LaWanda Page Movies

Consulting a psychic, Lamont (Demond Wilson) discovers he is a Double Libra. As such, it is in Lamont's best interests to be nicer to his crotchety old dad Fred (Redd Foxx). Meanwhile, Fred passes out after eating some spoiled collard greens. Awakening to find Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) praying over him, and Lamont behaving in an uncharacteristic kind and loving fashion, Fred is convinced that he is at death's door (exclaiming, "I'm comin', Elizabeth!"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Faced with mounting debts and a depleted bank account, Fred and Lamont Sanford (Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson) try to solve their problems by throwing a big party -- and charging admission. The plan runs into a hitch when a pair of gangsters invade the festivities. Coming to the rescue are the redoubtable Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) and her "raiders" (actually her church-lady pals). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Still riding high in the ratings, Sanford and Son returned to its by then traditional Friday-night NBC time slot for a third successful season on September 14, 1973. The basic premise -- crotchety old Fred Sanford running a rundown Los Angeles junk business with his restless son Lamont -- was still firmly in place, as were many of the familiar regulars: Redd Foxx as Fred; Demond Wilson as Lamont; LaWanda Page as Fred's pious, abrasive sister-in-law Aunt Esther; Lynn Hamilton as Fred's off-and-on fiancée, nurse Donna Harris; Don Bexley as Fred's wheeler-dealer buddy Bubba Hoover; Nathaniel Taylor as Lamont's foolhardy crony Rollo Taylor; Hal Williams and Howard Platt as local beat cops Smitty and Hoppy; and Gregory Sierra as the Sanfords' Puerto Rican neighbor and business rival, Julio Fuentes. The most prominent of the new recurring characters was Whitman Mayo as Grady Wilson, Fred Sanford's best friend and severest critic. Grady came in very handy when, in the middle of season three, Redd Foxx walked off Sanford and Son due to a well-publicized contractual dispute with the series' producer (of Foxx' many demands, the press chose to focus on the most trivial: the actor insisted that a window be installed in his dressing room). It was then hastily explained that Fred Sanford had gone on an extended trip to St. Louis, leaving Grady in charge of Sanford and Son Salvage -- and as temporary head of the Sanford household. Despite the temporary defection of its star, Sanford and Son continued to reap excellent ratings. By the end of the 1973-1974 season, the series ranked as the third most popular American TV program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like his previous smash hit All in the Family, producer Norman Lear's NBC sitcom Sanford and Son was based on a British original, in this instance Steptoe and Son, the story of an elderly, irascible cockney junk dealer and his cloddish bachelor son and business partner. In the initial development stages, Sanford and Son was to have been about a pair of Jewish men, but it was finally decided to transform the characters into African-Americans -- and in so doing, veteran "Chitlin Circuit" standup comedian Redd Foxx was catapulted to superstardom. Debuting January 14, 1972, the NBC series cast Redd Foxx as Fred Sanford, a 65-year-old L.A. junk dealer who ran a ramshackle salvage business in the backyard of his home. The cranky, mercenary Fred was satisfied with his lot in life, which was more than could be said for his 34-year-old son, Lamont (Demond Wilson), who was forever seeking out strategies to escape the junk business and go off on his own -- and, hopefully, to find himself a wife. The wily elder Sanford would have none of this, and devised all manner of schemes and subterfuges to keep Lamont from leaving. His favorite ploy was to feign having a heart seizure, whereupon he would look heavenward and "call out" to his late wife, "I'm comin', Elizabeth! This is the big one! I'm comin'!" Inasmuch as this charade fooled no one -- least of all Lamont -- one wondered if the younger Sanford really was that hepped out about leaving after all, or whether he felt secure in his shabby environs.

Although none of the series' supporting characters appeared on every episode, most were seen frequently enough to qualify as regulars. During season one, Fred hung out with his old buddy Melvin (Slappy White), and throughout the series he palled around with Bubba Bexley (Don Bexley). Beginning in 1973, Whitman Mayo was seen as Fred's crony Grady Wilson, who virtually became the series' star later on during Redd Foxx's frequent defections from the show due to salary and other squabbles with the producers. (Mayo himself virtually disappeared from Sanford and Son during the 1975-1976 season when he was spun off into his own sitcom, Grady.) Other recurring characters included eccentric police officers Swanhauser (Noam Pitlik), Smith (Hal Williams), and Hopkins (Howard Platt); Lamont's friend Rollo Larson (Nathaniel Taylor); restauranteur Ah Chew (Pat Morita); rival junk man Julio Fuentes (Gregory Sierra); Fred's off-and-on lady friend, Nurse Donna Harris (Lynn Hamilton); and Lamont's girlfriend and later fiancée, Janet Lawson (Marlene Clark). The one "standout" supporting character was Aunt Esther Anderson (LaWanda Page), who constantly quoted Scripture and who expressed her disapproval of Fred's shenanigans by giving a good solid punch once in a while (in some early episodes, Beah Richards appeared in a similar role as Aunt Ethel). With the departure of both Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson at the end of the series' sixth season, Sanford and Son was canceled September 2, 1977, to be "reborn" twice, first in the form of the spin-off series The Sanford Arms in the fall of 1977, then as the short-lived 1980 offering Sanford, with Redd Foxx in his original role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide