Sanford and Son (TV)
"Sanford and Son" is an American television sitcom that premiered in 1972, based on the British series "Steptoe and Son." The show stars Redd Foxx as Fred G. Sanford, a cantankerous junkyard owner in South Central Los Angeles, and Demond Wilson as his son, Lamont. Known for its blend of sharp humor and social commentary, the series features a cast of memorable characters, including Fred's friends and family, who often serve as foils to his quick wit. The dynamic between Fred and Lamont is central to the show, reflecting a complex father-son relationship filled with both conflict and affection.
Despite its lighthearted tone, "Sanford and Son" addresses themes of race and social class, making use of ethnically diverse characters to explore these issues in a comedic context. The series was significant for its portrayal of African American life and for bringing Redd Foxx’s unique comedic style to a broader audience, transforming him into a mainstream figure in American entertainment. Through its humor and relatability, the show resonated with millions of viewers, becoming a cherished part of television history.
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Subject Terms
Sanford and Son (TV)
Identification Television situation comedy
Date Aired from 1972 to 1977
Along with The Jeffersons, Good Times, and What’s Happening, Sanford and Son demonstrated both the commercial viability of television programming centered around specifically black social situations and the power of frank, often misanthropic, humor to defuse the more combustible aspects of America’s racial tensions.
When Sanford and Son, a licensed adaptation of the British comedy series Steptoe and Son, debuted on American television in 1972, few in the mainstream television audience had experienced the humor of Redd Foxx firsthand. Foxx had spent much of his career up to that point earning a cult following as a stand-up comedian specializing in “after hours,” or raunchy, humor. As Fred G. Sanford, the malingering sixty-five-year-old coordinator of a South Central Los Angeles junkyard that he runs with his son Lamont (played by Demond Wilson), Foxx’s nightclub humor was, to some extent, whitewashed for mass consumption. His blunt, insulting style remained, however, making him not only a kind of black counterpart to All in the Family’s equally bigoted Archie Bunker but also a worthy participant in the bare-knuckled comedic tradition popularized by the likes of Don Rickles.
The rest of the show’s regular characters—Lamont, Fred’s buddies Grady Wilson (Whitman Mayo) and Bubba Hoover (Don Bexley), and police officers “Smitty” Smith (Hal Williams) and “Hoppy” Hopkins (Howard Platt)—were primarily foils for Fred’s one-liners. Aunt Esther Anderson (LaWanda Page) was the purse-swinging, “holy roller” sister of Fred’s late wife Elizabeth and provided many memorable comic (and sometimes literal) counterpunches. The function of such ethnically identified stock characters as the Latino Julio Fuentes (Gregory Sierra) and the Asian Ah Chew (Pat Morita) was more complex: As the butts of Fred’s explicitly racist put-downs, they served as vehicles for the controversial implication that racism was not solely a white man’s burden.
The show’s overriding tone, however, was light. Each episode ended with a more-or-less happy resolution, and the filial affection between Fred and Lamont, though hidden beneath a veneer of mutual antagonism and always a work in progress, was never seriously in question.
Impact
Although the squalor and social disenfranchisement that served as the setting and context of Sanford and Son was not one with which the majority of its viewers were well acquainted, the series was able to universalize its dramatic situation and ultimately serve as a microcosm of American life, endearing it to millions of viewers and paving the way for Redd Foxx’s late-life entry into the mainstream of American entertainment.
Bibliography
Foxx, Redd. The Redd Foxx Encyclopedia of Black Humor. Pasadena, Calif.: W. Ritchie Press, 1977.
MacDonald, J. Fred. Blacks and White TV: Afro-Americans in Television Since 1948. Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1993.
Ross, Robert, Ray Galton, and Alan Simpson. Steptoe and Son. London: BBC Consumer, 2002.