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 6 Episode Guide
25 Episodes 1976 - 1978
Episode 1
The Hawaiian Connection: Part 1
Fri, Sep 24, 1976 30 mins
Luring Fred and Lamont to Hawaii, a trio of jewel thieves plot to make Fred their mule for smuggling stolen diamonds to California.
Episode 2
The Hawaiian Connection: Part 2
Fri, Oct 1, 1976 30 mins
Fred and Lamont visit Hawaii tourist attractions while running for their lives from the jewel thieves.
Episode 3
California Crude
Fri, Oct 8, 1976 30 mins
While Fred and Lamont are digging a garden, oil is discovered underground at the junk yard. Fred sees millions but before any money can be paid it must first be tested.
Episode 4
The Stakeout
Fri, Oct 15, 1976 30 mins
The police are looking for a fence named Alex Hacker who's been spotted coming in and out of The Sanford Arms. They use Fred and Lamont's home to stakeout the Arms. Meanwhile, Fred has a crush on a new lady tenant.
Episode 5
I Dream of Choo Choo Rabinowitz
Fri, Oct 22, 1976 30 mins
Fred is determined to break Choo Choo Rabinowitz's official world record for the longest amount of time staying awake.
Episode 6
The Winning Ticket
Fri, Nov 5, 1976 30 mins
A man selling signs comes by and talks Fred into having a contest to try to bring business in. The trick, he says, is to not have a winner, which Fred already knows is illegal, but is talked into it when he is explained that, when it comes to having to have a list of who won a contest, "who really looks at those things?" Fred not only buys the sign, but wants the prize money raised from $200 to $500. Little does he know that the salesperson and a sidekick are con-men who will already have the winning ticket. Although they don't make enough to cover the winnings, Fred confides in Lamont the whole plan. On the day of the contest, Fred gets a rude awakening when the sign man's sidekick shows he has the winning ticket...and is threatening to get the police involved if they don't pay up. Lamont then shows how much of a bind they're in when he realizes how easy it is to obtain the tickets Fred bought, and how they *can't* go to the police because Fred himself broke the law. However, Fred does find a way out of this...at the expense of Aunt Esther. Does Fred learn his lesson?
Episode 7
Committee Man
Fri, Nov 12, 1976 30 mins
Soon after Fred is appointed to serve on a mayor's committee he is sought out by a slumlord offering a bribe for political favors.
Episode 8
Fred's Extra Job
Fri, Nov 19, 1976 30 mins
Fred works nights as a bus boy in a fancy restaurant so he can begin paying back the $6,000 bank loan he took out in order to give Lamont an impressive wedding gift.
Episode 9
Carol
Fri, Nov 26, 1976 30 mins
Fred's old friend Carol shows up after 40 years, stirring up memories and sparking a flashback to the Summer of 1936 when Fred was a pool hustler in Cleveland.
Episode 10
Aunt Esther Has a Baby
Fri, Dec 3, 1976 30 mins
Esther and Woody plan to be parents for the first time, but for it to happen Esther is going to need Fred's help.
Episode 11
Aunt Esther Meets Her Son
Fri, Dec 10, 1976 30 mins
Esther and Woody welcome their son Daniel, but quickly discover they must practice the forgiveness that Esther preaches.
Episode 12
Sanford and Gong
Fri, Dec 17, 1976 30 mins
Lamont brings Fred four tickets to a taping of The Gong Show. Besides Lamont, Fred invites Donna and Bubba. After a charade when making room for all of them to sit together in the audience, Fred then makes a scene expressing his opinions of the contestants (making Bubba laugh, but angering Lamont and Donna). Afterwards, Fred decides to enlist Lamont and his brother-in-law, Rodney, to do an act on the show. However, Rodney has his own aspirations to be on the show; as an opera singer by the name of Raymond C. Gordon (as Rodney has a gambling debt to pay off). When he finds out both he and Fred's act will be on the same show, he feigns a back injury to get out of being in Fred's act. On the day of the show, Fred enlists the soft-shod Bubba to take Rodney's place. Throwing the gong mallets out of the judge's reach proves to help as he is rated the highest in the show up to this point, with only Raymond C. Gordon (Rodney) left. Fred finds him so bad, that he picks up a mallet and gongs him out himself. While Fred and company do win, it wound up sort of a Pyrrhic victory as Rodney got sick for real from his singing and the prize money was used for his doctors bills.
Episode 13
Here Today, Gone Today
Fri, Jan 7, 1977 30 mins
After Fred and Lamont go out to see a movie, "The Incredible Shrinking Fungus," they return to the house...to find all the furniture and just about everything else in the living room had been stolen. After Fred eliminates some obvious suspects (like the always suspicious to him Rollo), he and Lamont make a police report. While Lamont was gone to possibly identify his furniture among police evidence, Fred calls his insurance company to file a claim (which was nearly thwarted when Fred tried inflating the value of the stuff to get a bigger settlement). When Lamont returns, he finds the house refurnished and redecorated with all new snazzy furniture and decorations. Unfortunately, this is where Lamont had to break it to Fred as to what really happened to the furniture (it was all taken to be refurbished and reupholstered for his 40th anniversary in business), and only the possibility of being jailed for insurance fraud makes Fred reconsider his purchase and claim. The fun wasn't over yet when their truck was stolen with all that furniture still in it. However, it was Rollo who took it, but only to have their sign on the door redone up, and have a new CB radio installed, and also to sell the furniture to a relative for almost as much money as the settlement (which the claims adjuster, who had been called over to explain the misunderstanding, accepts back). With all the problems and misunderstandings finally ironed out, it turned out to be a wonderful 40th anniversary celebration after all.
Episode 14
Fred Meets Redd
Fri, Jan 14, 1977 30 mins
The fourth wall falls when Fred enters NBC's Redd Foxx look-alike contest and eagerly anticipates meeting his idol face to face.
Episode 15
The Defiant One
Fri, Jan 21, 1977 30 mins
Rehearsing his magic act, Grady snaps a pair of trick shackles onto Fred and Esther, only to discover the instructions for removing them are printed in Chinese.
Episode 16
A Matter of Silence
Fri, Jan 28, 1977 30 mins
Lamont fears Fred is going deaf, and Fred is content to play along and milk sympathy from Lamont and Donna.
Episode 17
When John Comes Marching Home
Fri, Feb 4, 1977 30 mins
Lamont's engagement to Janet is jeopardized by the unexpected return of her ex-husband John.
Episode 18
The Reverend Sanford
Fri, Feb 11, 1977 30 mins
To avoid paying taxes, Fred buys a mail-order clergy ordination and transforms his home into the Chapel on the Junkpile for the church of the Seventh-Day Junkists.
Episode 19
The Will
Fri, Feb 18, 1977 30 mins
Fred suffers amnesia after being bludgeoned with Esther's silver-plated Bible. Having looked death in the face, Fred wants to get his affairs in order and so prepares his last will and testament and summons his friends for its reading.
Episode 20
Fred the Activist
Fri, Feb 25, 1977 30 mins
Angered by the age discrimination policy of a local stereo dealer, Fred rallies a troop of Gray Foxes and leads the charge to change the policy.
Episode 21
The Lucky Streak
Fri, Mar 4, 1977 30 mins
The Sanfords receive a letter from the bank stating their option to buy the Sanford Arms outright. However, in order to do so, they must come up with $4000 by noon that Friday, or they lose the property to an awaiting buyer. Lamont is ready to concede the property over to the bank when Fred steps in and makes a plan to take their entire savings account balance of $500 and bet it until he reaches $4000. He does this by inviting some card sharps over for a night of poker, garnering him an extra $100. Next it's off to the horse-races, where he wins a 2-1 bet to bring the total to $1800. Finally it's off to Las Vegas to try to get the rest of the money. Will Fred be a big enough winner to save The Sanford Arms, or does he come back a big loser?
Episode 22
Funny, You Don't Look It
Fri, Mar 11, 1977 30 mins
Inspired by Alex Haley's "Roots," Fred orders a family crest and genealogical scroll that states he's African royalty and a descendant of the Jewish Ethiopian Falashas.
Episode 23
Fred Sings the Blues
Fri, Mar 18, 1977 30 mins
Aspiring songwriter Fred invites B.B. King to dinner, but panics upon reading in the blues legend's biography that the singer has sworn to get even with the man who long ago stole his St. Louis sweetheart "E.W.", a woman matching Elizabeth's description.
Episode 24
School Daze
Fri, Mar 25, 1977 30 mins
For a month Fred and Bubba have been sneaking out at night, concerning family and friends and leading Donna to fear that Fred has fallen for another woman.
Episode 25
Family reunion
Fri, Jun 30, 1978