Sanford And Son [TV Show] (DVD)

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"Sanford & Son" has a lot in common with "All in the Family." Both shows were retooled British sitcoms ("Steptoe and Son" and "Till Death Do Us Part") that Norman Lear produced. Both featured a cranky, racist, older blue-collar philosophizing patriarch (Fred G. Sanford and Archie Bunker), who sparred with a younger, hipper, and more politically sensitive man (son Lamont Sanford and son-in-law Michael Stivic). Both were shot like stage plays, with the actors feeling like "players" whose every entrance generated applause from the studio audience. And both were hugely successful.

Though it never raked in the Emmys that "All in the Family" did--no doubt because the characters and situations were played more over-the-top, with more caricatures and less serious issues--"Sanford & Son" was just as popular, finishing in the Nielsen Top-10 every year it was telecast between 1972-77. Part of the attraction was comedian Redd Foxx, who, along with fellow nightclub comic Moms Mabley, had reputations and record albums that made them the undisputed king and queen of raunchy stand-up comedy. By contrast, "Sanford & Son" was pretty wholesome, but the Foxx mystique made viewers tune in just to hear what irreverent things might come out of his mouth--as in the pilot, when he told Lamont, "Ain't nothin' in this world uglier than a 90-year-old white woman."

Demond Wilson played the younger Sanford and pretty much held to his second-banana role throughout the six-year run. There were tender moments between them, but mostly there was plenty of verbal abuse, with Fred's default "You big dummy" resonating from episode to episode as Lamont's get-them-out-of-the-ghetto schemes failed one after the other. Ironically, in reality the show ended because of Wilson's demands for more money than the producers were willing to pay him after Foxx left the show, making the sixth season the show's last.

Unlike Lamont, NBC was no dummy. Where's the appeal in "& Son"? Make no mistake about it, this was Foxx's show, and the comedian held court week after week. Though Foxx was ten years younger than the character he played, he had the 65-year-old Sanford shuffle down to a tee, as well as his character's signature reaction to shock and fallback if he needed to deflect attention from his mischief: a faked heart attack and his heavenward monologue, "I'm comin', Elizabeth, I'm comin' to join you."

Foxx, who received another Golden Globe nomination, was still on his game during the show's final season, even if the writers were running out of things to do with a 65-year-old Los Angeles junkman and his thirtysomething unmarried son. And "Sanford & Son" still finished in the #7 spot.

Each of the Sanfords had their own cadre of friends. With Fred, it was a couple of fellow comedians: Melvin (Slappy White), who was soon replaced by Grady (Whitman Mayo) and Bubba (Don Bexley). With Lamont, it was his Latino pal Julio (Gregory Sierra, "Barney Miller") and the jive-talking Rollo (Nathaniel Taylor). It wasn't enough to just talk smack about white people. A few of them had to be brought in so Fred could react to them, and what white people would poke around a Watts junkyard during the Seventies . . . except for cops? The fun at the clueless white cops' expense began with Officer Swanhauser (Noam Pitlik), whose black partner "Smitty" had a better grasp of the black reality. Later it was Officer Hopkins, whom Fred dubbed "Happy" (Howard Platt). But Lear and Foxx both had a history of being equal opportunity lampooners, and much of the comic relief also resulted from a Bible-toting, Hallelujah! sister--the Sanford's Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page), who's verbal jousting with Fred often escalated into mutual shadow boxing and threats of physical violence. Aunt Esther used her Bible for her shield, and her purse for her sword, and her fiery scenes were usually as brief as they were combustible.