That’s My Mama is an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on the ABC network from September 4, 1974 until December 24, 1975. There are 39 episodes of this series. That’s My Mama was never a ratings success. As a result, the series ended on Christmas Eve of 1975.
Set in a middle-class African American neighborhood in Washington, D.C., the program revolved around the character Clifton Curtis (played by Clifton Davis), a man in his mid-20s who worked as a barber at Oscar’s Barber Shop, the family barber shop he had inherited from his late father. While Clifton enjoyed being a bachelor, his loving, but tart-tongued and opinionated mother Eloise “Mama” Curtis, played by Theresa Merritt, wanted him to settle down and find a nice wife. Additional characters – such as Clifton’s two best friends—Earl, played by Teddy Wilson, an easy-going mailman and Junior, played by Ted Lange, a suave and good-humored ladies’ man—came and went over the course of a typical day at Oscar’s Barber Shop. Other characters included Tracy, Clifton’s little sister, played by Lynne Moody and later by Joan Pringle and her husband, Leonard, played by Lisle Wilson, as well as local seniors Josh and Wildcat, played by DeForest Covan and Jester Hairston.
Baby, I’m Back aired on CBS in early 1978. The series stars Demond Wilson, Denise Nicholas, Helen Martin and Kim Fields.
Raymond Ellis is a compulsive gambler who abandoned his family (wife Olivia, son Jordan and daughter Angie) and headed to California. Seven years later while in California, Ray finds out that his wife plans to remarry to Colonel Wallace Dickey, and that he has been declared legally dead. This prompts him to move back to Washington, D.C., where he tries to win back Olivia by proving he is a better husband, and a better father to his kids, and to prove that he is still alive. However, he now has to contend with his mother-in-law Luzelle and Olivia’s soon-to-be husband Colonel Wallace Dickey.
Barefoot in the Park is an American sitcom that aired in 1970 on ABC. Based on the Neil Simon‘s Broadway play of the same name, the series cast members are predominantly black, making it the first American television sitcom since Amos ‘n’ Andy to have a predominantly black cast (Vito Scotti is the sole major white character). Barefoot in the Park had been a 1967 film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
Scoey Mitchell plays Paul Bratter, a newlywed attorney for the law firm Kendricks, Keene & Klein living in lower Manhattan with his wife Corie (played by Tracy Reed). The show was a slice-of-life comedy about surviving in New York City. Other regulars included Thelma Carpenter as Corie’s mother, Mable Bates, Harry Holcombe as Mr. Kendricks, Vito Scotti as Mr. Velasquez, and Nipsey Russell as local pool hall owner, Honey Robinson.
Grady was a spin-off of Sanford and Son that aired on NBC from December 4, 1975 to March 11, 1976. Whitman Mayo reprises his role as Fred Sanford‘s widower friend Grady, who leaves Watts to move in with his daughter and her family in Westwood. Executive producer Norman Lear served as a consultant to the show.
The series never found a solid audience, and was canceled after just ten episodes. Whitman Mayo returned to Sanford and Son and would go on to star in the revival series Sanford Arms.
Sanford Arms was a spin-off and continuation of Sanford and Son that aired Fridays at 8:00-8:30 PM on NBC from September 16 to October 14, 1977.
After six seasons, Redd Foxx left Sanford and Son to star in a variety show for ABC. The producers planned to continue the series with Demond Wilson as Lamont, but Wilson left the project in a dispute over his expected salary as the star of the series. The producers decided to continue the project with a new character.
The new lead character was Phil Wheeler (Theodore Wilson), a widower and old Army buddy of Fred Sanford. It was explained that Fred and Lamont had moved to Arizona and they sold their property to Phil. Phil now lived in the Sanfords’ old house with his two teenage children, Angie and Nat. The primary setting of the series, however, was the rooming house next door which Fred named “The Sanford Arms”. Fred and Lamont bought the house in the penultimate season of the original series. The new series focused on Phil’s attempts to turn the rooming house into a successful hotel.
Roll Out aired Friday evenings on CBS during the 1973-1974 television season. Starring nightclub comedian Stu Gilliam and Hilly Hicks, and featuring Ed Begley Jr. and Garrett Morris, the series was set in France during World War II and was loosely based on the 1952 film Red Ball Express.
Actor Jimmy Lydon, familiar as a juvenile lead in the 1940s, was cast as an Army captain.
In an effort to cash in on the success of M*A*S*H, CBS decided to air another Army comedy. Instead of Army medics, Roll Out highlighted the pratfalls of the supply drivers of the 5050th Quartermaster Truck Company of the U.S. Third Army’s Red Ball Express, whose staff was mainly African American. The series attempted to use the World War II setting as a commentary on race relations, just as M*A*S*H’s Korean War setting was also a commentary on the Vietnam War.