While some were experimental and only lasted a season or two, others were different. Black audiences were eager to have shows about them, or at least shows where they were featured as the unquestioned main character. Soon sitcoms like The Jeffersons and Sanford and Son were simultaneously in the Top 10 most-viewed shows, spawning some classic sitcom episodes that are still great.
10Roll Out Focused On A Majority Black Army Supply Crew In World War II
Unfortunately, these differences weren’t enough to draw attention to Roll Out, though, especially when it had strong competition on the other networks. It also didn’t have writing quite as brilliant as M*A*S*H*, leading to the series lasting a single season. The show was later replaced with the far more popular Good Times.
9Sanford Arms Tried To Bring Back Sanford And Son With The Supporting Cast
Sanford and Son is one of the funniest comedies, not just of the 70s, but of any era. So when Redd Foxx left Sanford and Son to do another show, NBC tried to create a spinoff to capture that same success. With Fred and Lamont written out of the show, the focus was instead on Fred’s old Army friend, Phil Wheeler.
8That’s My Mama Featured Several Actors Getting Their First Big Break
That’s My Mama was a sitcom launched in 1974 and ran for two seasons on ABC. The series starred legendary sitcom actor Clifton Davis as Clifton Curtis, a barber working in his family’s barbershop. While Curtis enjoys his life as a young man running his own barber shop, his plans are often derailed by his mother, who wants him to get married and settle down.
7Baby I’m Back Featured A Man Reappearing In His Family’s Life After Vanishing For Seven Years
Baby I’m Back was where Sanford and Son‘s Demond Wilson went after his time playing Lamont Sanford. The series started in 1978 and centered around Demond Wilson as Raymond Ellis. Raymond was a gambler who abandoned his family for so long that his wife had him declared legally dead.
When Ray learns his wife is getting remarried, he returns to Washington D.C. from California and has himself declared legally alive. Ray’s left to try and prove he can be a good husband and dad to his kids to keep his wife, Olivia. The series lasted only a single season, but only because Norman Lear had the show canceled in an attempt to get Good Times back on the air for one more season.
6What’s Happening Focused On A Trio Of High-School Teenagers In Watts
What’s Happening!! was lucky enough to appear at a time when ABC was in desperate need of some new television. Meant to be a sitcom version of the 1975 classic Cooley High, What’s Happening!! followed a trio of high school kids getting up to mostly harmless shenanigans in Watts: Raj, Dwayne, and Rerun.
What’s Happening!! was on-brand for sitcoms in the ’70s, with everyone needing a catchphrase or a gimmick, like Rerun’s dancing or Dwayne’s “Hey-hey-hey!” However, the likable cast carried the show, along with a pretty impressive run of guest star musicians and actors.
5Diff’rent Strokes Mixed Comedy With Serious Issues
Diff’rent Strokes became one of NBC’s key shows for several years before moving to ABC for its last two seasons. Fans loved watching Philip’s attempt to raise a new group of kids, and the kids’ struggle to learn how to live after leaving their home in Harlem and being pulled to Manhattan. The show had a habit of running multiple “special episodes” that focused on different serious issues in America, but that didn’t stop the series from being one of the funniest sitcoms of the ’70s.
4Benson Proved More Successful Than The Series It Spun Off From
Though the show started with the intelligent Benson working as head of household affairs, the series didn’t take long to start moving him up the ladder. Later seasons saw the character become Lieutenant-Governor, and the final season featured him running for governor. The most unfortunate part about the series being canceled after its seven seasons is that fans didn’t get to see Benson running everything as governor.
3Good Times Balanced Humor With Surviving Poverty
Good Times was groundbreaking, at least until the writers became carried away with the oldest son, “JJ,” who turned into a stereotypically “dumb” sitcom character. Though popular with the audience, the actors for both parental figures found JJ’s behavior a negative image for what was otherwise a positive black family portrayal. Still, the show ran for six seasons from 1974 to 1979.
2Sanford and Son Relied On A Cast Of Great Comedians
Based on the popular British sitcom Steptoe and Son, Sanford and Son was a smash hit for most of its time on television, consistently inside the top ten. Its success came from the genius talent of comedian Redd Foxx, who played the cantankerous Fred Sanford, a businessman operating a junk shop in Watts. Though Fred Sanford didn’t have the best personality, he was likable, thanks to Foxx’s portrayal.
Foxx, along with actor Demond Wilson, played off a number of other comedians that made up the supporting cast to create one of the funniest shows on television. However, the show’s ratings had plummeted by the sixth season. By that time, it had been dueling with ’70s juggernaut All in the Family for multiple seasons – proving the viability of the black sitcom several times over.
1The Jeffersons Is One Of The Longest-Running Black Sitcoms Ever
A spinoff of mega-hit series All in the Family, The Jeffersons wasn’t just one of the funniest black sitcoms, but one of the funniest sitcoms of the ’70s. The series was a massive departure from other black sitcoms of the era–the protagonists weren’t a struggling family, but rich enough to move into a high-rise apartment in Manhattan. It’s a sitcom concept that holds up today as well as it did back then: showing a marginalized group doing well for themselves.
Much like in All in the Family, the lead protagonist, George, had a habit of being a grouch who was still inexplicably surrounded by a loving family. A proven formula, The Jeffersons was arguably even more successful than All in the Family, running for eleven straight seasons from the ’70s all the way into the mid-’80s.
