In a would-be spinoff episode, Nat and Toot visit the latter's young aunt and uncle and see firsthand that they're not entirely secure in their marriage because the uncle's of European extraction.
Anyway, the viewers' first view of the couple's apartment has an older woman who the aunt addresses as 'Mom' gabbing with the couple- and 'Mom' is none other than 'Good Times' Ja'net DuBois! At no point during this chit-chat session do they mention the impending visit of Tootie and 'Mom' amscrays and wisecracks her way out the door literally moments before Tootie's arrival- and neither the aunt nor Tootie herself mention Tootie having missed seeing 'Grandma' by that much! What grandmother wouldn't stick around for her grandchild's visit? Is 'Mom' Tootie's Grandma or is Tootie's mother by her grandfather's previous marriage- making the aunt a half-aunt to Tootie? Even if that was the case, it's odd that a stepgrandmother wouldn't at least wanna be civil to a grandchild so the family wouldn't dis her!
Evidently, Miss DuBois was due to be a regular on the spinoff but why not have had her simply being an older busybody neighbor who had NO connection whatsoever to Tootie instead of introing her as Tootie's aunt's mom? I guess Miss DuBois may not have been ready for viewers to think of her as 'Grandma Willona'! Did anyone else think this odd?

What a well-written post. And ironically, Janet Jackson played Willona's adopted daughter "Penny" - and Jackson and Kim Fields played schoolmates on an early episode of Good Times...also,both auditioned for the Mrs Butterworth's commercial (which was Kim's big break.)

I've seen this episode a couple times. I never noticed that.
I'll have to look next time. I remember in the later seasons there was an episode where Jeff's(Tootie's boyfriend) grandmother gave Tootie a broach. Pippa lost it.Then the grandmother snubbed Tootie. I thought that is what this post was about.
I guess Tootie just doesn't have good luck with grandmothers.