[ETL]

[Cecily]

Fred did not like Rollo, Aunt Esther and her church ladies, or Julio (and Julio’s hungry goat).

RIP, Mr. Taylor.

[ETL]

Fred supposedly calls Rollo the N-word in this outtake, breaking the others up.

[Magnum44]

Sanford and son would be racist stereotyping today...

[fieldmarshaldj]

He was a handsome dude when he was on “Sanford.” RIP.

[ClearCase_guy]

I liked Black culture in the 70s. It was distinct and proud and generally not nasty. They wanted to do their thing and they let me do my thing.

Today, the activists want to tear down whatever I have, and I’m an evil racist if I don’t thank them for their destruction.

[dennisw]

Sanford and Son........too racist to make today
The Jefferson. ........too racist to make today
Kojak ........too racist to make today

[Dr. Sivana]

He was a better actor than Demond Wilson was, that's for sure.

"It was a time and an era — just to be on TV as a black man, it was an honor," said Kaedi Taylor, who works in the television and film industry behind the scenes.

There were a LOT of shows that had black people as the main characters then. Some of them were actually pretty funny/or good. Besides Sanford and Son, there was The Jeffersons, Benson, Different Strokes, What's Happenin'!, Good Times, That's My Mamma, and major players in shows like Welcome Back, Kotter (Boom-Boom), Grady, Mod Squad (Linc) and going a bit farther back I-Spy (Cosby) and Julia (the lovely Dihann Carroll). That's just off the top of my head. No need for boycotts or threats, just make a normal storyline where black people are a natural part of the story.

And with the exception of the undercurrent in Good Times, none of these shows really questioned the basic decency of America or Americans, ewven when there was racial humor (the clueless white cop in Sanford and Son).

I rewatched the first episode of I-Spy with my children, and Bill Cosby (I know, I know ...) was personally affronted by a black Olympic athlete who made a high profile defection to Red China for money. Cosby's character was offended by the betrayal, and acted on core patriotic, freedom loving principles. Bad a man as he is, Cosby was actually a VERY good actor, even in TV drama.

The Dihann Carroll character (a nurse) turned down a promotion and raise to work in another hospital when she realized that she was to be an affirmative action hire with no real expectation or responsibility. (Michelle Obama, anyone?)

[the OlLine Rebel]

Another great show.

[equaviator]

Wasn’t he also the bass player in the Band of Gypsies with Hendrix? Pic at top looks like ‘69-’70-ish.

[Dawgreg]

Rollo was my favorite character........RIP......

[Old Yeller]

If he’s 80, then how old is Grady?

[Carriage Hill]

Even with the pics, I don’t remember him.
RIP, anyway.

[Kid Shelleen]

Fred - Hey Rollo, crime on the streets is down 10%.
Rollo - Why's that pops?
Fred - Because your inside

[Fresh Wind]

And 20 years before Sanford And Son, there was Amos & Andy (the TV version), the first all-black TV show.

If you ignore its black-face roots in radio, the TV version was not as racist as liberals and race hustlers (specifically the NAACP) would have you believe. There was really only one main character that was a stereotypical black, and that was the janitor called Lightning.

Amos was an honest, Christian family man.

Sure, Andy was a dumb womanizer, but how many whites are exactly the same? Same with The Kingfish...a con artist conniver. Kingfish’s wife Saphire, a good wife who tried to keep her husband in line, and her mother, the typical battleaxe mother-in-law. And last but not least, there was Calhoun, the crooked lawyer.

But with the exception of Lightning, every one of those characters could have been white. It was a show about human failings, and that is universal.

Every episode is on YouTube.

Here’s few of the better ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofl95KtNnlw Kingfish Sells a Lot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXZzJ0qcF9w The Rare Coin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-V98qGdpsE Income Tax Time

[DAC21]

Damn good show. PERIOD!

[Inyo-Mono]

Sad to hear about his passing. Loved Sanford & Son, one of the funniest TV shows of all time.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

I still watch the “Sanford & Son” reruns on a regular basis. Redd Foxx was awesome. The entire cast was awesome.

It was like watching the Mel Brooks masterpiece “Blazing Saddles” Neither of these productions would be allowed to be broadcast today.

However, the greatness, common sense, reality and comedy of these shows and movies was to to teach us all that we are all the same regardless of skin color. There are still valid, useful lessons of getting along with each other, to be learned from these works of art.

[fidelis]

“Rollo” was a minor character on ‘Sanford and Son,” but he was one of my favorites. Didn’t everyone have a slightly shady but cool friend that always got them in trouble?

My favorite episode with him was when he and Lamont brought those two girls to the house and they got busted by Aunt Esther and her friends who came there to do a Bible study!

Rest In Peace, Mr. Taylor. Thanks for the laughs.

[ghostkatz]

I absolutely loved the Sanford & Son series. Had a TV crush on Lamont. Have the entire series on dvd. Rollo was cool dude !

[ETL]

Redd Foxx appears in this 49-min documentary to offer his views on the show. In short, he loved it, and used it as inspiration for his character on Sanford and Son.

Amos & Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy (1983)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ka6u2WA_zU