History Series / SanfordAndSon

* ShoutOut: Both ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' and ''Series/MissionImpossible'' in the 2 part "The Hawaiian Connection".

** An episode saw Lamont seek to ruin Fred's plan to marry Donna by having Donna meet her future in-laws, specifically Aunt Esther and co. With pronpting by Lamont, things swiftly escalate to near-violence. Lamont delivers an '''epic''' version of the trope when Esther declares "Her behind is MINE!!!" For added awesome points, the spit-take was unscripted and genuine on Demond Wilson's part.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: [[EthnicScrappy Julio Fuentes]], Grady, Bubba, Rollo and Aunt Esther

* SpotlightStealingSquad: [[EthnicScrappy Julio Fuentes]], Grady, Bubba and Aunt Esther

* TheToothHurts: Fred once went to great pains to avoid the dentist when troubled with a bad tooth, even specifically requesting a black dentist to treat it.

* SmartCopDumbCop: Smitty and Hoppy, in spades. Smitty is very much the StraightMan of the two, while Hoppy is more of a GeniusDitz who's unfamiliarity with slang makes him a {{Malaproper}}. In earlier seasons, their schtick would include [[MathematiciansAnswer Hoppy trying to explain a situation to Fred and Lamont using a lot of police jargon and terminology]], prompting Smitty to "translate" for them in simpler, easier-to-understand words. Later, however, the routine was mostly Smitty constantly correcting Hoppy's misuse or mispronunciation of [[JiveTurkey slang talk]] to relate to Fred and Lamont.

* ASimplePlan: Whenever Fred and Lamont don't go with the ZanyScheme approach, they usually do this instead. For example, Lamont once brought home a rifle hoping to sell it, but Fred accidentally shot it at the their neighbor's house, and they worry that they might've killed theie neighbor.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Possibly the TropeNamer; the episode has an old friend of Fred's claim that he had a one night stand with Elizabeth and that he's actually Lamont's father. Another friend of Fred's actually says the trope name verbatim. At the end it turns out that the guy actually slept with Aunt Esther, and thought it was Elizabeth in the dark.

* InformedJudaism: Explored in "Funny, You Don't Look It", when Fred has his family tree researched, and he believes that he's descended from Ethiopian Falasha Jews, and possibly descended from King Solomon. Later on, Fred goes down to a Jewish bookstore and finds out that the family crest is bogus. Later on, even though he's not revealed to be Jewish, Fred, Lamont, Bubba, and Esther close the episode by discussing the cultural similarities between Africans and Jews.

* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: When Fred and Grady are having an argument:
-->'''Grady''': I ain't givin' you nothing, you stubborn, bull-headed, old buzzard.\\
'''Fred''': Who you calling old?

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: When Fred is in St. Louis, Grady chases off some of Lemont's friends with a rifle. When Lemont talks to him about it the next day, Grady says he didn't load it and holds up a cartridge, then starts pointing it at the ceiling and says "you sure can scare people with an empty rifle", pulling the trigger in the process and shooting the ceiling, which startles Grady enough to let go of the rifle and flail his arms around.

** Both Bubba and Lamont each also have, "The Big One" at least once - Bubba when and Fred both see what appears to be Lamont strangling a white woman to death, and Lamont when Fred actually brings Lena Horne to the house; Lamont even says, "I'm coming, Mom! Your boy's coming to join you... with a mustache!"

* HistoryWithCelebrity: In "Fred Sings The Blues", Fred meets Music/BBKing, and finds evindence that he may have wanted to marry Elizabeth before Fred got to her. It later turns out that King was going steady with ''Esther'', and became a blues singer after they broke up.

* GameShowAppearance: Fred, Lamont and Bubba appear on Fred's favorite show - ''Series/TheGongShow''.
** Fred, Bubba and Grady also appeared on a ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'' {{Expy}} called ''Wheel And Deal'' to win a prize for Fred to give to Lamont for his birthday.
* GayBarReveal: Rollo inadvertently leads Lamont to one in one episode; with an already-irritated Lamont even more furious upon the discovery. [[MistakenForGay Unfortunately for them]]; Bubba spotted them coming from said gay bar while on a date of his own.
* GiantSpider: Fred and Lamont go camping, where at one point, Fred finds a big-ass spider hiding in his coat pocket.

* {{Gonk}}: Fred has made numerous jokes about how "ugly" Aunt Esther is.

* FromMyOwnPersonalGarden: Grady serves a dinner with food served from the garden he's been growing. He doesn't realize that marijuana has supposedly been growing in the garden and he mixes it in with the salad and invites two cops to have dinner. HilarityEnsues. [[spoiler: It turns out that the greens were actually wild parsley.]]

* GayBarReveal: Rollo inadvertently leads Lamont to one in one episode; with an already-irritated Lamont even more furious upon the discovery. [[MistakenForGay Unfortunately for them]]; Bubba spotted them coming from said gay bar while on a date of his own.

* FromMyOwnPersonalGarden: Grady serves a dinner with food served from the garden he's been growing. He doesn't realize that marijuna has been growing in the garden and he mixes it in with the salad and invites two cops to have dinner. HilarityEnsues.

* {{Expy}}: Not only is the entire series this for the British sitcom ''Series/SteptoeAndSon'', but Norman Lear intended Fred himself to be the black expy of [[Series/AllInTheFamily Archie Bunker]].

* WhiteDudeBlackDude: Officers Hoppy (and Swanhauser, whom he replaced) and Smitty.

* TheChessmaster: In "Pot Luck", Lamont buys a chamber pot from a woman for $20, only for her husband Mr. Osborne to object to Lamont's unscrupulous sales tactic of talking the wife out of selling the piece for a low price and then raising the resale price, with Lamont believing it's worth more than that because it supposedly once belonged to the Prince of Wales, and the man reluctantly offers $200 to buy back the chamber pot. Later on, Mr. Bonnet[[note]]Pronounced "Bo-NAY"[[/note]], a rare globe-trotting antiques dealer comes by, offering $900 to buy the chamber pot Lamont acquired and that Osborne offered $200 to buy back. In the midst of the shady wheeling and dealing, Lamont discovers that Mr. Osborne and Mr. Bonnet are in cahoots, with Lamont paying $300 to buy it off of Osborne, with the original $200 check being bounced by the bank, and Bonnet has left the country, with the contact number belonging to a [=McDonald's=] restaurant, and the deal falls through, with Fred explaining that Osborne and Bonnet are running a fake chamber pot racket, with Fred hiring an antiques appraiser to find that the commode is worth $20 because it's a cheap reproduction being circulated throughout the neighborhood, and as a result, Lamont wrote a $300 check to Osborne, and the $200 check Lamont deposited is refused by the bank, with Lamont losing $320 dollars on the deal for a worthless chamber pot.

* NWordPrivileges: But usually not in first-run network episodes or [[EditedForSyndication syndication]]. And Fred's attacks on other ethnic and minority groups that got big laughs in the 1970's would never fly today. [[AcceptableEthnicTargets Or would they?]]
** Presently, TV One, [=GetTV=], and Starz [=EBlack=] broadcasts of the show leave Fred's (and occasional other characters') use of the N-word intact.

* NWordPrivileges: But usually not in first-run network episodes or [[EditedForSyndication syndication]]. And Fred's attacks on other ethnic and minority groups that got big laughs in the 1970's [[OnceAcceptableTargets would never fly today]]. [[AcceptableEthnicTargets Or would they?]]

* PlayingGertrude: Whitman Mayo was only 40 when he portrayed Grady Wilson.
** Redd Foxx himself was only 50 when he played Fred Sanford.