Good Times is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television’s first African American two-parent family sitcom. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which itself is a spin-off of All in the Family, arguably making Good Times the first television spin-off from another spin-off.
In September 2020, it was announced that the series would receive an animated sitcom revival produced with Norman Lear executive producing alongside Seth MacFarlane and Steph Curry for Netflix.
Florida and James (renamed from Henry) Evans and their three children live at 721 North Gilbert Avenue, apartment 17C, in a public housing project in a poor, black neighborhood in inner-city Chicago. The project is unnamed on the show but is implicitly the infamous Cabrini–Green Homes, shown in the opening and closing credits. Florida and James have three children: James Jr., also known as “J.J.”, a budding artist and illustrator who thinks of himself as a “Casanova” type and achieves both success and rejection on his path to monetize his talent into a career; Thelma, a very bright girl who takes education very seriously as she sees it as a way to help her family and is shown attending high school and community college over the course of the series; and Michael, whose passionate activism and support for the Black community and Black issues cause his father to call him “the militant midget.”
When the series begins, J.J. is 17 (portrayed by 26-year-old Jimmie Walker, who was just eight years younger than co-star John Amos), Thelma is 16, and Michael is 11. Their exuberant neighbor and Florida’s best friend is Willona Woods, a recent divorcée who works at a boutique. Their building superintendent is Nathan Bookman (seasons 2–6), who James, Willona, and later J.J. refer to as “Buffalo Butt” or, even more derisively, “Booger.”
The characters originated on the sitcom Maude as Florida and Henry Evans, with Florida employed as Maude Findlay’s housekeeper in Tuckahoe, New York, and Henry employed as a New York City firefighter. When producers decided to feature the Florida character in her own show, they changed the characters’ history to fit a new series that was well into development rather than start from scratch to create a consistent starring vehicle. Henry’s name became James, and he worked various odd jobs, there was no mention of Maude but it was mentioned that Florida was a maid once before in the episode ‘The Checkup’ and the couple lived in Chicago.
Episodes of Good Times deal with the characters’ attempts to overcome poverty, living in high-rise public housing in Chicago. James Evans often works at least two jobs, mostly manual labor such as dishwasher, construction laborer, etc. Though he is often unemployed, he is a proud man who will not accept charity. He sometimes hustles money playing pool, although Florida disapproves of this.
(Ja’Net DuBois) (1976)
Episodes
Final seasons
By the end of season four, Rolle had also become dissatisfied with the show’s direction and decided to leave the series. In the two-part season finale, “Love Has a Spot On His Lung,” Florida gets engaged to Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn), a man she began dating toward the end of season four. In the season five premiere episode, “The Evans Get Involved Part 1,” it is revealed that Florida and Carl married off-screen and moved to Arizona for the sake of Carl’s health. With Amos and Rolle gone, DuBois took over as lead actor, as Willona checked in on the Evans children since they were now living alone.
In season five, Janet Jackson joined the cast, playing Penny Gordon, an abused girl, abandoned by her mother, and eventually adopted by Willona. During that season, Johnny Brown’s character of Nathan Bookman, the Evans’ superintendent, became more prominent. At the beginning of the fifth season, Brown became a series regular and was included in the opening credits. Ratings began to decline. It was clear to the producers as well as viewers that Rolle’s absence had left the series without a much-needed unifying center of attention.
Before the taping of season six began, CBS and the show’s producers decided that they had to do “something drastic” to increase viewership. According to then-vice president of CBS programming Steve Mills, “We had lost the essence of the show. Without parental guidance, the show slipped. Everything told us that: our mail, our phone calls, our research. We felt we had to go back to basics.”
Producers approached Rolle with an offer to appear in a guest role on the series. Rolle was initially hesitant, but when producers agreed to a number of her demands (including an increased salary and higher-quality scripts), she agreed to return to the series on a full-time basis. Rolle also wanted producers to make the character of J.J. more responsible, as she felt the character was a poor role model for African-American youths. She also requested that producers write out the character of Carl Dixon; Rolle reportedly disliked the storyline surrounding the Carl Dixon character, as she believed Florida would not have moved on so quickly after James’s death or left her children. Rolle also thought the writers had disregarded Florida’s devout Christian beliefs by having her fall for and marry Carl, who was an atheist.
In the season six premiere episode “Florida’s Homecoming: Part 1,” Florida returns from Arizona without Carl to attend Thelma’s upcoming wedding to professional football player Keith Anderson (Ben Powers, who joined the cast for the final season). In a rare uncut version of “Florida’s Homecoming: Part 2,” after Florida arrives home from Arizona, Willona briefly pulls her aside and mentions Carl, to which Florida sadly smiles and shakes her head, implying that Carl had died from cancer. Florida later mentions Carl one last time when she tells Michael about a book they’d both bought him.
Despite changes in the series at Rolle’s request and her return, plus the addition of Powers to the cast, ratings continued to fall and CBS canceled the series during the 1978–79 season. In the series finale episode “The End of the Rainbow,” each character finally gets a “happy ending.” J.J. gets his big break as a nationally syndicated artist for a comic book company with his newly created character, DynoWoman, which is based on Thelma (much to her surprise and delight) and is moving into an apartment with some lady friends.
Michael attends college and moves into an on-campus dorm. Keith’s bad knee heals due to his exercise and own physical therapy, leading to the Chicago Bears offering him a contract to play football. Keith announces that he and Thelma are moving into a luxury apartment in the city’s upscale Gold Coast district. Thelma also announces that she is pregnant with the couple’s first child.
Keith offers Florida the chance to move in with them so she can help Thelma with the new baby; Florida accepts the offer. Willona becomes the head buyer of the boutique, she walks in and announces that she and Penny are also moving out of the projects. Willona then reveals that her new apartment is in the same apartment building to which Keith, Thelma, and Florida are also moving; she and Penny become the Evanses’ downstairs neighbors.
Ratings
The program premiered in February 1974; high ratings led CBS to renew the program for the 1974–75 season, as it was the seventeenth-highest-rated program that year. During its first full season on the air, the show was the seventh-highest-rated program in the Nielsen ratings, with more than 25% of all American households tuning into an episode each week. Three of the top ten highest-rated programs on American TV that season centered on the lives of African-Americans: Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons and Good Times. The Nielsen ratings for the series declined over time, partly because of its many time slot changes and the departure of John Amos.The ratings went down considerably when the show entered its final two seasons:
Broadcast and syndication
Cable network TV One aired reruns of the show since its launch on January 19, 2004. Good Times had also aired at various times on TV Land and on the Canadian specialty cable channel DejaView. Minisodes of the show are available for free on Crackle. Additionally, digital multicast network Antenna TV also aired episodes of the show until January 1, 2018, when GetTV, operated by Sony (which distributes the show), began airing the program. Good Times airs on GetTV with a TV-PG rating.
Most episodes run on TV One with a TV-G rating, with the lone exception being the season three episode “J.J. in Trouble,” in which J.J. fears he may have contracted an STD. That episode airs with a TV-14 rating, as well as the “parental guidance is suggested” slide that preceded the episode when it was originally broadcast on CBS. In the past, it aired on TV Land with a TV-PG rating.
As of March 27, 2023, episodes have been airing nightly on the Catchy Comedy (formerly Decades) digital retro TV network.
Home media
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 between February 2003 and August 2006, with a complete box set following the separate seasons on October 28, 2008. Season 1 was released on DVD in Region 4 on December 27, 2006. 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 Good Times. They have subsequently re-released the first four seasons on DVD. On September 1, 2015, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released Good Times: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
All episodes are available to stream on Peacock Premium.