As one of the longest-running sitcoms in television history, The Jeffersons was
groundbreaking in many ways. The series aired its final episode in 1985, and has managed to remain
a cultural touchstone. Here is what the show's biggest fans never knew about The Jeffersons.
The Black experience wasn't portrayed much — or at all — on television prior to the 1970s. When
shows featured Black characters, they were often portrayed as stereotypes or ominous criminals.
So when shows like Norman Lear's Good Times hit the airwaves in the early 1970s,
it was seen as a step of progress. Finally, relatable Black stories were being told,
and Black actors were getting significant roles on TV.
However, this didn't satisfy everybody. Members of the Black Panther Party set
up a meeting with Lear to discuss Good Times.
They complained that shows featuring Black casts always portrayed Black people as poor,
reinforcing some stereotypes even as they undermined others. The patriarch of the Evans
family in Good Times had to work several jobs to support his large family, and they noted that
Black characters in general were often depicted in cheap clothing and in other negative ways.
As the Atlanta Black Star notes, the Panthers told Lear that there
were successful Black people in the world whose stories could be compelling and funny.
The conversation resonated with Lear, and he began to conceive The Jeffersons
as an effort to show a Black family having real economic success and living the American Dream.
"The idea of moving on up came out of that visit.
We were going to do 'The Jeffersons' but let's make them…”
"...move on up."
Sitcoms aren't always noted for their complex writing and deeply-imagined characters. And The
Jeffersons was in many ways a broad, superficial comedy that relied on racially-charged jokes and
physical comedy to get laughs. Which is why it's easy to forget that George Jefferson actually had
a fascinating fictional background story that was more thoughtful than your typical sitcom fare.
That backstory went back to the Jefferson family's roots in Alabama as sharecroppers,
a detail that spoke volumes about George Jefferson's obsession with wealth,
status, and the visual signs of both. George worked as a janitor for a large
apartment building while his wife, Louise "Weezy" Jefferson, worked as a housekeeper.
An insurance settlement allowed George to quit his job and launch his first
dry-cleaning business, which in turn allowed the Jeffersons to move from Harlem to Queens,
and finally to make the move to Manhattan.
Although this backstory wasn't explicitly referenced, it showed up in the writing.
Weezy is initially reluctant to hire a housekeeper in the first episode in part because she's had
that experience herself. And in one episode, when George is told that a white worker should
be referred to as a "custodian," he remarks that if he was black, he'd be called a "janitor."
Television historians know that while the character of George Jefferson was
introduced on All in the Family in 1971, he didn't actually show up on screen
until 1973. The reason given was that he was uncomfortable walking into a white man's house,
setting up the character as a foil for Archie Bunker's racism.
But the real reason was more pragmatic. Norman Lear had created the character for Sherman
Hemsley, but Hemsley was under contract for the play Purlie and refused to break it. Hemsley had
built a reputation as a powerhouse performer, and after catching his 1970 performance in Purlie,
Lear knew he wanted Hemsley for the character of George. Rather than cast someone else,
however, Lear decided to keep George offscreen until Hemsley was available.
Until then, Lear created the character of Henry Jefferson, George's brother. Portrayed by Mel
Stewart, Henry got the lines and screen time that would have gone to George. Stewart's last
appearance as Henry was Hemsley's first appearance as George. Henry Jefferson was never seen again.
Marla Gibbs remains best-known to many people as the sarcastic housekeeper,
Florence, on The Jeffersons. It was her breakout role. Gibbs had started taking
acting classes when her job with United Airlines transferred her from Detroit to Los Angeles,
but prior to being cast as Florence, the actress had only appeared in a handful
of theater roles and one film, 1973's Sweet Jesus, Preacher Man.
Florence was only supposed to be a bit part, but audiences loved her, and the character of Florence
was promoted to full-time status. But Gibbs knew how quickly fortunes turned in Hollywood. She'd
already been working for United Airlines for 11 years when she got the job on The Jeffersons,
and kept working there for two more years. Gibbs' reasoning for keeping her day job was
that she didn't want to give up a good gig for an acting role that might disappear at any moment.
Gibbs says that she worked out an adjusted schedule with United that allowed her enough
time to film her scenes and then race into work, where she worked the phones in their reservations
office. Often, people calling in to book flights would tell her that her voice sounded familiar,
and she'd just laugh it off. One other reason she kept her job despite becoming
famous on a top-rate television show? She got unlimited travel passes from the airline.
Despite earning praise for its progessive depiction of Black America on the small screen,
The Jeffersons still earns criticism for some of its choices. As noted by The Baltimore Sun,
many Black Americans found aspects of the show — from George Jefferson's so-called
"pimp walk" strut to his general foolishness — to be offensive.
But as Ebony writes, this was a deliberate calibration by the show's creators to make
the show and the character of George Jefferson more palatable to audiences
not quite ready to accept Blacks as their equals.
The character of George Jefferson was conceived as a photo negative image, in some ways,
of Archie Bunker. Both men are bigoted, and both use sarcasm and insults as weapons.
"I mean who should know better than my own family the respect
I have for women. Weezy get the damn door!"
However, white audiences could feel good about being more racially sensitive and
evolved than Bunker, whereas George Jefferson's upward mobility could be seen as threatening.
Making George a little ridiculous softened the blow, because it made it clear that no matter
how successful he and his family might be, they would always be second-class.
"You are so boring I'd rather spend an evening with King Tut."
In some ways, 1975 doesn't seem so long ago, but it was truly a different time in more ways
than one. In 2021, a transgender person is a member of the president's cabinet,
and the Vice President of the United States is in an interracial marriage.
Back in 1975, however, issues like these were shocking to the vast majority of the country
and also almost never addressed on television — that is until The Jeffersons came along.
The list of firsts achieved by The Jeffersons is impressive.
It was the first TV show to directly address suicide in an episode where Florence the
housekeeper falls into a depression and contemplates ending her life.
MeTV also points out that The Jeffersons was the first sitcom on prime time television
to depict a transgender character — George's old Navy pal Eddie, revealed to now be Edie.
Additionally, the show was also the first in American television history to depict an
interracial marriage with the characters Helen and Tom Willis. It's rare for a television
comedy to lead cultural change like this, but in more ways than one, The Jeffersons did.
One of the reasons The Jeffersons remains a pop culture powerhouse, when many of its
contemporaries have faded from our collective memory, is the theme song. Simply put, "Movin' On
Up" is just a great song, full stop. Everybody knows it, and you can't help but sing along.
It's also one of the more thoughtful and meaningful theme songs in TV history. The song
was co-written by Ja'Net DuBois, who portrayed Willona on Norman Lear's other show, Good Times,
and Jeff Barry. Barry is something of a legend. He co-wrote a long list of classic songs,
including "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Then He Kissed Me". "Be My Baby", and "Leader of the Pack."
DuBois wanted to do more than just act, and when she approached Lear about branching out,
he suggested that she write the theme song for his new show.
DuBois infused the song with her own story,
as she always dreamed of moving her mother into a "deluxe apartment" when she achieved success.
The song also adamantly drew from Black culture, styled almost as a spiritual tune — complete with
a 35-member choir — that wouldn't have been out of place in church. It was almost totally
unlike any other theme song you would hear on TV at the time, which was the whole point.
On one level, The Jeffersons is just a silly sitcom, and George
Jefferson is a very silly character, prone to foolish schemes and loud,
boorish outbursts. But he's actually one of the most complex characters in TV history.
While it's easy to view George Jefferson as a "Black Archie Bunker,"
that's not entirely accurate, because George Jefferson is beyond Archie Bunker in many ways.
Archie is a working-class man who will never go beyond his working day
and the easy chair in his modest house. George and his family, however,
are destined to move on up and leave the Bunkers behind in a world they'll never escape.
More importantly, as one of the writers on the show, Jay Moriarty, told The Hollywood Times,
Archie Bunker's bigotry is, quote, "pure prejudice" while George Jefferson's bigotry
is a reaction to that prejudice. Bunker has no reason to hate Blacks or to view
them as inferior. Jefferson has plenty of reason to distrust white people and
the power structures they use to oppress him.
Many of the actors working on The Jeffersons were serious artists with a lot of training.
Sherman Hemsley, for example, came out of the revered Negro Ensemble Company, or NEC,
as did Roxie Roker, who portrayed Helen Willis on the series. Other NEC graduates include John Amos,
Richard Roundtree, Denzel Washington, and Angela Bassett. Hemsley was so good,
show creator Norman Lear waited years to be able to hire him.
Hemsley was very experienced and took his performance very seriously. So when
he flubbed lines during episode tapings, it's safe to assume it wasn't due to nerves
or incompetence — it was merely a form of passive resistance. Early seasons of the show
used racial epithets for both Black and white characters fairly often, but as time went on
Hemsley thought his character should be evolving and no longer using offensive words.
As New Ravel notes, when Hemsley's requests for change were ignored he began deliberately
flubbing his lines or saying the offensive words too low for the microphones to pick up,
forcing the producers to reshoot scenes. Eventually this tactic worked,
and the writers stopped using the offensive terms.
The Jeffersons was a consistently high-rated show, and only the second sitcom with a majority Black
cast to land in the Top Five of the Nielsen Ratings. Over the course of its 11-year run,
the series was almost always one of the most-watched on television. Which makes it
curious that its network, CBS, treated it as if the show was in trouble. The show's time slot,
for example, changed a ridiculous 15 times over those 11 years.
Normally, successful shows are allowed to develop in a specific time slot
in order to become an anchor for the network, but for some reason
The Jeffersons was moved around constantly, forcing viewers to search for it,
then figure out how to rearrange their viewing schedules to accommodate it.
When the show was canceled in 1985, the network didn't even bother to inform the cast.
The actors found out through the media reports or when friends contacted them to ask about it.
This was perceived as an act of deep disrespect by many of the cast members,
and it also meant that one of the most successful and longest-running
comedies of all time didn't get to have a proper series finale.
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