During season 4 of Sanford & Son, someone at NBC thought that Fred's pal, Grady Wilson (Whitman Mayo) was worthy of carrying his own show. Truth is, he would've been the last choice for a spin-off.
Grady bowed as a mid-season replacement in December 1975, and lasted just 3 months. If memory serves me correctly, the show aired in back of Sanford & Son, which should've formed a pretty formidible sitcom tandem for NBC. Nuh-uh. Not happening, brother.
A quick check of the supporting cast sees two players who went on to better things. Haywood Nelson, for example, landed a starring role on What's Happening!, which was also produced by Saul Turtletaub & Bernie Orenstein, only for ABC. Joe Morton would later resurface in the 80's in films like "Crossroads" & "The Brother From Another Planet", and then turned up in "Blues Brothers 2000" in the late 90's, alongside Dan Aykroyd & John Goodman. After the series ended, Grady would rejoin his buddy Fred (Redd Foxx) on Sanford & Son for the rest of the series' run.
So who could've been a better choice to be spun off? Bubba (Don Bexley)? Nope. He'd have had the same problem as Grady. Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page)? Well, maybe, but it would take another decade for a sitcom that would've fit her like a glove to come along (Amen). Truth is, Lamont (Demond Wilson) would've been the only rational, logical choice to move on to his own show, but the producers and the network didn't see it that way. Wilson would headline 2 more sitcoms post-Sanford, including an urban-centric remake of The Odd Couple, but neither one lasted any longer than Grady did.
Here's the open to Grady. If the music sounds remotely familiar, it might be because a similar melody was used for What's Happening!'s theme song.
No rating. Never saw the show.
Never saw the show either but I seem to remember the backdoor pilot being related to Grady's daughter and grandson needing him to help out.
ReplyDeleteYou're right in that giving a spinoff for a fringe character like Grady wouldn't work. I can see Aunt Esther working in an "Amen" type series though! Ironic that Demond Wilson was the one given the heave ho towards the end of Sanford & Son and the followup - "Sanford". IIRC, the character went to work on the Alaskan Pipeline.
I was involved with outside activities by that point, and missed the last couple of seasons of Sanford & Son, so now I know what happened to Lamont. Meh.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about the pilot episode, though. I do recall that.