![]() Later in the series, a very young Janet Jackson of the musical Jackson Family fame joined the cast as Wilona's adopted daughter. ![]() A fortyish woman named Wilona (Ja'net Dubois) made frequent appearances as the Evans's supportive neighbor. In addition to the Florida character and James ( John Amos), her frequently unemployed, but looking-for-work husband, the cast of Good Times included their teenage son, J.J., portrayed by comedian Jimmie Walker their grown daughter, Thelma (Bernadette Stanis) and an adolescent son, Michael, portrayed with gusto by a talented young Ralph Carter. The program exploited, with comic relief, such volatile issues as inflation, unemployment, discrimination, and the apparent reluctance of the government to do anything about them. Good Times was also unique in its funny but sometimes poignant portrayal of an African-American family eking out an existence in a high-rise tenement apartment in an urban Chicago slum. The appearance of Good Times is noteworthy in that, along with The Jeffersons and Sanford and Son, it was one of the first prime-time television sitcoms featuring a mostly African-American cast since the controversial Amos 'n' Andy show had been canceled amid a firestorm of protest in 1953. Their black housekeeper, Florida, was portrayed by veteran actress Esther Rolle, who was chosen to star as Florida Evans in Good Times. Good Times was developed as a spin-off of the earlier hit show Maude, which starred Bea Arthur and Bill Macy, and featured the sometimes controversial machinations of a well-appointed, middle-aged, married couple. ![]() Good Times, along with Maude, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and television's most controversial sitcom All in the Family, was the creation of independent producer Norman Lear, whose programs, built on confrontational and ethnic-style humor, helped revolutionize prime-time television during the 1970s. It stretched the boundaries of television comedy and provided a different view, not only of black family life, but of the social fabric of 1970s American society in general. The show is regarded as perhaps the first in prime-time television to tackle such issues with any measure of realism. In Good Times, which aired on CBS from February 1974 to August 1979, suburban street crime, muggings, unemployment, evictions, Black Power, and criticism of the government were frequent and resounding themes. While the story lines of 1950s and early 1960s television sitcoms provided little more than cautious counsel on the minor vicissitudes of family life, the decade of the 1970s ushered in what came to be known as the era of relevancy in television programming. Throughout its initial success and later criticism, sitcom Good Times revolutionized prime-time television.
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