‘The Jeffersons’ were movin’ on up in the ’70s: About the vintage TV show, plus the opening credits
The Jeffersons take ‘a piece of the pie’
By Carol Terry, Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, New York) June 8, 1975
“Moving on up to the East Side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky — Movin’ on up to the East Side, finally got a piece of the pie.”
The opening theme song of The Jeffersons” (CBS, Saturday nights) is a poignant reminder that George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford) and their son Lionel (Mike Evans) once lived in a blue-collar neighborhood, where they were next-door neighbors of the Archie Bunkers.
In the “All in the Family” spinoff series, the Jeffersons now have a successful chain of dry cleaning stores, and are making it with Manhattan’s upper-middle-class, where “fish don’t fry in the kitchen, beans don’t burn on the grill.”“The Jeffersons,” a brainchild of Norman Lear, is the third Black show in the Lear stable of six shows now on the air. It is also the highest on the socio-economic ladder, along with “Maude,” the other upper-middle class family spinoff of “All in the Family.” The Bunkers and the black Evans family of “Good Times” are both on the lower-middle-income level.
“Sanford and Son,” who are junk dealers, and the characters in “Hot l Baltimore” are comparatively lower class economically. Sandwiched between “All in the Family” as lead-in and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” both of which are top-rated shows, “The Jeffersons” has ranged from fourth to ninth place in the Nielsens since its Jan. 18 premiere.