Sanford and Son
One of television's all-time classic sitcoms, the Norman Lear-produced "Sanford and Son" debuted just three days after the one-year anniversary of Lear's fabulously successful, "All in the Family." Fred Sanford is a cantankerous 65-year-old, black, widowed junk dealer living in Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood. Helping him is his restless son, 34-year-old Lamont; Fred's beloved wife and Lamont's mother, Elizabeth, had died more than 20 years earlier. Fred's schemes and bigotry especially toward Julio, a Puerto Rican who was Lamont's friend, whites and other minorities often frustrated Lamont. Fred also showed overt disdain for his sister-in-law, Aunt Esther (the feeling was mutual). Many times, Lamont threatened to leave for meaningful work, but Fred faked a heart attack each time ("Oh, this time its real, I'm a-comin' 'Lizabeth!") as a sympathy ploy to get his son to stay. By 1977, Fred and Lamont had sold their business (stars Foxx and Wilson wanted to leave the series); it became the Sanford Arms, a rooming house. The show continued as the short-lived "Sanford Arms" (without Foxx or Wilson); it was revived in 1980 on CBS as "Sanford" (starring Foxx and without Wilson).
- 1972-1978
- 6 seasons
- NBC
- Comedy
- TV-PG
One of television's all-time classic sitcoms, the Norman Lear-produced "Sanford and Son" debuted just three days after the one-year anniversary of Lear's fabulously successful, "All in the Family." Fred Sanford is a cantankerous 65-year-old, black, widowed junk dealer living in Los Angeles' Watts neighborhood. Helping him is his restless son, 34-year-old Lamont; Fred's beloved wife and Lamont's mother, Elizabeth, had died more than 20 years earlier. Fred's schemes and bigotry especially toward Julio, a Puerto Rican who was Lamont's friend, whites and other minorities often frustrated Lamont. Fred also showed overt disdain for his sister-in-law, Aunt Esther (the feeling was mutual). Many times, Lamont threatened to leave for meaningful work, but Fred faked a heart attack each time ("Oh, this time its real, I'm a-comin' 'Lizabeth!") as a sympathy ploy to get his son to stay. By 1977, Fred and Lamont had sold their business (stars Foxx and Wilson wanted to leave the series); it became the Sanford Arms, a rooming house. The show continued as the short-lived "Sanford Arms" (without Foxx or Wilson); it was revived in 1980 on CBS as "Sanford" (starring Foxx and without Wilson).
Season 5 Episode Guide
24 Episodes 1975 - 1976
Episode 1
Earthquake II
Fri, Sep 12, 1975 30 mins
An earthquake shakes up the Sanfords, and the threat of an even bigger quake sparks Fred to sell the house and seek shelter in Las Vegas.
Episode 2
Divorce, Sanford Style
Fri, Sep 19, 1975 30 mins
Following a fight with Woodrow, Aunt Esther moves in with Fred and Lamont. Fred works overtime engineering a reconciliation so she'll return home.
Episode 3
Bank on This
Fri, Sep 26, 1975 30 mins
Fred and Lamont are applying for a loan to finance their purchase of Julio's former property when a pair of robbers burst into the bank.
Episode 4
The Sanford Arms
Fri, Oct 3, 1975 30 mins
With the bank ready to foreclose, Fred and Lamont desperately seek to find tenants for the Sanford Arms.
Episode 5
Steinberg and Son
Fri, Oct 10, 1975 30 mins
The series spoofs itself when the characters in the new television show "Steinberg and Son" turn out to be Borscht Belt parallels to those in the life of Fred G. Sanford.
Episode 6
Brother, Can You Spare an Act?
Fri, Oct 17, 1975 30 mins
When Fred's white brother-in-law Rodney lands a job emceeing a local vaudeville revival, Fred, Lamont and Smiley Rogers help out by providing the song and dance.
Episode 7
Della, Della, Della
Fri, Oct 31, 1975 30 mins
When two competing politicians each seek to use Fred's junkyard for a campaign headquarters, Della Reese appeals to Fred to stand by her man.
Episode 8
Donna Pops the Question
Fri, Nov 7, 1975 30 mins
After receiving a proposal from another man, Donna gives Fred one final chance to marry her.
Episode 9
My Fair Esther
Fri, Nov 14, 1975 30 mins
Fred becomes a latter-day Henry Higgins when he undertakes the task of transforming ugly duckling Esther into a swan so she can win the Mrs. Watts Businessman's Contest and net Fred half the prize money.
Episode 10
Sanford and Rising Son
Fri, Nov 21, 1975 30 mins
Fred and Ah Chew team up and turn the Sanford home into a Japanese restaurant.
Episode 11
The Olympics
Fri, Dec 5, 1975 30 mins
Jealous of Donna's athletic new boyfriend, Fred begins training so he can challenge him in the Senior Olympics.
Episode 12
Ebenezer Sanford
Fri, Dec 12, 1975 30 mins
Tightfisted Fred gets a ghostly wake-up call in this spoof of "A Christmas Carol."
Episode 13
The Oddfather
Fri, Jan 2, 1976 30 mins
Fred is wounded while witnessing a mob hit and is hospitalized under police protection until he can identify Mr. Big.
Episode 14
Can You Chop This?
Fri, Jan 9, 1976 30 mins
Fred plans to get rich quick by selling Whopper Chopper food processors, using Lamont's acting school tuition money to make his initial investment.
Episode 15
Greatest Show in Watts
Fri, Jan 16, 1976 30 mins
Dan, one of the Sanford Arms tenants, is short of rent when his circus went out of business. In order to not be evicted, he offers Fred some of his circus items as collateral, including an elephant named Missy. Fred sees an opportunity to use Missy as a walking billboard to make a little extra cash on the side, but that is nearly thwarted when a police officer arrives to inform Fred that non-domesticated animals are illegal under a local ordinance. (A pathetic attempt to prove Missy is really a dog doesn't exactly fool the officer.) In order to circumvent the ordinance, Fred stages a circus in the yard, which allows the cast to display their own talents (especially La Wanda Page's "Bronze Goddess of Fire" act she was often known for). Shortly after, however, Dan returns with his back rent, and Fred's aspirations as an advertising entrepreneur are now sunk...or are they?
Episode 16
Fred Sanford Has a Baby
Fri, Jan 23, 1976 30 mins
Before Lamont leaves to go on a trip to Tijuana, he makes a $20 bet to Fred that he won't pull a profit on the business while he's gone. After he left, Fred gets the idea of renting out Lamont's room for the week he's gone (in kind of a primitive "Air BNB" if you will). After turning down a trucker who only wanted the room for a night, a very pregnant young woman answers the ad and stays there with Fred for the week, with only Donna and Bubba knowing. Unfortunately, despite her reassurance she would not be due at any point during that week, her water breaks and has to be taken to the hospital to deliver the baby. She and the baby are still staying at the house when Lamont comes home. After Donna explains everything to Lamont, he is none too pleased with Fred for not only renting the room out at all, but to a woman who might be there even longer. However, it turns out Fred may have saved her from harm when her husband comes to retrieve her, and explains that they fought the previous week, and he didn't stop her from leaving the house. This turns everything around for Fred and Lamont, and after the husband pays him for the room and he shows Lamont that he did make money while he was gone, he then gives the $20 back, then gives Lamont's bet payoff to them as well. In the end, Fred is named the Godfather of their baby, which he takes a bit to heart.
Episode 17
The TV Addict
Fri, Jan 30, 1976 30 mins
Fred's lifestyle of too much TV and too little exercise has Lamont concerned for his father's health, so Fred undergoes hypnotism to break his addiction to television.
Episode 18
Lamont in Love
Fri, Feb 6, 1976 30 mins
When Lamont falls in love with a mysterious woman, Fred and Esther play amateur sleuths to learn more about her.
Episode 19
The Escorts
Fri, Feb 13, 1976 30 mins
When Fred's friend Elroy can't find a date, Fred's inspired to launch his latest get rich quick scheme: an escort service for seniors.
Episode 20
The Engagement Man Always Rings Twice
Fri, Feb 20, 1976 30 mins
Lamont musters the courage to pop the question to Janet.
Episode 21
The Director
Fri, Feb 27, 1976 30 mins
Starstruck Fred assumes the director's chair when the champ George Foreman comes to star in a play for Lamont's theater workshop.
Episode 22
A Pain in the Neck
Fri, Mar 5, 1976 30 mins
Fred's friends have got his back, as he discovers when he suffers from a backache on the day he is to receive the Watts Businessman's award and his friends rush to his aid with all kinds of quack cures.
Episode 23
Sergeant Gork
Fri, Mar 12, 1976 30 mins
Fred regales young Roger with tall tales of his World war II exploits that draw more from the late movie than the history books.
Episode 24
The Camping Trip
Fri, Mar 19, 1976 30 mins
Lamont brings Fred along on a camping trip to have some solitude and quality time together. Fred is no friend of nature and does nothing but complain...when the truck won't start they are stranded and begin to reminisce about old times.