When Freds old buddy came back claiming that he and Elizibeth slept together and that Lamont was his child. Turned out, the guy had sex with Esther. Funny stuff.
I recently saw an episode with a very politically incorrect line that would NEVER make it onto the screen today and that I’m surprised is still included in the reruns. Fred is flipping out over Julio’s sister dating Lamont. He asks her
“If you just got to date a black men, why’d you start with one so dark? Why not start with a high-yella and work your way up?”
The audience howled, but today it’d make the cover of Newsweek.
Dave Chappelle could get away with it, but he’s on cable.
There was another line like that. I don’t remember the plot, but Fred is in court and utters the line, “There’s enough n*ggers in here to make a Tarzan movie.”
It was a hilarious show. I loved it when I was a kid.
I think my favorite scene was near the end of the run. Fred has seen some mobsters perpetuate a dirty deed and there is a $50,000 reward for information leading to their arrest. He starts to talk to the cops, but recants when the mobsters threaten Lamont and his girlfriend.
His girlfriend learns of this and starts to get all sentimental.
Fred tells her: “You ought to be glad there wasn’t a $100,000 reward.”
I can’t remember Sanford and Son very well, but Steptoe and Son still holds up.
The episode where Harold brings in an old “What the Butler Saw” machine (nickel peep-show type thing) with his dad as the stocking-footed “star” cracks me up every time. Heh heh. Or the one when Harold decides to rent a cheap apartment so he can get some action without the old man interfering – and the old man ends up getting all the action – or the one where Harold brings a French bird home and is happy as hell until it becomes clear that the old man was nailing her grandma during the war and they’re probably close relations – or any of the poopcentric episodes.
I’d like to see more Sanford & Son, as a refresher.
One that sticks in my mind for some reason is the “wild parsley” episode. IIRC, Lamont and his friend find marijuana growing wild on the property. Lamont asks “what are we going to do? put it inside a big piece of paper and burn it?” to which his friend replies “no, I’m gonna put it in a lot of little papers.”
It has been at least 20 years, but I think the pot ends up being used in a salad and served to some cops.