The Jeffersons

The Jeffersons is an American sitcom television series created by Norman Lear, which aired on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting eleven seasons and 253 total episodes. Starring Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley, the show revolved around a prosperous African-American couple who live in a high-rise apartment in Manhattan, New York City. The show is a spin-off of All in the Family, on which the Jeffersons had been the neighbors of the Bunkers.

Premise

The show focuses on George and Louise Jefferson, a prosperous black couple who have been able to move from Queens to Manhattan owing to the success of George's dry-cleaning chain, Jefferson Cleaners. The show was launched as the second (and longest running) spin-off of All in the Family (after Maude), on which the Jeffersons had been the neighbors of Archie and Edith Bunker. The show was the creation of Norman Lear. The Jeffersons eventually evolved into more of a traditional sitcom, but episodes occasionally focused on serious issues such as alcoholism, racism, suicide, gun control, being transgender, the KKK, and adult illiteracy. The epithets nigger and honky were used occasionally, especially during the earlier seasons.

The Jeffersons had one spin-off, titled Checking In. The series was centered on the Jeffersons' housekeeper, Florence, who takes a job as cleaning management at a hotel. The Jeffersons also shared continuity with the sitcom E/R, which featured Lynne Moody, who made a guest appearance in one episode of The Jeffersons. Sherman Hemsley guest-starred as George in two episodes of the series, which lasted for one season. The cancellation of The Jeffersons cleared the way for Marla Gibbs, who played Florence Johnston on the series, to move on to the NBC sitcom 227 in the fall of 1985, a year earlier than scheduled.

The Jeffersons ended in controversy after CBS abruptly canceled the series without allowing for a proper series finale. The cast was not informed until after the July 2, 1985, episode, "Red Robins"; actor Sherman Hemsley, who portrayed George Jefferson, said he learned that the show was canceled by reading it in the newspaper. Isabel Sanford (Louise Jefferson), who heard about the cancellation through her cousin who read it in the tabloids, publicly stated that she found the cancellation with no proper finale to be disrespectful on the network's part. Per an article in the May 8, 1985, Los Angeles Times, the series was cancelled by announcement at the CBS network "upfront" presentation the day before, nearly two months before the airing of the final episode. Actor Franklin Cover, who played Tom Willis, also heard about the cancellation while watching Entertainment Tonight.

The cast reunited in a stage play based on the sitcom. In season 5 episode 17 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, titled "Will Is from Mars" (1995), the Jeffersons made a guest appearance as a couple in therapy class. In the 1996 series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the Jeffersons made a guest appearance as the buyers of the Banks family house.

In 1985, Hemsley and Sanford (who was older than her TV husband by 21 years) made a special joint guest appearance in the Canale 5 comedy show Grand Hotel as the Jeffersons, acting with Italian actors Paolo Villaggio, the comic duo Franco & Ciccio, and Carmen Russo. They were guests in the fictional hotel and their voices were dubbed by Italian actors Enzo Garinei (George) and Isa di Marzio (Louise), who also dubbed their characters for the full series. , the members still alive from the main cast include Marla Gibbs, Berlinda Tolbert, Damon Evans, and Jay Hammer.

Series development

Louise Jefferson, played by Isabel Sanford, first appeared in the All in the Family episode "Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood", which was broadcast on March 2, 1971. The episode, the eighth of the series, centers on Louise, her son Lionel, and her husband George moving next door to Archie and Edith Bunker in the working-class section of Queens. Denzel Washington auditioned for an unspecified role, but his agent convinced him not to do it. Henry played as George when Louise felt embarrassed that George did not want to be in Archie Bunker's house due to prejudice. George was introduced in the episode "Henry's Farewell", and Hemsley and Stewart share their only scene together in its final minutes. The episode marked the final appearance of Henry throughout the series.

The idea of the Jeffersons "moving on up" came after three members of the Black Panthers who were fans of Lear's productions visited Lear's CBS office, raising issues with the creator over the portrayal of Black people on television, including his Maude spin-off series Good Times. "Every time you see a Black man on the tube, he is dirt poor, wears shit clothes, can't afford nothing," Lear recalled in his autobiography. Lear consulted with his associate Al Burton on the concept.

George, Louise, and Lionel continued to appear on All in the Family until 1975, when the spin-off The Jeffersons, also created by Lear, premiered. However, the roles were all recast, with Berlinda Tolbert taking over the role of Jenny, veteran actor Franklin Cover playing her father, Tom Willis, whose first name was changed from Louis, as it was in their first All in the Family appearance, and Roxie Roker as her mother, Helen. Roker was asked during a casting interview if she would be comfortable with her character having a white husband. In response she showed a picture of her husband, Sy Kravitz, who was white.

Synopsis

thumb|left|Cast of The Jeffersons, clockwise from top: [[Mike Evans (actor)|Mike Evans, Sherman Hemsley, and Isabel Sanford (1975)]]

During the January 11, 1975 episode of All in the Family, titled "The Jeffersons Move Up", Edith Bunker gave a tearful good-bye to her neighbor Louise Jefferson as her husband George, their son Lionel, and she moved from a working-class section of Queens, New York, into the luxurious Colby East, a fictional high-rise apartment complex on East 63rd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The Jeffersons premiered the following week, on January 18, 1975. (whom George derided as "zebras"): son Allan (played by Andrew Rubin in the first-season finale, and by Jay Hammer throughout season 5), a white-passing college drop-out; and daughter Jenny, an aspiring fashion designer. Jenny and Lionel became a couple, married on December 24, 1976, and later became the parents of a daughter, Jessica (played by Ebonie Smith). One episode featured George requesting Florence to insult him, in order to get to a prospective business partner who was fond of her wisecracks.

Paul Benedict arrived as Harry Bentley, an amiable, kind, loyal yet eccentric British next-door neighbor, A frequent sight-gag of the show was George slamming the door in Bentley's face mid-conversation, usually during one of Bentley's stories which George invariably perceived as boring. He also became known for addressing the Jeffersons as "Mr. J" and "Mrs. J". She appeared regularly in the first two seasons, but made sporadic appearances over the next two years, much thinner due to a severe case of pneumonia. Cully was written out in season 4 due to her death in 1978, from lung cancer. No episode was centered on Mother Jefferson's death, but it was occasionally mentioned in future episodes that she had died.

Ned Wertimer played their tip-hungry doorman, Ralph Hart, throughout the series. He was known for constantly stalling at the Jeffersons' door with his hand out waiting for a tip. Most of the cast usually didn't respond, but George almost always gave in. He also used it in a blackmail manner, usually requiring George to pay more in order to keep his mouth shut about something such as a stock tip. Ralph was also known for making up stories of him struggling to fulfill the Jeffersons' request to get more tips.

Danny Wells played Charlie, the owner and a bartender of a bar on the ground floor of the Jeffersons apartment building. The cast commonly visited the bar for a drink or to attend a party. Charlie was also revealed to be an alcoholic in the season 11 episode "A Secret in the Back Room", in which Charlie is in denial, but the Jeffersons eventually get him to admit to his problem and advise him to get some help. His alcohol problem isn't referenced anymore throughout the series, but it is assumable Charlie overcame it.

Cast changes

thumb|200px|Berlinda Tolbert and Damon Evans as Jenny and Lionel (1976)

Mike Evans ("Lionel") left the show after the first season; his replacement was Damon Evans (no relation),

Cast

Main

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2"|Performer

! rowspan="2"|Character

! colspan="11"|Seasons

! width="6%"| 1

! width="6%"| 2

! width="6%"| 3

! width="6%"| 4

! width="6%"| 5

! width="6%"| 6

! width="6%"| 7

! width="6%"| 8

! width="6%"| 9

! width="6%"| 10

! width="6%"| 11

| Isabel Sanford || Louise "Weezy" Jefferson || colspan="11"

| Sherman Hemsley || George Jefferson || colspan="11"

| Mike Evans ||rowspan=2|Lionel Jefferson || colspan="1" || colspan="4" || colspan="2" || colspan="1" || colspan="2" || colspan="1"

| Damon Evans || colspan="1" || colspan="3" ||colspan="7"

| Roxie Roker || Helen Willis|| colspan="11"

| Franklin Cover || Thomas "Tom" Willis|| colspan="11"

| Zara Cully || Olivia "Mother" Jefferson|| colspan="4" || colspan="7"

| Berlinda Tolbert || Jenny Willis-Jefferson|| colspan="7" ||" colspan="4"

| Paul Benedict || Harry Bentley|| colspan="8" || colspan="1" || colspan="2"

| Marla Gibbs || Florence Johnston|| colspan="3" || colspan="8"

| Jay Hammer || Allan Willis|| colspan="4" || colspan="1" || colspan="6"

Recurring

Ned Wertimer as Ralph Hart
Danny Wells as Charlie Clark
Ebonie Smith as Jessica Jefferson (season 11)

Notable guest appearances

Frances Bay
Johnny Brown
Tom Brown
Barbara Cason
Charo
Alvin Childress
Gary Coleman
Andrae Crouch (as himself)
Sammy Davis Jr.
Michael Spinks
Amzie Strickland
Ernest Lee Thomas
Liz Torres
Vernon Washington (as Leroy)
Vernee Watson
Jaleel White
Billy Dee Williams

Episodes

The Jeffersons had many two-part episodes, either over two consecutive weeks, or aired as an hour-long episode.

thumb|200px|right|George and Louise with Mother Jefferson (1975)

Theme song

Ja'Net DuBois and Jeff Barry co-wrote The Jeffersons theme song, "Movin' On Up", which was sung by DuBois with a gospel choir.

The song was created after DuBois approached Norman Lear, suggesting she expand upon her brief roles on Good Times and explore a music-related project. In response, Lear suggested she try writing a theme song for a new show he was developing about a dry cleaner. Initially, DuBois struggled with the composition until her mother encouraged her to draw from her personal dream of providing her mother with a comfortable retirement. Inspired by that idea, DuBois wrote the song. When Lear heard it, he was amazed at how perfectly it captured the essence of The Jeffersons—despite the fact that he hadn't fully explained the show's concept to her. Lear went on to develop a full arrangement of the song to serve as the show's theme.

Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings

The Jeffersons changed time slots at least 15 different times during its 11-year run, unusual for a popular long running series. The most common time slot was on Sunday night. The show's ratings for the following two seasons placed it in the Top 30, but during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons (the show's fourth and fifth seasons), it fell out of the top 30, ranking 52nd in Season 4 and 49th in Season 5.

It returned to the Top 10 in 1979–80, and at the end of the 1981–82 season, The Jeffersons finished third overall, only surpassed by fellow CBS series Dallas and 60 Minutes. The series would remain among the Top 20 for the next two seasons.

On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including The Jeffersons. They subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD on May 20, 2014.

On August 8, 2014, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; they subsequently released the complete series on DVD in a 33-disc collection on December 9, 2014.

On April 28, 2015, Shout! released season 7 on DVD in Region 1. Season 8 was released on August 11, 2015.

{|class="wikitable"

!DVD name!!Ep. #s!!Release date

|The Complete First Season || style="text-align:center;"|13 || August 6, 2002 May 20, 2014 (re-release)

|The Complete Second Season || style="text-align:center;"|24 || May 13, 2003 May 20, 2014 (re-release)

|The Complete Third Season || style="text-align:center;"|24 || April 12, 2005

|The Complete Fourth Season || style="text-align:center;"|26 || October 11, 2005

|The Complete Fifth Season || style="text-align:center;"|24 || August 15, 2006

|The Complete Sixth Season || style="text-align:center;"|24 || March 27, 2007

|The Complete Seventh Season || style="text-align:center;"|20 || April 28, 2015

|The Complete Eighth Season || style="text-align:center;"|25 || August 11, 2015

|The Complete Series || style="text-align:center;"|253|| December 9, 2014

Awards and nominations

thumb|200px|right|Harry Bentley and Mother Jefferson (1975)

The Jeffersons received 14 Emmy Award nominations and won two awards. Marla Gibbs was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series each year from 1981 to 1985, Sherman Hemsley was nominated for Best Actor in 1984, and Larry M. Harris won the Emmy for Outstanding Video Tape Editing for a Series in 1983.

Isabel Sanford was nominated for seven consecutive Best Actress Emmys, from 1979 to 1985. and the second to win any Emmy Award; Gail Fisher, who played Peggy on the TV show Mannix, preceded her in 1970. Sanford was also the recipient of five of the eight Golden Globe Awards nominations the program received.

Criticism

Gregory Kane, journalist for The Baltimore Sun, called the series "demeaning" in 1999, criticizing Hemsley's "pimp roll walk", bigotry, loud mouth and low intelligence. "I hereby declare The Jeffersons stereotypical fare that depicts blacks in a buffoonish manner."

Reunion tour

In 1993, Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Roxie Roker, Franklin Cover, and Marla Gibbs reunited for "The Jeffersons Live: The Movin' On Up Tour," AKA "The Best of the Jeffersons Live." The stage show included recreations of the episodes "A Whole Lot of Trouble," "Social Insecurity," and "My Wife... I Think I'll Keep Her." and eventually Roker dropped out, but Berlinda Tolbert (Jenny) and Ned Wertimer (Ralph) reprised their roles for the Los Angeles staging in 1994.

2019 special

On May 22, 2019, ABC broadcast Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons, produced by Lear and Jimmy Kimmel and starring Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, Kerry Washington, Ellie Kemper. Marla Gibbs reprised her role as Florence Johnston.