I was researching, like I always do and while reading a 1978 Jet Magazine, I read that Gary Coleman got his start by appearing in TV commercials in Chicago for Harris Bank and Metropolitan Buillders and that's how Norman Lear discovered him and offered him guest spots on the Jeffersons and Good Times during the 1977-78 TV season. Of course I never knew this because I was only 3 years old when Gary Coleman appeared in TV commercials

I seem to recall him but it's kinda fuzzy. I do remember him standing out on that Jeffersons episode. I said, "How cute that kid is, but what a little jerk". Who woulda thought i would have those same sentiments years later.