Watching Sanford And Son back to back with the Amos And Andy shows from the Fifties and I defy you to tell me the differences. The difference and it's a big one is that Amos And Andy originated on radio by white performers Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. In there rare big screen appearances they were in black-face. That's what makes Amos And Andy unacceptable today.
Because seeing those episodes there's not too much difference between George 'Kingfish' Stevens and Fred Sanford. Both were continually trying to get rich quick with some kind of wacky scheme. Both had a rather slack worth ethic, Fred Sanford's case he had a dutiful son, with the Kingfish it was always his gullible pal Andy whom he hooked into his endeavors. The dialog was such it could be interchangeable.
Fred at least had a business, it was the junk business. Fred Sanford was a role tailor made for nightclub comedian Redd Foxx who while black always worked blue in his act. I did see him once on stage and he was as sexist as could be. A black version of Andrew Dice Clay.
Sanford was a widower and his wife must have been something wonderful to put up with him. Getting under his skin and a great share of the laughs was LaWanda Page who was his late wife's sister Esther. They were the spark of the show.
Providing a moral balance to Fred's lazy incorrigible ways was Demond Wilson as his son. Who definitely took after his mother. You can picture her through him. Aunt Esther was married to Raymond Allen and he took an occasional drink. What did this poor man ever do in a previous life to have that harridan for a wife?
The great catchphrase when Foxx was caught in a lie or one of his schemes blew up was him clutching his chest and moaning "I'm having the big one now". Ironically Foxx did have the big one on the set of another show he had just debuted with. Life does imitate art.
But I defy anyone to tell the difference between the humor of Sanford And Son and the television Amos And Andy.
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