For the first time I saw some episodes with the Jeffersons on it! They were good!

Back then who would've thought the Jeffersons would actually last LONGER than All in the Family?

I always preferred The Jeffersons and I consider it the greatest sitcom ever and I'm not black! The Jeffersons had a much bigger white audience than black audience which is why it was so successful.

Do you guys know why they used a totally different Willis family during All in the Family? They had a brand new Tom Willis, Helen Willis, and Jenny Willis during the Jeffersons and didn't use the ones from this show.

Why was that??

I love the Jeffersons too. To answer your question, the Willises were first seen on the episode Lionel's Engagement, which was nearly a year before the Jeffersons premiered, so they may not have even known there would be a spinoff at that time and didn't know that those characters would be popular and that the ones at that episode wouldn't be used later. Also, Mr. Willis is called Louis instead of Tom. So, in that episode we have Charles Aidman playing Louis Willis, Kim Hamilton playing Helen Willis, and Lynne Moody playing Jennie Willis (which she spells her name differently). Then in the AITF episode The Jeffersons Move Up, which served as the pilot for the Jeffersons, the more familiar Franklin Cover plays Tom Willis and Berlinda Tolbert plays Jenny Willis, as seen in the show, but in this pilot Madge Sinclair plays Helen Willis instead of Roxie Roker who came into the first episode of The Jeffersons that premiered the following week.

For the first time I saw some episodes with the Jeffersons on it! They were good!

Back then who would've thought the Jeffersons would actually last LONGER than All in the Family?

I always preferred The Jeffersons and I consider it the greatest sitcom ever and I'm not black! The Jeffersons had a much bigger white audience than black audience which is why it was so successful.

Do you guys know why they used a totally different Willis family during All in the Family? They had a brand new Tom Willis, Helen Willis, and Jenny Willis during the Jeffersons and didn't use the ones from this show.

Why was that??


I don't think the decision had been made yet to spin the Jeffersons off when this episode was produced. When the pilot episode was aired they kept that Tom and Helen because it was the start up episode for the show. That tom and helen that was at the engagement party was just a regular AITF episode

I love the Jeffersons too. To answer your question, the Willises were first seen on the episode Lionel's Engagement, which was nearly a year before the Jeffersons premiered, so they may not have even known there would be a spinoff at that time and didn't know that those characters would be popular and that the ones at that episode wouldn't be used later. Also, Mr. Willis is called Louis instead of Tom. So, in that episode we have Charles Aidman playing Louis Willis, Kim Hamilton playing Helen Willis, and Lynne Moody playing Jennie Willis (which she spells her name differently). Then in the AITF episode The Jeffersons Move Up, which served as the pilot for the Jeffersons, the more familiar Franklin Cover plays Tom Willis and Berlinda Tolbert plays Jenny Willis, as seen in the show, but in this pilot Madge Sinclair plays Helen Willis instead of Roxie Roker who came into the first episode of The Jeffersons that premiered the following week.


Roxie Roker did appear as Helen in the pilot along with the first episode of the Jeffersons

I love the Jeffersons too. To answer your question, the Willises were first seen on the episode Lionel's Engagement, which was nearly a year before the Jeffersons premiered, so they may not have even known there would be a spinoff at that time and didn't know that those characters would be popular and that the ones at that episode wouldn't be used later. Also, Mr. Willis is called Louis instead of Tom. So, in that episode we have Charles Aidman playing Louis Willis, Kim Hamilton playing Helen Willis, and Lynne Moody playing Jennie Willis (which she spells her name differently). Then in the AITF episode The Jeffersons Move Up, which served as the pilot for the Jeffersons, the more familiar Franklin Cover plays Tom Willis and Berlinda Tolbert plays Jenny Willis, as seen in the show, but in this pilot Madge Sinclair plays Helen Willis instead of Roxie Roker who came into the first episode of The Jeffersons that premiered the following week.

You guys recall Kim Hamilton played Florence's childhood friend who had made it VERY rich so Florence played the part of Louise so she wouldn't be embarassed by Pauleen Jones Smythe? LOL

That was a great episode.