The Jeffersons is an American sitcom television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The Jeffersons is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history, the second-longest-running series with a primarily African American cast by episode count behind Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and the first to prominently feature a married interracial couple.
The show focuses on George and Louise Jefferson, a prosperous black couple who have been able to move from Queens to Manhattan owing to the success of George’s dry-cleaning chain, Jefferson Cleaners. The show was launched as the second (and longest-running) spin-off of All in the Family, on which the Jeffersons had been the neighbors of Archie and Edith Bunker. The show was the creation of Norman Lear. The Jeffersons eventually evolved into more of a traditional sitcom, but episodes occasionally focused on serious issues such as alcoholism, racism, suicide, gun control, being transgender, the KKK, and adult illiteracy. The epithets nigger and honky were used occasionally, especially during the earlier seasons.
The Jeffersons had one spin-off, titled Checking In. The series was centered on the Jeffersons’ housekeeper, Florence, who takes a job as a cleaning manager at a hotel. Checking In lasted only four episodes, after which Florence returned to The Jeffersons with the story that the hotel had burned down in a fire. The Jeffersons also shared continuity with the sitcom E/R, which featured Lynne Moody, who made a guest appearance in one episode of The Jeffersons. Sherman Hemsley guest-starred as George in two episodes of the series, which lasted for one season. The cancellation of The Jeffersons cleared the way for Marla Gibbs, who played Florence Johnston on the series, to move on to the NBC sitcom 227 in the fall of 1985, a year earlier than scheduled.
The Jeffersons ended in controversy after CBS abruptly canceled the series without allowing for a proper series finale. The cast was not informed until after the July 2, 1985, episode, “Red Robins”; actor Sherman Hemsley, who portrayed George Jefferson, said he learned that the show was canceled by reading it in the newspaper. Isabel Sanford (Louise Jefferson), who heard about the cancellation through her cousin who read it in the tabloids, publicly stated that she found the cancellation with no proper finale to be disrespectful on the network’s part. Per an article in May 8, 1985, Los Angeles Times, the series was canceled by announcement at the CBS network “upfront” presentation the day before, nearly two months before the airing of the final episode. Actor Franklin Cover, who played Tom Willis, also heard about the cancellation while watching Entertainment Tonight.
The cast reunited in a stage play based on the sitcom. In season 5 episode 17 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, titled “Will Is from Mars” (1995), the Jeffersons made a guest appearance as a couple in therapy class. In the 1996 series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Jeffersons made a guest appearance as the buyers of the Banks family house. In an episode of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne in 2011, Sherman Hemsley and Marla Gibbs reprised their roles of George Jefferson and Florence Johnston.
In 1985, Hemsley and Sanford made a special joint guest appearance in the Canale 5 comedy show Grand Hotel, starring the Italian actors Paolo Villaggio, the comic duo Franco & Ciccio, and Carmen Russo. They were guests in the fictional hotel and their voices were dubbed by Italian actors Enzo Garinei (George) and Isa di Marzio (Louise), who also dubbed their characters for the full series. As of 2022, the members still alive from the main cast include Marla Gibbs, Berlinda Tolbert, and Damon Evans.
The Jeffersons changed time slots at least 15 different times during its 11-year run, unusual for a popular long-running series.The most common time slot was on Sunday night.
In its first season (1974–75), the show ranked at number four, surpassed by its parent series All in the Family (which landed at number one for the fifth year in a row). The show’s ratings for the following two seasons placed it in the Top 30, but during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons (the show’s fourth and fifth seasons), it fell out of the top 30, ranking 52nd in Season 4 and 49th in Season 5.
It returned to the Top 10 in 1979–80, and at the end of the 1981–82 season, The Jeffersons finished third overall, only surpassed by fellow CBS series Dallas and 60 Minutes. As a result, the series remained among the Top 20 for the next two seasons.
The Jeffersons received 14 Emmy Award nominations during its time on the air. Marla Gibbs was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series each year from 1981 to 1985. Sherman Hemsley was nominated for Best Actor in 1984. Larry M. Harris won the Emmy for Outstanding Video Tape Editing for a Series in 1983.
Isabel Sanford was nominated for seven consecutive Best Actress Emmys, from 1979 until 1985. Her victory in 1981 made her the first African-American actress to win an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, and the second to win an Emmy Award; Gail Fisher, who played Peggy on the TV show Mannix, preceded her in 1970. Sanford was also the recipient of five of the eight Golden Globe Awards nominations the program received.
On May 22, 2019, ABC broadcast Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons, produced by Lear and Jimmy Kimmel and starring Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, Kerry Washington, Ellie Kemper. Marla Gibbs reprised her role as Florence Johnston.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first six seasons of The Jeffersons on DVD in Region 1 between 2002 and 2007.
On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including The Jeffersons. They subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD on May 20, 2014.
On August 8, 2014, it was announced that Shout! The factory had acquired the rights to the series; they subsequently released the complete series on DVD in a 33-disc collection on December 9, 2014.
On April 28, 2015, Shout! released season 7 on DVD in Region 1. Season 8 was released on August 11, 2015.
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