The Jeffersons

Premise

The Jeffersons was an American sitcom broadcast on the CBS network from January 18, 1975 until July 23, 1985, lasting 11 seasons. It was a spin-off from All in the Family, a program on which the character Louise Jefferson first appeared in 1971 and on which George Jefferson first appeared in 1973. Like All in the Family, The Jeffersons was created and produced by Norman Lear. The show focused on a nouveau riche African American husband and wife.

Related Topics:
American - Sitcom - CBS - January 18 - 1975 - July 23 - 1985 - Spin-off - All in the Family - 1971 - 1973 - Norman Lear - Nouveau riche - African American

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The Jeffersons was in the top ten in the Nielsen Ratings during its first season on the air and, later in its run, for three seasons in a row: 1979–80, 1980–81, and 1981–82. During the 1981–82 season, it was the #3 show on network television, behind only Dallas and 60 Minutes in popularity.

Related Topics:
Nielsen Ratings - Dallas - 60 Minutes

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The main characters were George Jefferson, played by Sherman Hemsley, and Louise "Weezie" Jefferson, played by Isabel Sanford. George Jefferson was the owner of a chain of seven dry cleaning stores; he and his wife lived in a luxury high-rise apartment building on Manhattan's Upper East Side, to which they had moved from a working-class section of Queens (where they had been Archie Bunker's next-door neighbors on All in the Family). Their son, Lionel (played by Mike Evans who left the show by second season to work on TV show Good Times with co-creator Eric Monte, and was replaced by Damon Evans from 1975-78, then Mike Evans returned in 1979 and stayed until the end of the run) was a college student studing to be a electrical engineer. One of the stars of The Jeffersons was Roxie Roker (Lenny Kravitz's mother), who played Helen Willis, opposite Franklin Cover as Tom Willis and their daughter Jenny Willis, (played by Berlinda Tolbert) who dated and in 1976 married Lionel, and later became pregnant, giving birth to their daughter, Jessica (played by Ebonie Smith. The show also featured Zara Cully as George's mother Olivia Jefferson (referred to as simply "Mother Jefferson"); Marla Gibbs as the Jeffersons' wise-cracking maid, Florence Johnston (who would later have her own spin-off show 227); Paul Benedict as the bumbling English neighbor, Harry Bentley; and Ned Wertimer as Ralph, the smarmy building doorman.

Related Topics:
Sherman Hemsley - Isabel Sanford - Manhattan - Upper East Side - Queens - Archie Bunker - Mike Evans - Good Times - Eric Monte - Damon Evans - Roxie Roker - Lenny Kravitz - Franklin Cover - Berlinda Tolbert - Ebonie Smith - Zara Cully - Marla Gibbs - 227 - Paul Benedict - Ned Wertimer

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The show underwent numerous subtle changes as the 1970s moved into the 1980s. Louise Jefferson's afro vanished, and George Jefferson toned down his explosive temper and his bigoted diatribes. The keys to the popularity of the show were its having African-American actors in lead roles, its portrayal of a successful African-American family, and its confrontational humor, although at the time, some complaints were made about the stereotypes that the show allegedly purveyed. Roker and Cover portrayed network television's first regularly-appearing interracial couple in which one partner was African-American.

Related Topics:
1970s - 1980s - Afro - African-American - Actor - Stereotype - Interracial

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The buoyant theme song from The Jeffersons, "Movin' on Up" (composed by Jeff Barry and Ja'net DuBois of Good Times fame and sung by DuBois), found new life in the 1990s and 2000s in a number of television commercials and other references: for example, in Will Smith's song "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It". The high-rise apartment building shown in the opening credits of The Jeffersons is located at East 85th Street and Third Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Related Topics:
Ja'net DuBois - Good Times - 1990s - 2000s - Television commercial - Will Smith - Third Avenue

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Currently, the show is distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

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