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Ghost Metropolis: Los Angeles from Clovis to NixonMain MenuRegimes: Ruling the Los Angeles Region from the Late Pleistocene to the 21st CenturyPlaces and Paths of Los AngelesManna From Hell: Power and Politics from Region to World PowerShadows: Visual Cultures and Mass Media of a Regional and Global PowerSegregated Diversity: The Geosocial Formation of Social Justice in the Late Twentieth CenturyRichard 37th: Nixon, Los Angeles, and World PowerThe American 1989: Los Angeles at the Climax of the 20th CenturyNarrative EssayBibliographies, Filmographies, Gazeteers, IndexesMapping the Past: Theory, Methods, HistoriographyPathCreditsRootPhil Ethingtone37d40405599cccc3b6330e6c4be064cc03ef7a5
Robinson 1975
12018-08-15T02:10:00-07:00Phil Ethingtone37d40405599cccc3b6330e6c4be064cc03ef7a56771Noteplain2018-08-15T02:10:00-07:00Phil Ethingtone37d40405599cccc3b6330e6c4be064cc03ef7a5Louie Robinson, "Bad Times On the 'Good Times' Set". Ebony. Vol. 30 no. 11 (September 1975), p. 35.
1media/GoodTimes_thm.jpgmedia/Amosand Rolle in Good Times.jpg2018-07-13T00:06:56-07:00Good Times, 1974-197914TV Series created by Norman Lear, CBSimage_header2018-08-15T02:34:57-07:00Good Times, the third of Norman Lear's sitcoms of social criticism, focuses on the life of the working-class family of James (John Amos) and Florida (Esther Rolle) Evans in an inner city Chicago housing project, which is based on the actual Cabrini-Green projects.
While It is one of the first full feature sitcoms to focus on a “nuclear” African American family, it evolved from the role of Florida that Evans Rolle had played in Maude, where she played the title character's maid. Given that Maude Findlay was a liberal civil rights character, it is significant that she was portrayed as employing an African American as a servant. Conversely, given that the Chicago Projects were the very model for the "ghetto crisis" of the 1970s, Lear's CBS Evans family largely confined the African American family to the world of the Chicago's notorious, crime-ridden, high-rise projects.
Typical of Lear's opus, Good Times tackled many social issues, such as poverty, racism, and child abuse, but these "serious" issues were increasingly drowned-out by the stereotypical antics of the 16-year-old son "JJ" (played by Jimmy Walker) that dated from slavery. JJ called himself "Kid Dy-no-mite!,” wore super-fly headwear, and acted ignorant. His mannerisms were reminiscent of the “Shuckin’ and Jivin” stereotype from the slavery era. Both of the shows co-stars, Esher Rolle, and John Amos, were displeased by Walker's show-stealing and the Lears' willingness to go along with it. "They have made J.J. more stupid and enlarged the role," Rolle complained in Ebony magazine, during the second season of the show: "Negative images have been slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child."Note
John Amos was also vocal in opposing the direction Jimmy Walker was taking the character of JJ, especially because his character's other son, Michael (played by Ralph Carter), was planning to become a Supreme Court Justice and could just as well have been a focus of the scripts. Instead, Michael's intellectual character is left in the shadow of his older brother's jive-talk. Amos' opposition to JJ put him at odds with Lear, who fired Amos at the end of the third season, by killing James Evans with an off-screen heart attack.