SANFORD AND SON QUESTION (1 Viewer)

[Tony Bensley]

Saw SANFORD ARMS rebroadcast on BET several years ago. Truly a bad show.

GRADY was ok. Whitman is always funny. I'd pick up a release for this.

SANFORD was almost as good as the mother show! I think Eve was a miscast character. But the second season was a bit funnier than the first. This would be a definite buy for me!!!

I never heard anything positive about SANFORD ARMS, and would pass on that one in a Heartbeat!


While I never caught any GRADY Episodes, I think that one might be good to pick up, as I do agree regarding Whitman Mayo!


I always thought the plug was pulled on SANFORD too soon, just as it was gaining some stride, but so it goes!


CHEERS!

 

[Ron1973]

When I's born, my body was blessed by Mother Nature, honey! ~ Esther


Yeah, and as you got older, it was cursed by Father Time! ~ Fred

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

When "Blood is Thicker Than Junk" aired on TVland, it had a whole entire scene that wasn't seen anywhere else. I wonder if it was cut differently from the version on the DVD?

 

[Tony Bensley]

The Season 3 Episode "A House Is Not A Poolroom" (Original Airdate: November 23, 1973) is the first of three in which former 'Our Gang' member Stymie Beard appears as Otis Littlejohn:

Though this appears as the last of 9 Episodes on the first Season 3 DVD, IMDB lists it as the 11th Episode. While it's my understanding that IMDB isn't exactly noted as a fount of accuracy, the listed Episode Dates gives me cause to suspect they are correct, in this case.


Does anyone know whether Sony arranged the Episode sequence according to their production order, or if they just plain goofed in some instances?


CHEERS!

 

[Radioman970]

I didn't know that was Stymie! How did I miss that all these years! Great fact Tony.

 

[Tony Bensley]

I didn't know that was Stymie! How did I miss that all these years! Great fact Tony.

I only realized it myself after SANFORD AND SON had gone into syndication, as I hadn't seen The Little Rascals on TV until the mid 70's, which was after Stymie's last S&S appearance in Season 4, Episode 13 "A Little Extra Security", which originally aired December 13, 1974.


Among other TV guest appearances, Stymie apparently made quite a few on GOOD TIMES.


Getting back to SANFORD AND SON, IMDB's listing of Redd Foxx appearing in all 135 Episodes is incorrect, as there were several in which he did not appear in, due to his temporarily leaving the show during a contract dispute, during which Whitman Mayo (As Grady) filled in for several Episodes! As I'm coming up to viewing these, I'll be counting the number of shows that Redd Foxx doesn't appear in, though I believe it was around six.


Another slight discrepancy that I noticed is that my Sony set lists 136* Episodes. Also, starting on the Season 3 DVDs, the Sony Logo closes out the shows, instead of the Columbia Pictures Logo that closed out most of the Season 1 and 2 shows. Also, unlike the Columbia Logo, the Sony Logo's running time is separated from each Episode's running time, if that makes any sense!


CHEERS!


* By my own count, IMDB's listing of 135 Episodes appears to be correct.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

The casting people for the Lear shows must have really liked Stymie. In addition to his appearances on Sanford & Son and Good Times, he made 2 funny cameo appearances on Maude in Season 4 (see titles below). He played the neighbor across the hall when Walter was separated from Maude and living in a bachelor apartment.


4.2 - Consenting Adults

4.3 - Rumpus in the Rumpus Room

 

[FanCollector]

Yes, the DVDs are in production order; note that the episodes in which Foxx is absent run consecutively in the fourth season and his "return" comes long after he started appearing again already. That's not the way they were aired, but it's how they were filmed.

The episode number dispute is just because there are two different ways to count the sixth season premiere. It ran as a one-hour episode (prior to the following week's half-hour conclusion) on NBC, but in syndication, it has been split into two parts. So there were 135 NBC telecasts of the series, but there are 136 episodes available in syndication.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Yes, the DVDs are in production order; note that the episodes in which Foxx is absent run consecutively in the fourth season and his "return" comes long after he started appearing again already. That's not the way they were aired, but it's how they were filmed.

The episode number dispute is just because there are two different ways to count the sixth season premiere. It ran as a one-hour episode (prior to the following week's half-hour conclusion) on NBC, but in syndication, it has been split into two parts. So there were 135 NBC telecasts of the series, but there are 136 episodes available in syndication.

The production order explanation does make sense to me, and I had suspected as much. Regarding the six Episodes in which Redd Foxx is absent, these are listed on IMDB in the same order as they appear on the last Season 3 DVD. According to either source, these weren't Season 4 Episodes!


The issue I have with the Episode number dispute, is that I arrive at the 135 total in already counting the aforementioned Season 6 Premiere as two separate Episodes! By counting it as only one, I then get a 134 Episode total. I believe that Sony's "ALL 136 EPISODES" listing on The Complete Series set was likely either a typo, or else somebody somehow miscounted the two part Episode!


CHEERS!

 

[FanCollector]

There were Foxxless episodes at both the end of season three and the beginning of season four, as his contract dispute began during season three and was not resolved until after season four had begun filming.

I count:
Season 1-14
Season 2-24
Season 3-24
Season 4-25
Season 5-24
Season 6-25
Total--136
Which season do you count differently?

 

[Dave Lawrence]

The episode guide at the link below lists 135 episodes, counting the Season 6 premier as 1 episode.


http://epguides.com/SanfordandSon/


Following on what FanCollector said, the last 6 episodes of Season 3 are without Redd. Then, in Season 4, there are 3 more Redd-less episodes, not counting the final episode (The Family Man), which was the episode that introduced the Grady spin-off.


These other 3 (Fred's Treasure Garden, A Little Extra Security, and Once a Thief) were originally aired at various points within Season 4, well after Fred's return. However, in those 3, Fred is said to still be out of town and Grady is still living at the house. (Per A Little Extra Security, he's also getting his mail delivered to the house rather than to his own place.) So that would indicate that these 3 were already written and taped prior to Redd's 1st episode and then held back so that the season could start with Redd episodes, even if it wouldn't make sense to viewers at the time why he was missing again later on.

 

[FanCollector]

Yes, Dave, I am pretty sure that was the situation. They didn't want to start the season with more episodes in which Foxx was absent, so they just shuffled the Grady episodes in later (and not in a row). Their one nod to continuity was opening the season with The Surprise Party, which showed Fred's return to California, even though it was filmed after several other episodes with Foxx that year.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

Yeah, after finally working things out with Redd, the network wouldn't want to start the new season by showing still more episodes without Fred in them; so it makes sense that they would initially skip those 3 shows.


I liked that Fred got a "return" episode to start the season. Especially back then for series that didn't adhere to a strict continuity, you might have expected to just see an episode with Fred already back, no reference to his return, and business as usual. So it was nice to see not only Fred coming home but also a realistic reaction of Grady initially feeling displaced now that Fred was back.


Regarding the Fred-less Season 4 episode Fred's Treasure Garden, I think it was not only produced at the beginning of the season, but was also probably from a leftover/unused script from the previous season. It was written by Ilunga Adell, who wrote numerous Season 2 & 3 episodes (including several of my favorites) and who was also a story editor under producer Aaron Ruben. Except for Fred's Treasure Garden, he didn't write any other post-Season 3 shows and wasn't a story editor for Ruben's replacements, Turteltaub and Orenstein. I think the episode definitely has more of a Ruben-era feel/tone. (Note: A Little Extra Security was written by Turteltaub & Orenstein - probably their 1st script for the show after taking over as producers and head writers.)

 

[phillyrobt]

Incredibly I read that the Fredless Grady episodes were the show's highest viewed!

 

[Tony Bensley]

There were Foxxless episodes at both the end of season three and the beginning of season four, as his contract dispute began during season three and was not resolved until after season four had begun filming.

I count:
Season 1-14
Season 2-24
Season 3-24
Season 4-25
Season 5-24
Season 6-25
Total--136
Which season do you count differently?

Having checked the link to the most helpful Sanford & Son Episode Guide, I now get the cause of my confusion.


While "The Hawaiian Connection" is listed on IMDB, and my Sony set as 2 parts, it's actually 3 parts! It's been so long since I viewed this, I had forgotten about that all important detail!


I'm glad that's all cleared up!


CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

Incredibly I read that the Fredless Grady episodes were the show's highest viewed!

I do know that one of the Fredless Grady Episodes was THE highest rated of the series, though I don't recall just which one, at the moment!


CHEERS!

 

[Radioman970]

Incredibly I read that the Fredless Grady episodes were the show's highest viewed!

My mom always says she likes Grady best. I'm a huge fan of both.

 

[Joan Boston Fox]

Sandford and Son is a classic at our house. My 1 year old grandson dances to the opening music ....sooooooooo cute.