther Rolle, who played James's wife, Florida, was not altogether pleased with Amos' departure, but she could understand his motivation. She, too, regarded the character of J.J. as a poor role model for African-American youths, and she hoped that J.J.'s sudden ascension to "man of the house" status would force the character to grow and mature. At the same time, one of the reasons that Rolle signed on to Good Times was because of the series' depiction of an closely knit inner-city family with a strong and positive father figure at the head. With Amos gone, Rolle was herself less than anxious to continue with her participation in the series. And this, coupled with the producers' insistence upon retaining the "zany" qualities that had endeared J.J. to millions of viewers, prompted her to consider leaving the series as well -- which indeed she did, at the end of season four. Before this happened, however, the series' writers contrived to pair off Florida Evans with a new sweetheart in the form of Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn), the employer of Florida's youngest son, Michael (Ralph Carter). Although Carl was obstreperous, profane, and something of an atheist, Florida managed to bring out the best in the man, and with the blessings of her children -- including daughter Thelma (BernNadette Stanis) -- Florida and Carl had decided to wed by the time the last fourth-season episode had rolled around. The many changes in Good Times' basic premise, combined with its move to a suicidal Wednesday-night time slot opposite ABC's surprise hit The Bionic Woman, had an injurious effect on the program's ratings. Having already dropped from seventh to 24th place during season three, the series failed to even crack the Top 25 during season four. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

J.J. (Jimmie Walker) is invited to speak at a re-election campaign rally for fatuous local alderman Fred Davis (Albert Reed). Correctly sensing that Davis is several miles removed from honesty, J.J. refuses the invitation. The result: intense political pressure, and a terse eviction notice for J.J.'s nonplussed mom, Florida (Esther Rolle). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A spin-off of a spin-off, the CBS sitcom Good Times was derived from the Norman Lear-produced comedy series Maude, which itself was spawned by another Lear project, All in the Family. The link between Maude and Good Times was the character of Florida Evans (Esther Rolle), the sharp-tongued, no-nonsense African-American maid of hyper-liberal white suburbanite Maude Findlay. Beginning Friday, February 8, 1974, viewers were invited on a weekly basis into the home of Florida and her family, a cramped two-bedroom apartment on the 17th floor of a federal housing project in Chicago's run-down West Loop. Florida's husband was James Evans (John Amos), a proud Army veteran who was not about to let the fact that he had only a sixth-grade education prevent him from trying to support his family. Alas, good jobs were few and far between -- and when James finally did secure employment, he generally had to hold down two jobs to make ends meet. Thus, Florida was essentially the breadwinner in the Evans household, though she would always defer to James as far as important family decisions were concerned.

The Evanses had three children. Seventeen-year-old James Jr. (Jimmie Walker), better known as J.J., was a talented aspiring artist who spent most of his free time seeking out "can't-miss" moneymaking schemes or trying to score with his gorgeous female classmates; his rather inflated assessment of his romantic prowess was summed up by his frequent exclamation "Dy-no-mite!" Sixteen-year-old Thelma (BernNadette Stanis, billed in some of the earlier episodes as Bern Nadette) had dreams of going to college and becoming a journalist. And 11-year-old Michael (Ralph Carter), nicknamed "the Midget Militant" by his family, was always seeking out racial or social iniquities to be corrected -- even where, to the naked eye, no such iniquities existed. Other regulars included the Evanses' obligatory wisecracking next-door neighbor, Willona Woods (Ja'net DuBois), and the family's none-too-ethical landlord, Nathan Bookman (Johnny Brown, a recurring character until 1977).

Though Norman Lear is usually given most of the credit for Good Times, the series was actually the brainchild of Eric Monte, who had himself grown up in the grim Cabrini-Green housing project on Chicago's South Side. As originally conceived, the series was to have depicted in a humorous and warm-hearted fashion the solidarity of the African-American family unit despite grinding poverty and substandard living conditions. Gradually, however, the series gave way to pure verbal slapstick -- much of it racially stereotypical -- as the Evanses' flamboyant, jive-talking son J.J. emerged as the most popular character. By the time the third season rolled around, virtually every episode revolved around the antics of J.J., much to the dismay of nominal leads Esther Rolle and John Amos. At the end of the 1975-1976 season, Amos had had enough of playing second fiddle to co-star Jimmie Carter; the actor left the series, whereupon it was "explained" that James Evans had been killed in an auto accident en route to a new job in Mississippi.

This turn of events was also the beginning of the end for Esther Rolle, who had signed on to the program because of its positive depiction of a ghetto family with a strong father figure. Now that J.J. was the sole "male adult" on the premises, Rolle, too, began making preparations to quit the series. She was temporarily dissuaded when the producers agreed to find a new husband for Florida Evans, in the person of repair-shop owner Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn). Even so, J.J. continued to dominate the proceedings, his character becoming more exaggerated (and to some observers, more demeaning) with each passing episode. Ultimately, just before the beginning of its fifth season, Esther Rolle followed John Amos in leaving the series; the official reason given by the actress was "illness." The writers rapidly cooked up a scenario whereby Florida and Carl had gone on their honeymoon, leaving the then twentysomething J.J. and Thelma in charge of the Evans household, with Florida's best friend, Willona, as surrogate mother.

In answer to the series' many critics, the producers saw to it that the heretofore footloose J.J. landed a steady job with an advertising agency. And in hopes of expanding the series' audience demographic, a new regular character was added: Penny Gordon (Janet Jackson), whom Willona had rescued from an abusive household, and who would eventually be adopted by Willona. Assured that the character of J.J. had mellowed, Esther Rolle agreed to return to Good Times in the fall of 1978 -- minus her husband, Carl, whose absence was never explained. In a move to restore the "strong father figure" character to the series, Thelma became the wife of Keith Anderson (Ben Powers), a reasonably successful and reasonably mature football star. The arrival of Keith, however, allowed J.J. to revert to his "unemployed" status, and also (briefly) to his old scampish ways. When Keith suffered a career-ending injury that forced him to find a lower-paying job as a cabdriver, the rest of the family contributed to the Evans coffers, with Florida finding work as a school-bus driver and J.J. giving art lessons. The one echo of J.J.'s former reckless zaniness was his nervous relationship with neighborhood loan shark Sweet Daddy (Theodore Wilson).

The schizophrenic nature of Good Times was reflected in its ratings. Ending its first season in 17th place among the Top 20 programs, the series hit an all-time high of seventh place the following year. It then plummeted to 24th place during its third season and never even cracked the Top 25 for the rest of its existence. (The fact that the series was shuttled all over the prime-time lineup, from Friday to Tuesday to Wednesday to Monday to Saturday, may have been a contributing factor to its drop-off in viewership.) Nonetheless, though it was never CBS's premiere weekly sitcom, Good Times enjoyed a healthy shelf life in syndicated reruns, where it continued to flourish into the next millennium. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Like so many other Norman Lear-produced efforts, Good Times made its network bow as a mid-season replacement, taking over the Friday-night time slot previously occupied by the failed wartime sitcom Roll Out. Although only Florida Evans (Esther Rolle) was familiar to audiences by virtue of her appearances on Maude, the rest of the Good Times characters were so fully rounded that the laborious first-episode practice of introducing them one by one was unnecessary. True to the intentions of its creator, Eric Monte, the series' first season stressed the solidarity and indomitability of the modern African-American family, even when surrounded by poverty and deprivation. The plot lines were evenly divided among the five main characters -- Florida (Esther Rolle), her husband, James (John Amos), oldest son J.J. (Jimmie Walker), daughter Thelma (BernNadette Stanis), and youngest son Michael (Ralph Carter) -- with next-door neighbor Willona (Ja'net DuBois) providing comic punctuation. While Jimmie Walker had been a successful standup comedian, and as such, arguably had more laugh-making "equipment" than his co-stars, the series had not yet evolved (or devolved) into "The J.J. Show." Still, laughs were served up in full measure, even though the first 13 episodes were more issue-oriented than later entries, touching upon such contemporary topics as age discrimination, fraudulent evangelists, "social" promotion in the public schools, the paucity of African-American representation in school history courses, and poor housing conditions. None of this, however, was done with a heavy hand. Good Times ended its first season with a 21.4 rating, tying with CBS's Barnaby Jones as the 17th most-watched TV series in America. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Having posted good, if not spectacular, ratings during its freshman year on CBS, Good Times was moved from Fridays to a more desirable Tuesday-night time slot as it entered its second season. Beyond an added emphasis on the minor character of usurious inner-city landlord Nathan Bookman (Johnny Brown), no significant changes were made amongst the cast members, though it was impossible not to notice that Jimmie Walker, aka J.J. Evans, was emerging as the star of the proceedings despite the actor's third-billed status. J.J.'s weekly exclamation "Dy-no-mite!" had already become a national catch phrase, repeated ad nauseam in classrooms, playgrounds, and AM radio stations from sea to shining sea. And during the filming of the second-season episode "The Gang," actor John Amos (James Evans) broke the tension of a scene in which J.J. was shot down in the street by ad-libbing, "This'll kill us in the ratings if he dies!" Everybody laughed, but everybody also knew that Amos was kidding on the square. While Good Times upheld its delicate balance between raucous humor and trenchant social comment throughout season two (in addition to the two-part episode on street gangs, the scripts tackled head-on such risky topics as alcoholism, teen pregnancy, school busing, and racially biased IQ tests), its unofficial designation as "The J.J. Show" tended to obscure its original intent: to demonstrate how a tightly knit black family could survive and endure despite grinding poverty and deprivation, so long as everyone -- and not just J.J. -- maintained their sense of humor. Also, John Amos and Esther Rolle (Florida Evans) were beginning to lodge complaints that the series' overemphasis on J.J.'s antics was not only diminishing their roles as the Evans kids' parents, but also led some impressionable viewers to believe that no inner-city family was complete without a wisecracking buffoon in attendance. Amos, in particular, was displeased because his character was nominally the head of the Evans household, a status that continued to erode the longer J.J. remained in the spotlight. Be that as it may, Good Times closed out its second season as the seventh highest-rated series in America. Translation: Since J.J. brought in the viewers and the sponsors, the "Dy-no-mites" would continue unabated. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 4077th takes advantage of a temporary lull in shooting to participate in an Army-Navy football game. The festivities come to a sudden halt when an artillery shell lands upon the football field -- and doesn't explode. As everyone else in camp takes cover, Hawkeye and Trapper nervously attempt to disarm the shell, using an outdated manual as their guide. A classic denouement caps this hilariously harrowing M*A*S*H episode, which was co-scripted by series regular McLean Stevenson, and was first shown on February 25, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi