History Series / SanfordAndSon

* AccidentalMisnaming: In his early pre-{{retcon}} appearances, Grady repeatedly forgets Lamont's name and has to be prompted, despite the fact that Lamont is his godson and he is a frequent visitor to the Sanford home. Later, it is revealed that Lamont's middle name is in fact "Grady" and the {{running gag}} was dropped.

* AccidentalMisnaming: In his early post-{{retcon}} appearances, Grady repeatedly forgets Lamont's name and has to be prompted, despite the fact that Lamont is his godson and he is a frequent visitor to the Sanford home. Later, it is revealed that Lamont's middle name is in fact "Grady" and the {{running gag}} was dropped.

* {{Corpsing}}: It isn't unusual to see actors playing guest characters (and sometimes, even the regulars)struggle to keep a straight face during Fred, Esther, and/or Grady's antics.

* ElSpanishO: Done hilariously in the episode "Julio and Sister and Nephew", in which Julio's sister and nephew stay with him, but his nephew, Roberto, has problems at school, so Fred reluctantly tags along to translate the principal's words for them.

* AbsenteeActor:
** Foxx's salary-related departures derailed the show on several occasions, in one instance leading to Whitman Mayo's temporary elevation to lead actor.
** Demond Wilson also missed an occasional episode here and there... and ''both'' Foxx and Wilson were absent for "[[PoorlyDisguisedPilot The Family Man]]", the Season Four finale.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: So many, in fact, that they tried [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sanford_Arms a spin-off]] without the main characters.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Grady Wilson, who was eventually un-substituted and given a spinoff creatively entitled ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grady_(TV_series) Grady]]'' for all of four episodes.
** Aunt Ethel, by Aunt Esther, who was much fiercer than Ethel by a longshot.

* 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]][[ItIsPronouncedTroPay 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.

* AlohaHawaii: The two-part Season 6 episode "The Hawaiian Connection" has Fred and Lamont attending a ''[[WeirdTradeUnion Junkmen of America]]'' convention in [[HulaAndLuaus Honolulu]], and getting tangled up with a [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily wacky gang]] of jewel smugglers.

Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson played the title characters of Fred and Lamont Sanford from 1972 to 1977 on Creator/{{NBC}} and shared the screen with a number of memorable supporting players (notably Whitman Mayo as the forgetful Grady Wilson and [=LaWanda Page=] as Bible-thumping harridan Esther Anderson). The father-son duo engaged in frequent arguments about everything under the sun and truly got on each other's nerves, but despite the loud fights and constant disappointments [[OddCouple the two remained devoted to each other]]. The series was one of the highest rated sitcoms of the 1970s before [[CreativeDifferences internal strife]] caused both Foxx and Wilson to walk away from the show in the spring of 1977; subsequent {{spinoff}}s and revivals failed to recapture the magic.

* BigYes: Frank Nelson's characters (of course).

'''Rollo''': [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar That's exactly what I had in mind!]]

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: One episode features what is most likely the first time on Network Television that the word 'crib' was used to mean a home.

* TheAlcoholic: Aunt Esther's husband Woodrow.

* AlohaHawaii: The two-part [[SeasonalRot Season 6]] episode "The Hawaiian Connection" has Fred and Lamont attending a ''[[WeirdTradeUnion Junkmen of America]]'' convention in [[HulaAndLuaus Honolulu]], and getting tangled up with a [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily wacky gang]] of jewel smugglers.

* MistakenForDying: Fred, in "The Over-The-Hill Gang".

* PigLatin:Fred a few times throughout the series, most notably in "Lamont Goes African" and "The Puerto Ricans Are Coming!".

* RaceLift

* StandardizedSitcomHousing

* WhoWouldWantToWatchUs: ''Steinberg and Son''
* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: The "Ebenezer Sanford" ChristmasEpisode.

* HollywoodHeartAttack: If not the perfect example, surely the SugarWiki/MostTriumphantExample. It's the running gag where Fred – when something doesn't go his way, he doesn't get his way or he's otherwise upset or surprised – clutches his heart and does the "I'm coming, 'Lizabeth" routine. Lamont who wasn't fooled at least 20 times beforehand (per the series premiere) and dozens more [[OncePerEpisode throughout the course of the series]] – would just roll his eyes and go outside to unload the truck as though nothing was wrong.

** 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 LenaHorne to the house; Lamont even says, "I'm coming, Mom! Your boy's coming to join you... with a mustache!"

* BadassGrandpa: Fred whenever he whips out his baseball bat.

* HollywoodHeartAttack: If not the perfect example, surely the [[MostTriumphantExample the most triumphant one]]. It's the running gag where Fred – when something doesn't go his way, he doesn't get his way or he's otherwise upset or surprised – clutches his heart and does the "I'm coming, 'Lizabeth" routine. Lamont who wasn't fooled at least 20 times beforehand (per the series premiere) and dozens more [[OncePerEpisode throughout the course of the series]] – would just roll his eyes and go outside to unload the truck as though nothing was wrong.

* Corpsing: It isn't unusual to see actors playing guest characters (and sometimes, even the regulars)struggle to keep a straight face during Fred, Esther, and/or Grady's antics.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Where a fair amount of Creator/NormanLear shows were either fairly idealistic or Series/Maude, ''Sanford and Son'' is the most neutral out of all his shows.

** Averted in ''The Sanford Arms'' when Fred and Lamont are replaced by a widower named Phil Wheeler and his children and averted even harder in ''Sanford'' where Lamont is replaced as Fred's business partner by Cal, a fat white redneck.

* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: In "A Guest in the Yard", a bum who has been sleeping in an old bathtub claims to be injured, with the Sanfords finding themselves serving him beer, with Fred and Lamont pretending to leave the house to detect the true extent of his injury, catching the bum in the act when he goes upstairs to use the restroom after drinking all those beers.