'Sanford and Son' a TV pioneer

[Zoneboy]

The '70s hit was the first sitcom to feature a largely African-American cast.
BY BRUCE DANCIS

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In just about every episode of "Sanford and Son," the comedian Redd Foxx, as 65-year-old junk dealer Fred Sanford, would do his fake heart attack act.

Whenever things weren't going his way, particularly when he was arguing with his adult son Lamont (Demond Wilson), Fred would clasp his hands over his heart, get a pained expression on his face, look to the heavens and call to his late wife, "Elizabeth, it's the big one! I'm coming to join you, honey."

And even though the television audience always knew that Fred's catchphrase was coming, we'd laugh along with it every time.

A hit show for NBC throughout its run from 1972 to 1977, "Sanford and Son" was a lot more significant than just an ordinary sitcom. The release on DVD this week of "Sanford and Son: The Complete Series" (18 discs, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, $59.95, not rated) provides an opportunity to reflect on the first sitcom to feature a largely African-American cast and to remember its star, Redd Foxx.

Having just scored big with "All in the Family," which was based on a British sitcom but transplanted to Queens, N.Y., and was centered on a bigoted, white blue-collar worker, producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin took another British comedy, "Steptoe and Son," and adapted it for American TV. They set their new show in Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood and headed its cast with Foxx, a legendary comedian within the African-American community, and Wilson, a Broadway actor.

Foxx had built his career in the 1950s and '60s through his ribald "party records," which, like the recordings of Lenny Bruce, challenged the accepted social mores of the time with their sexual humor and salty language. Recording for Dooto Records, and later, Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records, Foxx made 49 albums and sold more than 10 million copies.

After Yorkin saw Foxx in a small part in the 1970 film comedy "Cotton Comes to Harlem," the producer chose Foxx for the role of Fred Sanford. (Foxx's real name was John Sanford; he named his character in honor of his brother Fred.)

Although Foxx toned down/cleaned up his material for his successful nightclub career in the late '60s and for the TV series, he never lost the aggressive style that first made him famous. As Mel Watkins writes in "On the Real Side," a history of African-American humor, "Foxx delivered his humor in an unmistakably black voice -- one that echoed a pride and belligerence that was associated with more militant factions of the African-American community."

On "Sanford and Son," Foxx got to deliver such racially charged lines as "Some of my best friends are white," "Black is beautiful, but not when it comes to eggs," and, when answering a white policeman's question, "Was the suspect colored?" replying, "Yeah, white."

Poverty and prejudice were never far from the show's surface, though many plot lines concerned Lamont's various get-rich-quick schemes and attempts to move out of his father's house, and crotchety Fred's ability to sabotage them. Connecting it all was Foxx's gifted comic timing, whether launching an insult, parrying a complaint or simply reacting.

Like Archie Bunker, Foxx's Fred Sanford was also narrow-minded and prejudiced. Some of the show's humor came from Fred's outrageous comments about Lamont's Puerto Rican friend Julio (Gregory Sierra), along with disparaging remarks about Mexicans, Asians, gays and whites in general. But Lamont was usually nearby to criticize his father's attitude and represent a more tolerant point of view.

[Zoneboy]

Originally Posted by The Article

The '70s hit was the first sitcom to feature a largely African-American cast.

The writer obviously forgot about Amos N' Andy.

[JAlanRuss72]

Sanford & Son was one of the best shows of the 1970s and probably in my top 3 shows of all time. It was gritty, sometimes realistic, and hilarious. There will never be another Redd Foxx.

[catlover79]

I don't think a sitcom out there has given me quite as many belly laughs as S&S. It's so politically incorrect - which makes it even better!! God bless the cast & crew of this hilarious show!!

[MickeyMac]

Sanford and Son is one of the very few(and I do mean very few) TV shows made past 1969 that I really like. Its always funny and no matter how many times I have seen the episodes, I never tire of it.