Feedback I’ve heard about this 1974 thread of YWD is that Good Times, well, just doesn’t sound like a great show. If you’re thinking that, you wouldn’t be alone! In fact, neither the father (John Amos) nor the mother (Esther Rolle) liked the series much either, and neither of them made the full six-season run of the series.
The season we just watched had 13 episodes. The remaining seasons had 24. J.J.’s character started to get more play, and Michael started to get less. You may have noticed this already in Season One. Truth is, even though Eric Monte and Michael Evans (remember the Lionel character from AiTF?), both Black, created the premise of the show, the episode writers, directors, and producers were very white.
When Rolle was recruited for the role, she asked Norman Lear “Am I going to have any say about this show? Remember, I’ve been black longest.” She says she often changed her lines to be more culturally accurate, but she was quite unhappy with the way the J.J. character evolved.
Just this week, when the S1 finale would air, the NYT Sunday paper had a feature on Rolle, mostly about her pride in being part of a show about a Black family. Rolle speaks progressively about the “myth” that the women are the strength in the typical Black family.
“It is a myth that came out of reality. It all started back in the slave days. The white man has always been interested in the black woman; that’s why we’re so many colors. He told his wife we were savages and that she was a china doll, and then he sneaked out to our cabins. In the meantime he told his wife that the black man was a beast, and if he ever touched her, she was defiled for life.” — Esther Rolle, NYT May 5, 1974
In an article in Ebony in 1975, after Season 2, we hear more about the actors’ grievances. Rolle says of the J.J. character:
“He’s 18 and he doesn’t work. He can’t read and write. He doesn’t think. The show didn’t start out to be that. Michael’s role of a bright, thinking child, has been subtly reduced. Little by little - with the help of the artist, I suppose, because they couldn’t do that to ME - they have made J.J. more stupid and enlarged the role. — Esther Rolle, Ebony, September 1975
If it sounds like she was dissing Jimmy Walker there, she was. They were not friends. Walker was an active nightclub comic. He leveraged his fame between Seasons 2 & 3 to make TV appearances, open for famous acts like Gladys Knight, and do a 6-week residence in Vegas.
It’s worth noting that Jimmy Walker was 26 at the series start, only SEVEN years younger than John Amos, who played his father. Jimmy is now known as a “Black conservative” - there were even some solid rumors about a relationship with Ann Coulter (!) He didn’t buy the criticism of his increasing and arguably buffoonish role in Good Times.
As for John Amos, he was so unhappy with the series direction that he left the show forever after Season 3. They killed off his character and gave Florida a new fiancé in Season 4.
Amazingly, Rolle was OUT after Season 4, making Jimmy Walker the show’s star in Season 5 (1977-78.) Imagine the same apartment, with J.J. in charge of the family. He shared the stage with new main characters Bookman (a.k.a. “Buffalo Butt”) the building superintendent, and “Penny Woods,” the adopted daughter of Willona who was played by eleven-year old Janet Jackson. Esther made a re-appearance in the final season as the show wheezed to a close.
Good Times was groundbreaking. It leveraged Norman Lear’s incredible success with All in the Family to put the first black family on TV (literally) since Amos n’ Andy. Lear’s show The Jeffersons also focused on a black family, albeit wealthier (“movin’ on up!”) and was on the air for eleven seasons — believe it or not, long enough to overlap with The Cosby Show by a year.
I can’t say that Good Times catapulted anyone to stardom later. John Amos played Kunta Kinte on TV’s Roots in 1977, and you may remember him as the snow-suited commando in Die Hard 2. Esther Rolle had come from Broadway originally. She did a lot of episodic TV after GT and she died in 1998. Jimmy Walker remained a controversial standup comic.
Breaking News: There’s a report that Netflix has ordered an animated reboot of Good Times, produced by Seth MacFarlane and Steph Curry - yes, the NBA Steph Curry. Regardless of how well-written the original series is (or is not), it has enough cultural capital to be a milestone, and it would be interesting to see how the tribute version will play the comedy/ghetto paradox.
Finally, it may be fitting that the final episode of Season One aired the same day as the front page headline that Nixon’s official House impeachment hearings kicked off. It’s Day One, with an 18-minute public pledge by the committee leaders to use the “awesome impeachment powers” wisely. He’s got three more months as President.
Good Times S1 E13: My Son, The Lover
Themes: Misplaced crushes
Scene 1: Marcy’s the One
J.J. walks into the apartment to great FLORIDA, JAMES, and THELMA. Something happens for the very first time on this series — a character makes a stage entrance, and the audience breaks with applause! [Bet Esther loves that!]
J.J. is extremely happy, and the family is suspicious. He says “today my joy is overflowing like a garbage can in the ghetto”
J.J.: Family, are y’all ready for this?….Marcy Jones is CRAZY about me!
FLORIDA: Well, that’s nice, J.J. What are we supposed to do, fire a 21-gun salute?
Thelma says Marcy is a beauty queen, so what gives? J.J. says when their eyes met, he knew that “she was Gladys Knight, and I was the Pips!” In fact, he says she’s coming over in 10 minutes to see his “ebony genius on canvas” He’s planning to paint her portrait
WILLONA makes a fabulous entrance. She wants to know what’s going on with J.J. because he was singing Marvin Gaye in the hallway
MARCY arrives. J.J. fawns all over her, starstruck. And so does James, really. Thelma does NOT. Nor does Florida. They don’t trust her.
Scene 2: Marcy’s NOT the one
We open on FLORIDA and JAMES looking at J.J.’s new portrait of Marcy. It seems very serious compared to his other paintings.
JAMES: Why do you keep putting her down?
FLORIDA: There’s just something wrong with the two of them going together.
JAMES: Why? They’re both the same age. They’re 17.
FLORIDA: Yeah. Marcy is 17 going on 30. J.J. is 17, looks 15, and acts 12!
WILLONA makes a fabulous entrance. From “her boutique,” she is bringing a necklace that J.J. just bought. It’s engraved with “To M., with eternal love, J.J” James asks her how he could afford it - she says she sold it to J.J. for “the wholesale price, 83 cents”
J.J. come out of his room looking like this:
He strikes poses for a good 30 seconds of audience laughter. Then he talks about possibly marrying Marcy. James is still defending him.
MARCY shows up - the family watches from the kitchen while J.J. woos her with terrible poetry on the sofa
She’s eager to see the portrait. He shows her. She says “Ooh, I love it! And George is gonna REALLY love it!” George? That’s her “main man.” The audience frets.
She grabs the painting merrily and LEAVES. J.J. is so dejected. He says he’ll never find another woman
The phone rings - it’s another girl for J.J. Suddenly he’s fine. And everyone is happy!
So I can’t think of a better episode to underline the whole “it’s all about J.J.” thing. It was 80% J.J. clowning. And this episode did not include or acknowledge the existence of Michael.
Well - I guess that’s it for 1974! Stay tuned, everybody, I’m reprogramming the time machine….