It's times like these that we flock to our favorite form of comfort item. Something that is easily digestible. For me, a weird go-to of mine is the fifth season of Sanford and Son. And yes, I mean just the fifth season.
So fuck it, I didn't have any ideas left for this month, so let's talk about this random ass season from this random ass show that barely anyone talks about anymore. It's kind of strange to me how irrelevant old age sitcoms have become. Normally, most if not all old stuff has a way of staying in the lexicon of modern day. Wizard of Oz is over 80 years old, and people still evoke the imagery and make references to it. They don't do the same for Welcome Back Kotter or Maude. The really iconic ones like Brady Bunch don't even get so much as a post-ironic meme.
There will be a point where these shows will be lost in time with no way to access them. I write this as talks of HBO Max closing its doors are in the discourse. If something like that happen to streaming at a larger scale, the only way to officially watch anything would be through physical media. My grandfather's copy of season 5 of Sanford and Son he found randomly at a Flea Market may someday be the only season of Sanford and Son, but I digress.
Anyway, Sanford and Son was a formative show for me in both good ways and bad, and I feel that could be applied to Sanford and Son's impact on television in general. Aside from Amos 'n' Andy, this was basically the first black sitcom, predating seminal black shows like the Cosby Show, the Jeffersons, and Good Times.
For me, the show was the first time I was introduced to any kind of rough humor. You can imagine how earth shattering it is to be opened up to a new type of comedy. It's where slapstick turned into wry sarcasm and punchy take downs; it's when the expense isn't the physical well being but the act of being seen as a 'dummy.'
As a kid whose social skills were formed through mimicking television characters, Sanford and Son taught me how to be funny. The jokes I took from Sanford and Son was the first time I ever gotten immense positive attention from my peers. It's easily why I have such a sarcastic sense of humor now.
However, this would eventually bite me in the ass. Naturally when a kid starts receiving positive attention for one particular thing, he is encouraged to do only that one particular thing. Since that first laugh referencing Sanford and Son, I started to become more insulting, abrasive, and mean. I was a straight up asshole in middle school. There were a lot of hurt feelings and lessons learned the hard way. I thankfully softened up, but there is still remnants of that cornered tiger in there. Because that's what I was. I was an emotionally starved kid. I was desperate for attention. If the only way to survive my poor emotional well being was to claw at a few people now and again, I would.
This double edged sword effect was on my mind as I rewatched this show. The way the show made me a funny yet insensitive person is kind of how Sanford & Son impacted sitcoms as a whole.
It's a drastic heel turn to go from something like Brooklyn 99 to a show like Sanford and Son. These were the days of the height of boomer humor which has gotten increasingly taboo over the last few years. Jokes that called women fat and ugly, racial stereotypes, transphobic humor, and making light of things conservatives find malignant don't fly as well today. Not to mention the undercurrent of racism behind the scenes. The large bulk of the episodes were written by white men with only one Black man I found who is credited with writing more than five episodes. With a Black show made through a mostly white lens, the show gives a mixed feeling. Is Sanford and Son just a funny show about two black men trying to get by or is this is white America way of saying the Black experience is just opportunistic lazy men pulling any scheme to make a quick buck. In either case, it's doesn't change the fact that Sanford and Son is a victim of its time, and it would take decades for shows since to break out of the mold of conservative humor and dated ideals of inclusivity.
It's hard then to be journalistic with Sanford and Son. I can forgive its bad boomer humor and racial context because I am pretty desensitized to it from my constant revisits of the show growing up. I can't possibly be objective to say a Gen Z audience who may find the jokes to be an absolute deal breaker.
That said, part of critique is relaying one's own unique human experience to help convey the quality of the show. One can't be truly objective but maybe giving your audience insight into yourself can be just as invaluable as analyzing technique. In short, everything up to this point is just a long disclaimer as to why for the rest of this review I am going to be describing a show that doesn't necessarily deserve it as "good."
But anyway, now I can actually talk about the show.
For those who haven't yet googled the show as I was rambling about my insecure isolated childhood, Sanford and Son is a 70s sitcom about a father and son who run a junk business. Very quickly you will realize that premise does nothing more than provide a set of characters and a three room set. The show could have been two guys running a bagel shop and wouldn't have any additional impact to the story.
What the story is actually about is Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) trying to find ways not to work in the junk business by doing various get rich quick schemes while his son Lamont (Demond Wilson) scolds him but ultimately does nothing to change the outcome of the story. In season 5, for example, Fred Sanford tries to run a Japanese takeout store, creates a circus act, gets roped into a pyramid scheme, and starting a dating escort service.
If there is one thing that endures even to this day is that the attitude of this show is super infectious. Say what you will about the regressiveness the sarcasm can bring, particularly towards women and other minority groups. There is a genuine edge that rarely exists in TV anymore. It's the type of sarcasm that has a real danger. This isn't this safe Tumblr shit of anonymously posting clap backs with no real consequence. This is in your face put downs.
It also highlights the undiscussed catharsis being mean can be sometimes. People will empathize to the point of compassion fatigue, so it feels like a release to once indulge in a little razor tongue.
That said, the show doesn't hold up writing wise. It's your average classic sitcom. There is a situation that has almost no impact to the arc of the characters. It's painfully simple.
I guess if I had to give some credit. The situations are clever enough to bring the humor out of the characters. A bank robbery hostage plot may not be great for some sitcoms, but it is great putting a neurotic old man in.
So that's Sanford and Son. Would I recommend it? Probably not. I don't know. My brain is mush.
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