Is this for real?

[Deja Q]

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-7419467-8324605?asin=B00008EY6L

Excerpt:


If ever there were a source of some of the most memorable one-liners in the history of television, Good Times is it!!!

Unfortunately, the show also created one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of all-time: How did the union of James Evans and Florida Evans - - admittedly two of the ugliest people on the planet (but who with such magnetic personalities and realness that you completely look beyond their looks) - - produce such a chocolately delight that is Thelma Evans???!!!!!!!!!!

Try as you may folks - - historians have given it a stab, archaeologists can't figure it out, not even the precision-guided field of genetics has succeeded in solving it!!!!!!

Aside from that, you simply cannot find a funnier, more character-driven, authentic portrait of the black-american experience than this show offered and continues to offer even today. John Amos' portrayal of the classic "project father" is so on point, their are times in his household when just a certain look from him - - no words spoken -- will bring order to whatever conflict exists!! His facial expressions and body language are the stuff of legends!!!

More, sadly...


Uh, the E! Hollywood True Special paints a different light on the show. The cast hated doing it, saying that the writers (who were white) had no clue as to how to write for a black family. (if season 2 is like season 1, which it is except the social commentary was removed in favor of more JJ antics, I'd have to disagree... season 1 did not seem right.)

On the other hand, the show was groundbreaking and daring and had to appeal to everybody. It's still fun, even if it's a bit surreal... John Amos and Esther Rolle always put in awesome performances... Jimmie Walker was hilarious but it's because of him that the social commentary aspect had been removed. :-(

I'd re-watched season 1 and the studio audience was laughing at things that were TRAGIC. I'm wondering why... And in season 2, there's an episode where a neighbor offers to cook dinner for the Evans family; and the neighbor is known to have to eat dog food because she's so poor. Of course, they made as many gags as they could, with JJ doing the prayer: "The Lord is my German shepard"... on a certain level, yes, it's funny. But when you think about it, it's not funny at all.

Did it wake up mainstream America in the mid-70s? The ratings were high... But fast forward to 2004, 30 years later. People turned on and tuned out all right. :-(

On the other hand (I've got lots of hands, don't worry), it did mix humor with tragic real life situations and actually involved real life topics that still hit home, even if the audience cracked up over silly dialogue. Even if the humor could be perceived as warped or vulgar, they still made mention of topics few seem to want do these days.

[pink_poodle]

1. Oh, I sooooo hate sicoms. sigh. But I like your....................

display of Dr. Who's!!!!!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. I think that, had they not tried to keep it a comedy, albeit a serious one

like All In the Family was, they would have been okay. But trying to mix serious social commentary, while also condescending down to a level in which JJ had to say "Dy-no-mite!" every episode and do other silly cliche antics, drove it to stupidity.

Like Family Strokes, which always had to have that "Whatchootalkin'bout?" line, though Good Times was at a higher level when it was good, and at a far lower level when it was attempting to hit the lowest common denominator "DY-no-mite!" line.

It's because of the bullshit of the JJ character that I couldn't stand to watch the show. And I wasn't real old when it came out, but I remember watching it a number of times, and thinking, wow, good storytelling, but also being really turned off by the cliche bullshit.

Truly sad, because it was, in so many ways, and in ways that Movin' On Up never approached, way ahead of its time, risky, and offering of a lot of positive and necessary social critique.