Trivia / Good Times

• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: James' death followed actor John Amos' dismissal from the show over negative comments he made in Ebony magazine concerning its direction.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Michael sings. A lot. Ralph Carter's pre- and post-Good Times career was mostly musical theatre. In fact, at the time Carter began playing Michael, he was actually co-starring in a Broadway musical called Raisin, which was an adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun.
  • Keith frequently shows off his impressions.
• The Danza: Two episodes featured Gary Coleman as Penny's obnoxious classmate Gary.
• Dawson Casting: Thelma and J.J. were supposed to be 15 and 16, respectively, when the series began. BernNadette Stanis was 21, and Jimmie Walker was 26. John Amos was 34 years old when he started playing the middle-aged James Evans Sr., making him 8 years older than the actor playing his eldest son and 19 years younger than the actress playing his wife.
• Hostility on the Set: Jimmie Walker (J.J.) often clashed with the actors playing his onscreen parents, John Amos (James) and Esther Rolle (Florida), as they felt his slapstick comedy reeked of Uncle Tomfoolery. Amos disliked the show's direction, feeling it was steering away from family values, focusing instead on J.J.'s antics, and Rolle felt that J.J., being womanizing, illiterate, unemployed, and less-than-honest, was a bad role model for black people. However, Walker had the producers — who encouraged his dy-no-mite behavior — on his side, because J.J. had become the show's Breakout Character. Amos was released from his contract after the third season due to his disagreements, with the explanation that James died offscreen. Rolle went into fourth season, thinking J.J. — now as man of the house — would mature a bit, but — if anything — he only got worse, leading to her leaving after the fourth season, with her own disappearance explained as her remarrying and moving to Arizona with her new husband. When ratings sank due to viewers feeling the show had Jumped the Shark without its two original leads, the producers begged Rolle to come back, but one of her demands was for J.J. to grow up and become the man of the house. The producers acquiesced, but Rolle and Walker still had a chilly relationship for the remainder of the series. Even when Rolle passed away in 1998, Walker was the only former Good Times castmember not to attend her funeral.
• The Red Stapler: When J.J. went and got a library card, hundreds of viewers — primarily African-American — within days, did the same.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Theodore Wilson, the actor who played local gangster "Sweet Daddy" Williams, also played a club owner in season four.
  • Ron Glass made two appearances in the show—once as Michael's school principal, and once as an encyclopedia salesman pulling a scam. It was a remarkably short turnaround, as these episodes aired only a month apart from each other.

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