Sanford and Son

John Elroy Sanford , better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best known for his starring role on the sitcom Sanford and Son. Foxx was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised there and on Chicago's South Side. His mother was half Seminole. His father, an... electrician, left his family when Foxx was four years old. Foxx was raised by his mother, his minister, and his grandmother. He briefly attended DuSable High School with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington. In the 1940s, he was an associate of Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X. In Malcolm's autobiography, Foxx is referred to as "Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth." Foxx earned the nickname due to his reddish hair and complexion. His stage surname was taken from baseball star Jimmie Foxx. During World War II, Foxx dodged the draft by eating half a bar of soap before his physical, a trick that resulted in heart palpitations. Foxx gained notoriety with his nightclub act .
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Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 BBC poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the US as Sanford and... Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert and in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon. In 1972 a movie adaptation of the series, Steptoe and Son, was released in cinemas, with a second Steptoe and Son Ride Again in 1973. The series focussed on the inter-generational conflict of father and son. Albert Steptoe, a "dirty old man", is an old rag and bone man, set in his grimy and grasping ways. By contrast his 37-year-old son Harold is filled with social aspirations, not to say pretensions. The show contained elements of drama and tragedy, as Harold was continually prevented from achieving his ambitions.
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Grady was an spin-off of the sitcom, Sanford and Son. In this series, Fred Sanford's widower friend Grady moves out of Watts and moves in with his daughter and her family in Westwood. Executive producer Norman Lear served as a consultant to the show. Redd Foxx made a special guest appearance as Fred Sanford in the second episode. The series never found a solid audience, and was canceled after 12 episodes. Whitman Mayo returned to Sanford and... Son and would go on to star in the revival series The Sanford Arms. * The date of this episode is uncertain. The pilot episode was repackaged as an episode of Sanford and Son and is a part of its syndication package. An episode of this series aired on TV Land during a Norman Lear tribute in 2003.
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