Was Demond Wilson on drugs by the last season of Sanford and Son?

[cloggedmind]

Arrighty. . . Page 37 in Wilson's book, Second Banana, he clearly states that most of the rumors anyone could Google about drug use during the show's run are true.

I'd call that a definitive answer to the OP's question and case closed!

[staytuned]

You know folks, it's kind of hard to imagine (let alone disturbing as hell) that Aunt Esther, a god-loving, church-going Christian woman being a prostitute and a drug dealer in her early days.

[cloggedmind]

Originally Posted by staytuned

You know folks, it's kind of hard to imagine (let alone disturbing as hell) that Aunt Esther, a god-loving, church-going Christian woman being a prostitute and a drug dealer in her early days.

(And sayeth he who hath no religion, nor followeth any faith disclaimer thingy.. Just read it in Esther's voice!)

And just like it says in the Good Book,

Acts 3:19: "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."

The Lord could forgive anybody.. Even that ol' heathen Fred Sanford!

Haww, Glory! Hallelujah, Jesus. And praise The Lord, Amen.

Selah.

[CosmicCharlie]

Great Post !

[staytuned]

Originally Posted by cloggedmind

(And sayeth he who hath no religion, nor followeth any faith disclaimer thingy.. Just read it in Esther's voice!)

And just like it says in the Good Book,

Acts 3:19: "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."

The Lord could forgive anybody.. Even that ol' heathen Fred Sanford!

Haww, Glory! Hallelujah, Jesus. And praise The Lord, Amen.

Selah.

Sorry, If I was in anyway shape or form mean, rude or disrespectful in that last post. Should've just mentioned Lawanda instead of Esther. Again, I do apologize.

[cloggedmind]

Originally Posted by staytuned

Sorry, If I was in anyway shape or form mean, rude or disrespectful in that last post. Should've just mentioned Lawanda instead of Esther. Again, I do apologize.

Nah. It's just meant to be in the spirit of the show and the character.

[staytuned]

Originally Posted by cloggedmind

Nah. It's just meant to be in the spirit of the show and the character.

of course.

But it's surprising to me that the video with Kathleen Bradley mentioning about Fred Sanford that their is no mention about her being a former Barker Beauty on TPIR, but then again, its probably due to the problems with her former late boss of the past due to the Dirty Rotten Scandals documentary that E! has aired this year.

[cloggedmind]

Originally Posted by staytuned

of course.

But it's surprising to me that the video with Kathleen Bradley mentioning about Fred Sanford that their is no mention about her being a former Barker Beauty on TPIR, but then again, its probably due to the problems with her former late boss of the past due to the Dirty Rotten Scandals documentary that E! has aired this year.

I didn't catch the scandals documentary. Is there anything else to dish on Bob Barker and others? Worth checking out?

[staytuned]

Originally Posted by cloggedmind

I didn't catch the scandals documentary. Is there anything else to dish on Bob Barker and others? Worth checking out?

Just asking.

You know, I heard that in a interview from YouTube that Wilson and Foxx were, lets just say "packing heat" on set while filming an episode of the show. I mean, were they pretending to be cops or mobsters?

[cloggedmind]

Originally Posted by staytuned

Just asking.

You know, I heard that in a interview from YouTube that Wilson and Foxx were, lets just say "packing heat" on set while filming an episode of the show. I mean, were they pretending to be cops or mobsters?

The 70's was a crazy decade full of bad politics and unpredictable attitudes.

Demond Wilson was a Vietnam veteran who claimed to not have any form of PTSD as a result of his mostly negative experience in the field and returning to civilian life as a shunned "hero". However, he did return from service with more that a slightly skewed view of life, people, social echelons, and seemed to have a general distrust for the volatile L.A. scene and the rowdy studio audiences that Sanford & Son attracted.

Plus, there were the Vegas shows that Wilson and Foxx were engaged with, where the venues and promoters had ties to The Mob, as it were, and those ties extended far beyond the desert and into the L.A. scene, as well. Wilson lays it all out in condensed form in the interview described and linked below.

"Not homogenized" is, I think, how Wilson described the crowds who attended the live tapings of Sanford & Son, implying that the mixed audience for the racially groundbreaking and stereotype-shattering program was volatile and could erupt unpredictably at any moment. Also, back in those days, there was no screening process for anyone entering the studio. With heavy racial tension still in the air. no matter how you slice it, even with segregation slowly becoming a thing of the past, there was a heady distrust in the air that rivaled the notorious L.A. smog and was perceived as much more an imminent and immediate threat.

As Wilson explained to Jon Aba in the ComedyHype podcast: "I never did an episode when I wasn't strapped. Never! People knew that about me. Redd, too. I had a Derringer." (ComedyHype, Hype+, Jan 1, 2024. 50:00 approximate time stamp)



Wilson, a self-proclaimed Alpha Personality and unabashedly opinionated, deeply religious man, never pulled punches when discussing his strong, personal views on any subject, so me, I, myself have no reason to doubt his word as given.

With less direct evidence to back it up at hand, I did read that Foxx allegedly pulled a switchblade and threatened the director of the telefilm Ghost of a Chance, Don Taylor in 1987. At one point Redd was expected to be seen lying in a coffin and "playing dead" as his character Ivory Clay, who had met with an untimely demise, attended his own funeral in what was to be an ironically comical display. There was some back and forth between the often combative Foxx and Taylor, and finally Taylor said something like, "Oh, boy. Here we go!" and Redd took it as a racial slur. "Who you callin' 'boy'?!"

The mini-fracas was partly covered in an on-set, network interview clip where Redd recounted (paraphrasing a little, here) the setup for the scene. According to Foxx: "Director patted the lid and said, 'This'll be nice and comfy. Good for your back.'"

"Not mine!" Redd continued. "I ain't gettin' in one of them things until it's absolutely necessary."

Redd did get his way and the scene was changed so that he would not be seen laid out in the box but, rather, pushing it out of the chapel like a pall bearer, lid closed, and mugging a big, silly grin.

As Fred G. Sanford would say, again, "Case closed!"

[CosmicCharlie]

"That Hollywood Sign, It's A Stick to Conjure Magick" {"Magick" (spelled with a 'k') is a term popularized by Aleister Crowley to differentiate occult, spiritual, or ritual practices from stage magic/illusions.} Demond Wilson

"You cannot make it to the top of that industry without selling your soul" Demond Wilson

His views on Hollyweird and Politics are something I've been reading about for 40 + years, I have no reason to doubt him.

[staytuned]

So I'm assuming people at the time still did not get along due to racial divide and of course, I'm assuming people will be saying the N word to black people and the C word to white people.

I bet if one of the audience members had pulled a gun or any weapon in particular, its surprising that their was no security or bodyguard to kick the person out and banned him or her from ever returning to the set while taping before they do any damage to anybody let alone call the cops and arrest them on the spot.

Luckily, this never happened to Flip Wilson and white people loved his show at the time. Of course, The Flip Wilson Show started in 1970 airing two years prior to Sanford and Son starting in 1972 and of course ones a variety show while the other is a sitcom that was based from Britain.

[cloggedmind]

I've been re-watching the Sanford & Son series the last couple weeks and I've seen what looks like, and I mean "looks" like a dwindling studio audience. Wilson claims there would be at least 400 in attendance at a taping, but when the cameras turn around for Steinberg & Son and other game show-type settings? As the series progresses, there seems to be less and less seating space and, of course, for those shows the audience was pre-loaded with stock players, the producers and others close to the whole production rather on purpose.

Maybe they were actively pruning the audiences down as the show gained a following?

Add to the fact that the last 2 seasons seem to rely heavily on a pre-recorded laugh track (listen for the repeated laughs: like, "Ruh-huh-huh-huh!", also heard tons in the follow-up, Sanford. And that annoying, "Hoo-ah, HOO-AH!" as the main stand-outs), hard edits and truly rowdy applause as the leads make entrances (especially right after Redd came back to the show).

Some shows seemed like nothing but pre-recorded laughter and applause (you can tell. Just listen close) and some seem like the audience was too raucous and those shows are riddled with hard edits noticeable in the dialogue, sudden camera angle and actor placement shifts. I think by the last few episodes recorded they had shifted away from a full studio audience, much like All In the Family and later shows like Married.. With Children-- the latter it was oh, so noticeable, as the sound mix and actors' voices got more "intimate". No one "shouted" their lines anymore. It's almost like they sounded self-conscious or something, and the pauses for laughter were often shorter or just plain awkward.

Actually, I can believe they did have some real, mixed nuts lurking around the tapings back in the day. Redd sure would have had a hardcore following with his regular act and ever-present entourage.

Originally Posted by staytuned

So I'm assuming people at the time still did not get along due to racial divide and of course, I'm assuming people will be saying the N word to black people and the C word to white people.

I bet if one of the audience members had pulled a gun or any weapon in particular, its surprising that their was no security or bodyguard to kick the person out and banned him or her from ever returning to the set while taping before they do any damage to anybody let alone call the cops and arrest them on the spot.

Luckily, this never happened to Flip Wilson and white people loved his show at the time. Of course, The Flip Wilson Show started in 1970 airing two years prior to Sanford and Son starting in 1972 and of course ones a variety show while the other is a sitcom that was based from Britain.

[GoldenTV]

Originally Posted by cloggedmind

As Wilson explained to Jon Aba in the ComedyHype podcast: "I never did an episode when I wasn't strapped. Never! People knew that about me. Redd, too. I had a Derringer." (ComedyHype, Hype+, Jan 1, 2024. 50:00 approximate time stamp)



Wilson, a self-proclaimed Alpha Personality and unabashedly opinionated, deeply religious man, never pulled punches when discussing his strong, personal views on any subject, so me, I, myself have no reason to doubt his word as given.

I have seen many of his videos giving interviews over the years and as you can see from Youtube video, he have a very "in your face" and defensive attitude. And he even belittle the person that is interviewing him-saying to interviewer that he got a suite in the closet that is older than him. Even a reviewer on Amazon after reading his book Second Banana said and I quote:
"There’s also a sense that Wilson wants the reader to believe that he always has held a “holier than thou” persona."

So with personality like that, anything he said about Redd Foxx, cast or the show I would take with a grain of salt. Like saying Esther was the show drug runner might be a good example

[GoldenTV]

Originally Posted by staytuned

You know folks, it's kind of hard to imagine (let alone disturbing as hell) that Aunt Esther, a god-loving, church-going Christian woman being a prostitute and a drug dealer in her early days.

Don't know about being a prostitute or drug dealer, but in her early days she used to work at night clubs as an erotic club dancer dubbed The Bronze Goddess of Fire.