''Sanford'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

television series and a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to the original 1972–1977 sitcom ''

Sanford and Son ''Sanford and Son'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977. It was based on the British sitcom '' Steptoe and Son'', which initially aired on BBC One in the Unit ...

''. It was broadcast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from March 15, 1980 to July 10, 1981.

Background

In 1977, after six seasons of ''

'',

Redd Foxx John Elroy Sanford (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. ...

left the

show to star in a

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a co ...

for ABC. His new show, '' The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour'', was cancelled after just four months.

Plot

First season

''Sanford'' premiered in March 1980 as a midseason replacement.

Demond Wilson Grady Demond Wilson (born October 13, 1946) is an American actor and author. He portrayed Lamont Sanford, the son of Fred Sanford (played by Redd Foxx) in the NBC sitcom ''Sanford and Son'' (1972–77), and Oscar Madison in '' The New Odd Coup ...

refused to reprise his role as Fred's son, Lamont. His absence was explained by having Lamont away working on the Alaska pipeline. Fred's new business partner in the Los Angeles-based junkyard was Cal Pettie ( Dennis Burkley), an overweight white Southerner, originally from Texas, with a generally optimistic attitude and jovial demeanor. Cal had worked with Lamont on the pipeline and Lamont sent him to visit his father. Cal moves into Lamont's old room. Rollo Lawson ( Nathaniel Taylor), a

recurring character A recurring character is a fictional character, usually in a prime time TV series, who frequently appears from time to time during the series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main ...

on the previous series, was now working for Fred as a

delivery man Delivery is the process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination. Cargo (physical goods) is primarily delivered via roads and railroads on land, shipping lanes on the sea, and airline networks in the air. Cer ...

. (The events of the previous series '' Sanford Arms'' - cancelled after four episodes - where Fred and Lamont had moved to Arizona after selling the property to Fred's Army buddy Phil Wheeler, were completely ignored.) Fred meets a customer who is an

upper-class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...

widow named Evelyn (

Marguerite Ray Marguerite Ray (March 18, 1931 – November 18, 2020) was an American television actress, known for originating the role of Mamie Johnson in the soap opera ''The Young and the Restless''; she was the first black regular on the show. In a career tha ...

). The two begin dating much to the dismay of Evelyn's snobbish brother Winston (

Percy Rodriguez Percy Rodriguez (born Percy Rodrigues; June 13, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was a Canadian actor who appeared in many television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s. He was of Afro-Portuguese heritage and was born in the Saint-Henri nei ...

), and sharp-tongued maid Clara ( Cathy Cooper), who see Fred as low-class. Her daughter Cissy (

Suzanne Stone Suzanne may refer to: People * Suzanne (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of people with the name) * S. U. Zanne, pen name of August Vandekerkhove (1838–1923), Belgian writer and inventor * Suzanne, pen name of Renée Ménd ...

) was more accepting of Fred. Later in the season,

Aunt Esther Esther Winfield Anderson, known and feared as Aunt Esther, is a fictional character from the television series ''Sanford and Son''. She was played by actress LaWanda Page, an acquaintance of series star Redd Foxx. Page was Foxx's first and only ...

's college student son Cliff ( Clinton Derricks-Carroll) moves in with Fred and Cal starts dating Cissy. (In the original series, Cliff's name was Daniel.) Officers Smitty and Hoppy ( Hal Williams and Howard Platt), recurring characters from the original series, appeared in five episodes. Sammy Davis Jr. appeared as himself in two episodes, first in an uncredited

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

(for which he also directed the episode), and then in the

season finale A season finale (British English: last in the series; Australian English: season final) is the final episode of a season of a television program. This is often the final episode to be produced for a few months or longer, and, as such, will try to ...

in which Fred persuades Davis to perform for Evelyn's

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * C ...

. The show was highly promoted by NBC, and the premiere episode garnered solid ratings; however, the ratings dropped as the season progressed, and the show ended up ranking well outside the top 30 of the Nielsen ratings for the 1979–1980 season, whereas ''Sanford and Son'' consistently ranked in the top 10 except in its final season (by that time, the original series had dropped to number 27). ''Sanford'' was then put on hiatus to be retooled.

Second season

The show returned in January 1981 again as a mid-season replacement. The show was moved from Saturdays to the

Friday night death slot The "Friday night death slot" or "Friday evening death slot" is a perceived graveyard slot in American television. It implies a television program in the United States scheduled on Friday evenings (typically, between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. ET) ...

. The original series of the 1970s dominated on Friday night for several seasons. Aunt Esther (

LaWanda Page LaWanda Page (born Alberta Peal; October 19, 1920September 14, 2002) was an American actress, comedian, and dancer whose career spanned six decades. Crowned "The Queen of Comedy" or "The Black Queen of Comedy", Page melded blue humor, signifyi ...

) appeared in the two-part season premiere (along with another episode later in the season). It was explained that her husband Woodrow had died and she was moving in to prevent Fred from being a bad influence on Cliff. While Derricks-Carroll was now featured in the opening credits, he only appeared in a few episodes of the season. This season now focused more on the relationship between Fred and Cal. Evelyn was now reduced to a recurring character and instead of being Fred's fiancee, she is simply dating him. The characters of Rollo, Winston, Cissy, and Clara were dropped with no explanation. Grady (

Whitman Mayo Whitman Blount Mayo Jr. (November 15, 1930 – May 22, 2001) was an American actor, best known for his role as Grady Wilson on the 1970s television sitcom ''Sanford and Son''. Biography Early years Whitman Blount Mayo, Jr. was born in New Yor ...

), another recurring character from the original series, appeared in two episodes as a special guest star. Officers Smitty and Hoppy also reappeared several times. The season attempted to rebuild the duo concept Sanford and Lamont had in the original series by focusing on storylines with their bonding. Some storylines includes Cal's racist mom coming to visit, not knowing Sanford was black, Sanford providing fatherly advice to both Cal and Cliff. This was noted in "Cal the Coward" and "Love Is Blind". A recycled storyline was used from the original series by having Cal in lieu of Lamont fall in love with an illegal alien who is later deported. A few episodes were in a more traditional sitcom format that allowed more serious moments, as the original was strictly comedy. The retooled ''Sanford'' fared poorly in the ratings and NBC pulled the series at the end of January prior to the February sweeps, having only aired five episodes. NBC burned off the remaining seven episodes over the summer. Given the abrupt cancellation, the final aired episode was not written nor intended to serve as a series finale. The episodes were most likely taped in mid- to late 1980 with the intention of the series doing better in the ratings.

Cast

as Fred Sanford * Dennis Burkley as Cal Pettie * Nathaniel Taylor as Rollo Lawson (season 1) *

as Evelyn Lewis (season 1; recurring, season 2) *Cathy Cooper as Clara (season 1) *Suzanne Stone as Cissy Lewis (season 1) *

Percy Rodrigues Percy Rodriguez (born Percy Rodrigues; June 13, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was a Canadian actor who appeared in many television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s. He was of Afro-Portuguese heritage and was born in the Saint-Henri nei ...

as Winston (season 1) *

as Esther Anderson (season 2) * Clinton Derricks-Carroll as Clifford Anderson (season 2; recurring, season 1)

Episodes

Season 1 (1980)

Season 2 (1981)

Syndication

''Sanford'' has not been included in the

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

package with ''Sanford and Son''. However,

rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. There are two types of reruns – those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word ...

s aired on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

throughout the 1990s. The show returned to BET in March 2008. To celebrate the return, an all day marathon of all 26 episodes occurred on March 8, 2008 to celebrate

Daylight Saving Time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

as 'San-forward'. In 2022, the complete series became available to stream for free on

Tubi Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

References

*Brooks, Tim; Earl Marsh (2003). '' The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows''.

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains p ...

. .
The Ironic Death of Redd Fox Part Two

External links

* * {{Sanford and Son 1980 American television series debuts 1981 American television series endings 1980s American sitcoms 1980s American black sitcoms English-language television shows NBC original programming Sanford & Son spin-offs American television spin-offs Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in Los Angeles American sequel television series