TVFactFan
06-07-2006, 04:13 PM
"These days, when you have the guests over for a TV dinner, it's best to break out the imported stuff. And a good choice would be this show. In any case, it comes duty free direct from Great Britain, where it ran as Steptoe & Son. It also comes from the producing team of Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear, who gave you All in the Family, which was also based on a British program. The trouble is, it seems, in American television we keep thinking in terms of wikd ideas-a widow with 18 children, a detective who is blind, a family with a chimpanzee-or of no ideas at all except to have a star around. Over there, judging from All in the Family and Sanford and Son, they think in terms of basic satirizing, of mirror-up-to-naturing, of solidly humorous characterizing, and, above all, of good writing. Give credit where credit is due, however. Americans may not be as good at creative producing, but when it comes to recereative producing, we're terrific.
In the first place, the show is marvelously cast. Asd Fred Sanford, "coordinator of a junk yard, Redd Foxx is as good as any comedian on your screen, and yet totally unlike any other. He has a wonderful off-beat delivery with brilliant behind-beat timing. "i went with your mother two years before I kissed her.........New Year's Eve.........12 o'clock...........straight up..............in the dark.......on the cheek." The amazing thing about him is not so much that's it's possible to laugh with him and at him at the same time, it's that it's impossible, despite his outrageous disreputableness, not to love him. Remember the church scene at his son's non-nuptials; when he promised to "button his lip," and then, of course, went on and on? His racial jokes alone are worth waiting for. He calls the white Cab Company. There's a long pause, then "Well , if you don;t want to stop , just slow down and we jump in."
Lamont sanford, played by Demond Wilson, is no slouch as a grouch either. But the part demands that he be more than just a chip off the old black. half the time he is also a kind of rebel with a pause, and he's as good a straight man and filial foil as we've seen in a long time. A year ao we told you we thought All in the Family was the best show on the air. We still think so. We don;t go along with some current criticism that if glorifies bigotry. we think it laughs bigotry out of court. Sanford and Son is bound to have the same kind of problem. People will say it is insulting to blacks and Amos and Andyish. And, to tell you the truth, we've been offended by some scenes-such as one which depictedall the wedding guests as ridculous and another in which Fred stole a Bible from a hotel-and by sanford's unpleasant and boring, "How'd you like one across your lip?" But we ask you, which is actually more patronzing? To insist that all shows portray only blacks on the upgrade, or to have some shows that way and others, like this show, this way? Won't it be a nice day when all characters can just be individuals and not "represent" anyone-white black, green or purple?
Tv Guide, Feb 26-March 3, 1972
In the first place, the show is marvelously cast. Asd Fred Sanford, "coordinator of a junk yard, Redd Foxx is as good as any comedian on your screen, and yet totally unlike any other. He has a wonderful off-beat delivery with brilliant behind-beat timing. "i went with your mother two years before I kissed her.........New Year's Eve.........12 o'clock...........straight up..............in the dark.......on the cheek." The amazing thing about him is not so much that's it's possible to laugh with him and at him at the same time, it's that it's impossible, despite his outrageous disreputableness, not to love him. Remember the church scene at his son's non-nuptials; when he promised to "button his lip," and then, of course, went on and on? His racial jokes alone are worth waiting for. He calls the white Cab Company. There's a long pause, then "Well , if you don;t want to stop , just slow down and we jump in."
Lamont sanford, played by Demond Wilson, is no slouch as a grouch either. But the part demands that he be more than just a chip off the old black. half the time he is also a kind of rebel with a pause, and he's as good a straight man and filial foil as we've seen in a long time. A year ao we told you we thought All in the Family was the best show on the air. We still think so. We don;t go along with some current criticism that if glorifies bigotry. we think it laughs bigotry out of court. Sanford and Son is bound to have the same kind of problem. People will say it is insulting to blacks and Amos and Andyish. And, to tell you the truth, we've been offended by some scenes-such as one which depictedall the wedding guests as ridculous and another in which Fred stole a Bible from a hotel-and by sanford's unpleasant and boring, "How'd you like one across your lip?" But we ask you, which is actually more patronzing? To insist that all shows portray only blacks on the upgrade, or to have some shows that way and others, like this show, this way? Won't it be a nice day when all characters can just be individuals and not "represent" anyone-white black, green or purple?
Tv Guide, Feb 26-March 3, 1972