Good Times Episode: The Dinner Party

It is important to remember that as was becoming common with comedy television shows in those days, "Good Times" was filmed in front of a live studio audience. This means the audience reaction you hear is real and specific to the words and actions going on in front of that audience. In many, but not all, cases in the past, comedies were filmed with no actual audience and a laugh track (recorded laughter) was substituted for when a show was broadcast on television. Parts of this particular episode were so funny, the audience screamed and laughed hysterically at times. The subject of this episode is serious and the characters are concerned for the older lady in the show, but that doesn't mean that everyone has to sit around frowning and scowling while they contemplate poverty. This episode is FUNNY!     

Cast for this episode:

Florida Evans .................... Esther Rolle
James Evans ...................... John Amos
J.J. Evans ........................... Jimmie Walker
Thelma Evans .................... BernNadette Stanis
Michael Evans ................... Ralph Carter
Willona Woods .................. Ja'net DuBois
Gertie Vinson .................... Frances Foster

James announces a new milestone for the Evans family, because the monthly bills are all paid and they have some money left over for the month. Florida suggests, and James agrees, that they should use the extra money to pay friend and neighbor Gertie Vinson to give Thelma singing lessons. Gertie is receiving Social Security, but she still gives some voice lessons to supplement her income. Gertie is feisty for her age and she comes to the Evans' apartment to return a dish to Florida. While she's there, Florida tells her that she and James want her to give singing lessons to Thelma, but Gertie turns serious and declines to give Thelma the lessons. She announces she is retiring, which stuns Florida. After Gertie leaves, Willona, the close friend and neighbor of the Evans family, comes to the apartment. When Florida tells her that Gertie is no longer going to give voice lessons, Willona, the building gossip, says that it is not worth it for Gertie to give lessons, because for every two dollars she earns by giving lessons, her Social Security is cut by one dollar. Willona explains that Gertie has trouble making ends meet.

Michael comes home and says he just made a nickel by taking Gertie's garbage out, which earns him something of a reprimand from his mother for taking any money from Gertie, because she is struggling. This brings Michael to ask why Gertie has a dog, if she is struggling to make ends meet. James tells Michael that Gertie doesn't have a dog, but Michael says that her garbage was full of empty pet food cans. The family and Willona are stunned, because now they know that Gertie is eating pet food because she is so short of money. Willona leaves and Florida and James agree to invite Gertie to dinner, as Florida has roasted a large chicken for dinner, but Florida fears Gertie will turn down the offer if she thinks they are just trying to help her; so, Florida calls Gertie and falsely tells her they are celebrating J.J.'s birthday, and they want her to join them. Gertie accepts and as the family prepares to sit down for dinner, Gertie arrives with a dish of food, telling Florida this is her contribution to the dinner, her specialty ... MEATLOAF! The looks on the faces of the family members tells us the same thought has gone through everyone's mind ... this meatloaf is made with dog food. In an effort to prevent her family from eating dog food meatloaf, Florida tells Gertie that the meatloaf is unnecessary, as they already have chicken, but feisty Gertie tells her she won't stay if they won't serve her meatloaf as the main course. Gertie tells them people who eat her meatloaf "leave the table raving," prompting J.J. to quip, "Maybe they've got hydrophobia" (a fear of water by animals or humans infected with rabies). Gertie removes the roasted chicken from the table so she can replace it with the meatloaf. The Evans family is given no choice, unless they want to seriously hurt Gertie's feelings and end up in her doghouse ... ah... maybe I should reword that?

With everyone seated, Gertie hands the tray of meatloaf to James, since he's "the man of the house." This begins a process of each family member passing the meatloaf to another family member, but without anyone actually putting any meatloaf on their plate. The meatloaf circles the table and comes back to James for the second time, but through the door comes Willona. James quickly jumps up, goes to her and takes her by the hand to lead her over to the table. Gertie asks if Willona would like dinner, and Willona says that's why she came in, because she burned her own dinner. When she asks where she can sit, the family members all jump up to offer her a seat, with Michael and James tugging on poor Willona's arms to try to get her to take their seat! Michael wins the tug-of-war, and he goes and sits off to the side of the table. When Willona comments, "I love Florida's meatloaf," Gertie quickly corrects her and tells her she made the meatloaf. Ding, ding ding! The bell sounds in Willona's head about Gertie, dog food and meatloaf, as a worried looking Florida gives Willona a little nod. This is all Willona needs and she excuses herself, saying that even though her food is burned, it's wrong to waste food. Since Gertie can't see Willona leaving, she exits by acting like a panting dog (much to the delight of the audience).

So now Gertie hands the meatloaf to James again, but he says they can't eat yet, because they haven't said grace. Florida tells J.J. to say grace, but first Gertie tells him not to be too long, because after a while, "my meatloaf loses some of its bite." J.J. messes up the beginning of the prayer by saying, "German shepherd," instead of just, "shepherd," and Gertie, who has been growing suspicious, now knows what's going on and she tells everyone that the meatloaf was made with ground round, not with pet food. She also tells them she now sees that she has to fight for her Social Security and that older people have to organize and be active politically.

Photo is of the 2004 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Complete Second Season DVD set

WORD HISTORY:
Foal-This word is related to "few," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and it is distantly related to "poultry," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English by way of French. It is also related to "filly," a word from Germanic, but perhaps a borrowing from Old Norse as a feminine form for a young animal (I'm researching this word more). "Foal" goes back to Indo European "pawlh," which meant, "young or small animal." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "folen," meaning, "young or small animal" (of animals with hooves?). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "fola," meaning, "young hoofed animal, a colt." This then became "fole," before the modern form "foal." The verb developed from the noun (1300s?) with the meaning, "to give birth to a foal." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German "Fohlen," Low German "Fohl," Dutch "veulen," West Frisian "fôle," Old Norse had "foli," and some sources show that to be the Icelandic form, and indeed, Icelandic has a number of words that are still in the Old Norse form, but I'm not completely satisfied as to the modern Icelandic word, Swedish has "fåle" (meaning, "male breeding horse??"), Danish "føl," Norwegian "føll."          

A Favorite TV Show of the Past, "Good Times"

One of my favorite shows of the 1970s was "Good Times," produced by Norman Lear, who also did "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son," "Maude," and "The Jeffersons." "Good Times" was a comedy about a black family, the Evans family, of a husband and wife, 2 boys and 1 girl, living in the housing projects in Chicago. The show dealt with poverty and the struggles of the parents to make ends meet, as well as try to plan for their daughter's future college education. Much emphasis was put on education as a way to escape the almost hopelessness of life in the "ghetto." James, the husband, played by John Amos, works at a variety of low paying jobs, as he lacks education, something he wants his children to avoid. Teenage daughter Thelma, played by Bern Nadette Stanis, is a good student, and the proud parents have big expectations for her, as she does for herself, but a couple of boyfriends enter into her life, bringing her temperamental father to go ballistic! The youngest son, Michael, played by Ralph Carter, is also a good student, who aspires to become a Supreme Court justice, or is it the parents who want that FOR him? This issue was a theme of one episode. Then there's teenager James, Jr., better known as J.J., and the oldest child, played by Jimmie Walker, who has no apparent desire to go to college, and his poor grades and bad attitude toward school contrast with the other two kids, but the scripts dealing with this also became an issue in real life for John Amos and Esther Rolle (who played the wife and mother, Florida), as they felt the J.J. character, who quickly became the most popular on the show to many viewers, was sending the wrong message about education and responsibility, in general. Jimmie Walker quickly became known for shouting "dy-no-mite," an expression he used to dub himself, "Kid Dynomite," besides J.J.

Interestingly, in real life, Jimmie Walker was much older than his character in the show; in fact, he was not all that much younger than John Amos, who played his father in the series. On the other hand, Esther Rolle was much older than the "presumed" age of her character in the series.* If you think this all mattered, it didn't, as everything worked, and the show did well in the ratings for the first several seasons. The show's theme song also was a popular and catchy tune in those days, although trying to understand a couple of lines of the lyrics gave many people fits.

As I mentioned, the show often dealt with poverty, but usually in a comedic way, and in one episode, one of the family's neighbors is retired, but she is so short of money, she also supplements her diet with canned dog food. To help the lady out, the family invites her to dinner, as Florida has a large roasted chicken ready, but when the lady shows up, she tells the family that her pride will not allow her to accept dinner, without her providing the main dish ....... meat loaf! The family members each assume that the meat loaf is made with dog food, and in one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen on television, they try to avoid eating. When neighbor and regular character, Willona, played by Ja'net Dubois,** shows up asking to join the family dinner, because she had burned her own dinner, the family members all jump up and try to give her their own seat, pulling and tugging at the poor woman, to the absolute delight and hysterical laughter of the audience (the shows were filmed in front of a studio audience). I can't even type these words without laughing, as I recall that scene. As I mentioned, there were serious scenes during the series too, including about gang involvement by J.J. and later by Michael, and also an episode about James reuniting with his father, whom he hadn't seen since the father had left when James was just a kid.

If you've never seen this show, or if you haven't seen it for a while, check it out, and I can pretty much guarantee you'll be singing, "Ain't we lucky we got 'em .... Good Times!"

* To my recollection Florida's age is never mentioned in the series, but James' age of 40 is mentioned as part of his trouble in getting a job he sought. Using that age, coupled with references to James and Florida having attended school and school dances at the same time, makes me say Florida's "presumed" age.

** A semi-regular cast member was Johnny Brown, who played the apartment building superintendent, Nathan Bookman, and who was often referred to as "Buffalo Butt" by the residents. Prior to "Good Times," Johnny Brown had been on NBC's "Laugh-In," a highly popular weekly comedy for its first few years.

Photo is from the 2003 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment DVD. (All seasons are available on DVD)

WORD HISTORY:
Bed-This common word goes back to Indo European "bhedh, which had the idea of "to stick (pierce);" thus also, "to dig  ("piercing the ground)." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "bathjam," meaning "plot of land for planting, garden," but with the further meaning, "dug out area for animals to sleep," then also the idea of "sleeping place" in general. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bed," with the meanings "planting area" and "sleeping place." The spelling later varied between "bed" and "bed," before the latter winning out. The verb was derived from the noun in the 1200s or 1300s, initially with the meaning, "to give someone a place to sleep," but it didn't take long to add the meaning, "go to bed for the purpose of sex," the main meaning of the verb form in modern times. The other Germanic languages have: German "Bett" (bed) and "Beet," pronounced as if "bait" (plant bed),^ Low German Saxon also has "Bett" (meaning both bed and planting area,^^ West Frisian "bêd," Dutch "bed," Swedish "bädd" (bed, foundation), The other Germanic languages have words that are now essentially out of use.

^ Both words are really the same word, but eventually, from what I can tell in the 1600s, "Beet" emerged as a variant of "Bett" to become the word for "plant bed." While I'm far from certain of this, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that "beet" (the root vegetable, also called "beetroot" by some) and "bed" are related, as beets are "dug out of the ground." If they are related, it would be distantly, as long ago Germanic borrowed the word for the root vegetable from Latin, which may have borrowed a form of the word from Celtic. To be honest, many sources say Latin likely borrowed the term from Celtic, but they sure don't give evidence of this.

^^  Some low dialects seem to use "Bedd," and perhaps even "Bad", as I "believe" the spelling "Bett" was taken from standard German, which is based more on the high Germanic/German dialects. Low Saxon used "Bedde" up until a few centuries ago, as far as I can find, so the "Bett" spelling seems to indeed be borrowed from what is now standard German.