When George Jefferson became financially successful, he moved his family — and what became The Jeffersons cast — to a “deluxe apartment in the sky” in Manhattan. So began each episode of The Jeffersons from its debut airing in 1975 until the last episode in 1985, becoming one of the longest running sitcoms in TV history with a beloved cast of characters.
The show’s famous opening theme song, “Movin’ On Up,” was sung by Ja’net DuBois and to this day, when we hear that tune, we can’t help but think of the episode when George Jefferson ran around flushing all the toilets in his apartment, signaling that his family had indeed, moved on up.
What was The Jeffersons about?
The spin-off series to All In The Family centered around George and Louise Jefferson, a prosperous Black couple who were able to move from Queens (where they lived next door to Archie and Edith Bunker) to Manhattan due to George’s successful dry cleaning chain.
Fans of Norman Lear’s All In The Family were entertained by George Jefferson’s version of the bigot Archie Bunker in many respects. Played by Sherman Hemsley, with Isabel Sanford as Louise, the sitcom tackled taboo subjects such as racism, gun control, alcoholism and more timely topics laced with humor.
Lear had commented once that The Jeffersons presented positive role models in an authentic and non-preachy way
Louise was the level headed and open-minded woman of the household who often had to reprimand George when his mouth got him into trouble (which was nearly every episode). For her efforts, Isabel Sanford was the first black actress to win the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Emmy Award.
Unfortunately, CBS never gave The Jeffersons a proper series send-off — In fact, Hemsley said he found out the show was cancelled by reading about it in the newspaper. Since the cast never got a chance to say goodbye, they reunited years later for a stage play based on the sitcom.
