Anyone think she would have made a good Esther? After seeing her and Redd Foxx curse each other out on Harlem Nights, I imagined if she would be a good Esther or Lawand Page was the perfect one.

Lawand Page was the better Esther

Sorry about the mistype. Lawanda, not Lawand.

Fred ugly jokes wouldn't have worked on Della. She would have been a good sister for Esther maybe in context with her Harlem Nights performance.

The exchanges between Fred and Della would not work since her personality is different from Esther's.

Those of you familiar with "Chico and the Man" will, of course, realize that Della Reese DID play a sort of Aunt Esther Doppelganger on this show, as her character, Della Rogers, was the owner of the property on which Ed Brown's garag was situated, and her relationship with Ed mirrored that of Esther's relationship with Fred Sanford (not surprising, really, as both "Sanford and Son" and "Chico and the Man", which were aired back-to-back on Friday nights during the mid seventies, were adapted from the same source, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's "Steptoe and Son"...but you already knew that!);)