I cannot believe that the producers used a different person to the play the character of Lionel. That never made sense to me because Mike Evans played the character of Lionel for 4 years. And to use another person was just plain weird. By the way i never liked the second lionel. But why was the first lionel allowed to come back after 4years? that whole thing was just wacky.

Well Mike Evans Decided he wanted out back in 1975 to do Good Times(He was creator along with Eric Monte) and Damon Evans was cast(No Relation) In 1978 Damon left the cast and there was no Lionel during the 78-79 season but Mike returned 1979 which was also the same time Good Times was cancelled by CBS. My choice goes to Lionel number one as well, but I do give a thumbs up to Damon for taking the role. However I am glad Mike came back.