for someone who suppose to be a very progressive liberal, lear created a show that showed a poor ghetto black family living in the projects, originally fatherless, why not create a cosby style show, there were black families that lived a normal middle class life back then.
shareWell they kind of did that with the Jeffersons a year later. Only difference was Lionel wasn't a young child.
Good Times was based off of Raisin in the Sun and Eric Monte and Mike Evans' (Lionel from The Jeffersons) upbringing. Norman Lear definitely wasn't the only person behind Good Times.
Monte grew up in the Cabrini Green housing projects like the Evanses. He also wrote the screenplay for "Cooley High" and helped develop the show "What's Happening?". Some of the "Good Times" stories were inspired by his own life.
Annoying the world since 1960!
Also there was a difference in Florida Evans from Maude and Florida Evans from Good Times and a difference in the writing.
Where as Maude, the Jeffersons and All in the Family found the humor and hypocrisy of both sides Good Times relied on gag jokes.
What he should have done is write the show to be about how to get OUT of the ghetto. all these people did was whine about being in the ghetto this and 'you are discriminating against me because I live in the ghetto' that, they never really delved into HOW to get out of the ghetto...
saving money.
using money wisely.
'easy credit rip offs' -fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
then, of course you need people to be able to STAY out of the ghetto.
Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.