Sanford and Son



"Lamont Sanford: You know what they say, the truth will set you free.

Fred Sanford: Your uncle Edgar told the truth, and the judge gave him six months."

A Dom Com (of sorts) from Sitcom kingpin Norman Lear about a Grumpy Old Man and his long-suffering son who live in a rundown house situated in the middle of a junkyard. Hilarity Ensues. An Americanization of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son.

Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson played the title characters of Fred and Lamont Sanford from January 14, 1972 until March 25, 1977 on NBC and shared the screen with a number of memorable supporting players (notably Whitman Mayo as the forgetful Grady Wilson and LaWanda Page as bible-thumping harridan Esther Anderson). The father-son duo engaged in frequent arguments about everything under the sun and truly got on each other's nerves, but despite the loud fights and constant disappointments the two remained devoted to each other. The series was one of the highest rated sitcoms of the 1970s before internal strife caused both Foxx and Wilson to walk away from the show in the spring of 1977; subsequent spinoffs and revivals failed to recapture the magic.

Contains examples of:

 * Absentee Actor: Foxx's salary-related departures derailed the show on several occasions, in one instance leading to Whitman Mayo's temporary elevation to lead actor.
 * After Show: 1980's Sanford. Before that was Sanford Arms during the opening scene of which Grady comes to the house to discover that Fred and Lamont had moved to Arizona (without telling Grady, a lifelong friend and the godfather of his son, "because of Fred's health", the house had been sold to a widower named Phil Wheeler who had turned it into the head office of a fully operational hotel, that now employed Bubba, seemingly over night.
 * The Alcoholic: Aunt Esther's husband Woodrow. see Hey, It's That Guy!.
 * Aloha Hawaii: The two-part Season 6 episode "The Hawaiian Connection" has Fred and Lamont attending a Junkmen of America convention in Honolulu, and getting tangled up with a wacky gang of jewel smugglers.
 * Ambiguously Gay: An antiques collector who hires Fred and Lamont to move a piano in "The Piano Movers". Fred spends most of the episode doing everything short of outright asking him to find out if he is or not.
 * Aside Glance: When the meddling NBC executive cancels Steinberg and Son (in the episode of the same name) by explaining that no one wanted to see a sitcom about an old junk dealer and his grown loser son, Fred/Redd breaks the fourth wall to give the audience a shocked glance.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the insults, Lamont would never leave his father to fare alone. Well, until he actually did in the Sanford revival in 1980 to work on the Alaskan pipeline.
 * Beleaguered Assistant: Lamont often points out that he does the majority of the actual work while Fred spends most of his day watching television and sleeping.
 * Catch Phrase: "You big dummy!" "Watch it, sucker!" "...on account of my arthur-its."
 * ...and of course: "This is the big one!"
 * That line may be a Beam Me Up, Scotty. I know he did often say: "This is it! Hear that Elizabeth? I'm comin' to join ya, honey!"
 * Later episodes often had Fred introduce himself as "I'm Fred G. Sanford, and the G is for (whatever the main setup for the plot was)"
 * Grady had "Good goobely woop!".
 * Celebrity Paradox: Junk dealer Fred Sanford meets Redd Foxx, nightclub comic and television star. However, Fred's the only one to see any resemblance.
 * Characterization Marches On: In the early episodes Lamont is shown to be almost as greedy as Fred (sometimes more so) and having a great disdain for Fred's girlfriend Donna whom he calls "The Barracuda". Not much later Lamont becomes the more sensitive of the two and often acts as somebody trying to broaden his father's horizons and even becomes quite friendly with Donna.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Usually Grady, but Officer Hoppy had his moments.
 * Cue the Rain: During a disastrous camping trip, Lamont notes that it could be worse. When his father asks how, Lamont notes "It could snow." Sure enough, it instantly starts snowing right there and then.
 * In one episode, for his birthday, Fred gets a new hat. Both repeatedly state how it would get spots if worn in the rain. After Fred rudely reacts to just about every other gift Lamont gives him, Lamont finally gets fed up and leaves him at a Chinese restaurant. When Fred walks out, wearing the hat...
 * The Danza: Don Bexley as Bubba Bexley. Also Redd Foxx's real name was John Elroy Sanford.
 * Domestic Abuse: Fred occasionally threatened Lamont with a Louisville Slugger, but hopefully only in jest. Otherwise, it's a bit disturbing.
 * Drop in Character: Grady, Aunt Esther, Bubba Bexley, Officers Smitty and Hoppy, etc. In other words, the entire supporting cast.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: The first season while having the same tone as most of the others lacks many of the show's memorable supporting cast (see Drop in Character above for a partial list) that would give episodes their flavor. Most of these would be introduced in the second season. (Part of this the result of a number of first season Sanford episodes being adapted Steptoe and Son scripts.)
 * Enemy Mine: As much as Fred and Esther despised each other, in the episode featuring "Big Money" Grip, they both teamed up to challenge him on his claim that he was Lamont's father.
 * The Fun in Funeral: In one episode Lamont brings home two (hopefully not used) coffins which Fred refuses to let in the house.
 * Game Show Appearance: Fred, Lamont and Bubba appear on Fred's favorite show - The Gong Show.
 * Fred, Bubba and Grady also appeared on a Let's Make a Deal Expy called Wheel And Deal to win a prize for Fred to give to Lamont for his birthday.
 * Giant Spider: Fred and Lamont go camping, where at one point, Fred finds a big-ass spider hiding in his coat pocket.
 * Hustler: Lamont's best friend Rollo Lawson, who happened to be an ex-con and frequently enlists him in his outrageous schemes.
 * Instrumental Theme Tune: "The Streetbeater", by Quincy Jones.
 * Juggling Loaded Guns: After Lamont buys an old musket, Fred starts explaining how his Revolutionary War-era ancestor fought the British. The gun goes off, and both Fred and Lamont begin thinking that he killed a neighbor across the street.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: So many, in fact, that they tried a spin-off without the main characters.
 * Malaproper: Usually Fred, but Officer Hoppy frequently misused 'street lingo'.
 * Not to mention Grady.
 * Missing Mom: Elizabeth, up in Heaven waiting for Fred to join her.
 * Mistaken for Dying: Fred, in "The Over-The-Hill Gang".
 * Mistaken for Gay: When Rollo led Lamont into a gay bar to be "adventurous", Fred and Bubba see them enter and begin thinking they are gay to Fred's panic. When they decide to investigate, Fred and Bubba enter the bar...only for Lamont and Rollo to see and begin thinking the same thing about them. Lamont likewise begins freaking out.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: In his early post-Retcon appearances, Grady repeatedly forgets Lamont's name and has to be prompted, despite the fact that Lamont is his godson and he is a frequent visitor to the Sanford home. Later, it is revealed that Lamont's middle name is in fact "Grady" and the Running Gag was dropped.
 * My Nayme Is: S-A-N-F-O-R-D Period.
 * Mysterious Middle Initial: Whatever the "G." stands for.
 * N-Word Privileges: But usually not in syndication. And Fred's attacks on other ethnic and minority groups that got big laughs in the 1970's would never fly today. Or would they?
 * Playing Gertrude: Whitman Mayo was only 40 when he portrayed Grady Wilson.
 * Redd Foxx himself was only 50 when he played Fred Sanford.
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: "The Family Man", for Grady
 * There was an episode where Lamont was about to marry longtime girlfriend Janet. Before they could wed, Janet's assumed dead husband returns and she and Lamont do not marry. This was the basis for the show Baby I'm Back, in which things were changed around and Demond Wilson played the role of the the presumed dead husband after Sanford and Son was cancelled.
 * Put on a Bus: Literally, as Fred look a long trip to St. Louis while Redd Foxx was holding out for a raise.
 * Lamont in both Aftershows. In Sanford Arms he and Fred have both moved to Arizona while Sanford he's said to be working on an oil pipeline in Alaska.
 * Race Lift
 * Retcon: Grady Wilson was originally Fred's cousin, married, and had a daughter with designs on Lamont. By his second appearance, the wife, daughter and blood relationship with Fred had been dropped, with Grady now an old family friend.
 * Revival: Sanford
 * Screw Politeness I Am a Senior
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Officers Hopkins and Swanhauser tended to fill their explanations with so much police jargon and legal terminology that Officer Smitty had to translate.
 * Shout-Out: Both Hawaii Five-0 and Mission Impossible in the 2 part "The Hawaiian Connection".
 * Sit Comic: Redd Foxx, Slappy White, LaWanda Page, Pat Morita
 * Spin-Off: Grady, The Sanford Arms
 * Strange Bedfellows: Fred and Arch Enemy Esther teamed up on rare occasions, such as when Fred tried to help her win a beauty contest or to defend Elizabeth's honor.
 * Standardized Sitcom Housing
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Grady Wilson, who was eventually un-substituted and given a spinoff creatively entitled Grady for all of four episodes.
 * Averted in The Sanford Arms when Fred and Lemont are replaced by a widower named Phil Wheeler and his children and averted even harder in Sanford where Lemont is replaced as Fred's business partner by Cal a fat, white redneck.
 * Trans Atlantic Equivalent: Steptoe and Son
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: One episode features what is most likely the first time on Network Television that the word 'crib' was used to mean a home.
 * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Fred was a sexist, racist, misanthropic old coot...but somehow we never held that against him. And when the chips were down, he could be pretty decent.
 * In a few episodes, Lamont took on this role, especially the early ones involving Donna.
 * Volleying Insults: Nearly every Fred/Esther scene ended this way.
 * White Dude, Black Dude
 * Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Steinberg and Son
 * Yet Another Christmas Carol