Synopsis: The character Florida Evans (played by Esther Rolle) had been Maude Findlay's housekeeper on Maude. In early 1974, the Florida Evans character and her husband James (referred to as "Henry Evans" on Maude) were transported to an apartment in a housing project (implicitly the infamous Cabrini-Green projects, shown in the opening and closing credits but never mentioned by name on the show) in a poor, African American neighborhood in inner-city Chicago.

Florida Evans lived with her husband James (John Amos) and their three children J.J. (Jimmie Walker), Thelma (Bern Nadette Stanis), and Michael (Ralph Carter). When the series began, J.J. and Thelma were seventeen and sixteen years old, respectively, and Michael, called "the militant midget" by his father due to his passionate activism, was eleven years old. Their exuberant neighbor, and Florida's best friend, was Willona Woods (played by Ja'net Du Bois), a recent divorcée.

Topical Situations
As was the case on other Norman Lear sitcoms, the characters and subject matter in Good Times were a breakthrough for American television. Working class characters had certainly been featured in sitcoms before (dating back at least to The Honeymooners), but never before had a weekly series featured African American characters living in such impoverished conditions. (Fred and Lamont Sanford of Sanford and Son, though they lived in the poor area of Watts, at least had their own home and business.) Episodes of Good Times dealt with the characters' attempts to get by in an inner-city ghetto despite all the odds stacked against them. When he wasn't unemployed, James Evans usually worked at least two jobs, many of them temporary such as a dish washer or car washer, as he struggled to provide for his family. Being a sitcom, however, the episodes were usually more uplifting and positive than they were depressing, as the Evans family stuck together and persevered.

Initial Success
Originally, the program was slated to run in the spring of 1974, but high ratings led CBS to renew the program for the 1974–1975 season. The program was very successful during its first full season on the air, 1974–1975, when it was the seventh-highest-rated program in the Nielsen ratings and a quarter of the American television-viewing public tuned in to an episode during any given week. During 1974–1975, three of the top ten highest-rated programs on American TV centered around the lives of African-Americans: Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and Good Times.

Backstage Tension
Almost from the premiere episode, J.J., an aspiring artist, was the public's favorite character on the show and his frequently-invoked catch phrase "dy-no-mite" became very popular. As the series progressed through its second and third year, however, Rolle and Amos, who played the Evans parents, grew more disillusioned with the direction the show was taking as J.J.'s antics and stereotypically buffoonish behavior took precedence in the storylines. Rolle was rather vocal about disliking the character of J.J. in a 1975 interview with Ebony magazine.

He's eighteen and he doesn't work. He can't read or write. He doesn't think. The show didn't start out to be that...Little by little—with the help of the artist, I suppose, because they couldn't do that to me—they have made J.J. more stupid and enlarged the role. Negative images have been slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child.
— Esther Rolle

Although doing so less publicly, Amos also was outspoken about his dissatisfaction with J.J.'s character. The ill feelings came to a head when it came time to negotiate Amos' contract in the summer of 1976, and he was dismissed from the series.

The writers would prefer to put a chicken hat on J.J. and have him prance around saying "DY-NO-MITE", and that way they could waste a few minutes and not have to write meaningful dialogue.
— John Amos

The Big Move
Husband-and-wife team Austin and Irma Kalish were hired to oversee the day-to-day running of the show, replacing Allan Manings, who had become executive producer at a time when he was also working on another Lear sitcom, One Day at a Time. The Kalishes and Manings, as script supervisors, threw ideas to writers Roger Shulman, John Baskin, and Bob Peete, and eventually penned an exit for Amos's character.

At the beginning of the 1976–1977 season, the family was packing to move from the ghetto to a better life in Mississippi where James had found a job as a partner in a garage. At the end of the first episode that season, Florida learned via a telegram (which, at first, she thought was to congratulate her on her move) that James was killed in a car accident. The show continued without a father, which was something Rolle did not want to pursue. One of the primary appeals of the project for her had been the presentation it initially offered of the strong black father heading his family.

However, she stayed on hoping that the loss of the father's character would necessitate a shift in J.J.'s character, as J.J. would now become the man of the family. The writers did not take this approach, however; if anything, J.J.'s foolishness only increased. Wanting no further part in such depictions, by the summer of 1977, Rolle left the series. She was written out as marrying and moving to Arizona with her new love interest, Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn).

Rolle had disliked the Carl Dixon character, as she believed Florida would have not moved on so quickly after James' death. Rolle also thought the writers had disregarded Florida's devout Christian beliefs by making her fall for Carl, who was an atheist. When Rolle eventually agreed to return to the show, one of the conditions on which she insisted was that the Carl Dixon character be written out as if he never existed.

Good Times Without The Parents
With Amos and Rolle gone, Ja'net Du Bois took over as the star, checking on the Evans children as they were now living alone. New characters were added or had their roles expanded: Johnny Brown as the overweight building superintendent Nathan Bookman; Ben Powers as Thelma's husband Keith Anderson; and Janet Jackson as Penny Gordon Woods, an abused girl adopted by Willona.

It was at this time that many viewers defected from the series, and although Florida returned (the writers had finally been forced to let J.J.'s character mature to a point which Rolle found tolerable) for the sixth season in 1978, the viewers did not, and production was halted abruptly in early 1979.

The last original episode of Good Times aired in the summer of 1979. In a series finale typical of the series, each character had a "happy ending." J.J. finally got his big break as an artist for a comic book company, after years of the audience waiting for such a development. J.J.'s newly-created character, DynoWoman was based on Thelma herself. Michael attended college and moved into an on-campus dorm. Keith's bad knee miraculously healed, leading to the Chicago Bears offering him a contract to play football. Keith and (a newly pregnant) Thelma moved to a luxury apartment across town and offered Florida the chance to move in with them. Willona became the head buyer of the boutique she worked in and she and Penny move in to the same building and become their downstairs neighbors (again).

Two-Parters
Good Times, like many other Norman Lear series, was known for its use of the "two-parter" to draw viewers back to the show the next week. Although these story arcs usually played out over two episodes, some stories, like Willona adopting Penny from her abusive mother, took as many as four episodes to play out.

Here is a list of notable Good Times two-parters:

In the fall of 1974, J.J. celebrated his 18th birthday. Expecting art supplies from his father, he receives a sweater instead because the department store turned down James' credit. J.J. leaves his birthday party to go out with his girlfriend, but he is implicated in a liquor store robbery instead. The first part ends with Thelma breaking the news to her parents, while the second episode is set mostly in the city jail as they try to get him out. It turns out that J.J. is innocent and the police admit they confused him with the actual crook, despite the fact the real criminal is short and fat and looks nothing like J.J., beyond wearing the same kind of clothing.

Later in 1974, J.J. is recruited into a gang, the Satan's Knights, against his will. He is forced to participate in a gang fight, and James finds out. While helping J.J. flee from the fight, a rival gang member shoots J.J., where the first episode ends. The next week, James waits for the hoodlum to go to trial and subsequently feels sympathy for the boy and the broken home he comes from.

In 1976, J.J. and his girlfriend, Diana (Debbie Allen), announce plans to elope, against their parents' wishes. Unknown to J.J., Diana is a heroin addict. The only way the rest of the Evans family finds out is when Thelma finds Diana's purse and the drug paraphernalia and drugs hidden inside. Even more shocking is the fact that Diana's supplier is an elementary-aged school boy. Meanwhile, J.J. (still oblivious to his fianceé's secret) and Diana drive across the state line in search of a minister, leaving the Evanses and Diana's parents frantically searching for their children. By the time they reach the hotel where they plan to marry, Diana is in desperate need of a fix and discovers her purse missing. She yells at J.J., blaming him for not bringing her purse along and goes into the bathroom. Just then, James finally makes phone contact with J.J., warning his son that Diana is a drug addict. J.J. stubbornly refuses to believe his father. In an attempt to prove him wrong, J.J. calls for Diana to come to the phone. When she doesn't reply, J.J. walks into the bathroom to find the window open and Diana missing, her fate unknown.

The fourth-season opener, in the fall of 1976, in which Florida learns that James has died in a car accident in Jackson, Mississippi. The second part deals with his funeral, and Florida acting strange as if she didn't care about James' death. Part Two ends with Florida smashing a punch bowl and breaking down in her children's arms, uttering the uncharacteristically emotional line "Damn, damn, DAMN!" Despite the fact that this is perhaps the series' most memorable episode, the death of James Evans Sr. is almost universally recognized as the moment when the series began its creative slide.

In 1977, Thelma pickets her college with a friend of hers, a Nigerian named Ibe. Thelma and Ibe, despite initial misgivings, fall in love. When both Thelma and Ibe are suspended from school, Ibe's parents are furious and demand that he return to Nigeria. Ibe and Thelma had planned on living together, but Ibe asks Thelma to go to Nigeria with him—as his wife. Florida is against the idea, and Thelma decides against it when Ibe tells her that she wouldn't be his only wife.

In the fourth season two-parter finale, Carl Dixon, who has been courting Florida, wants to marry her. Curiously, he rescinds his offer as quickly as he had said it. Florida is hurt and demands to know why he has decided against marriage. Carl tells Florida that he is moving to Arizona because he has lung cancer and the weather there would be good for his health. Florida goes with him.

The fifth season premiere in 1977 was a four-parter. Eleven-year-old Janet Jackson was introduced as Penny Gordon, a little girl who followed J.J. home on her way from school. She spends some time at the Evans home, but then she leaves the area, along with her mother, played by Chip Fields. It later turns out that Penny is abused by her mother (among other things, she was burned with an iron), and Willona steps in to declare Penny's mother unfit and to legally adopt Penny.

The sixth season premiere in 1978 was also a four-parter. Thelma falls in love with a football player named Keith Anderson, and Florida returns to Chicago for her wedding. At the wedding, Keith trips over J.J. and breaks his knee. The Chicago Bears, who offered him a contract, takes back the offer. Florida decides to live in Chicago again, with no mention of Carl Dixon.

The final two-parter, in early 1979, revolved around Larry, a little boy who rode the bus Florida was driving. Florida was convinced that Larry was not "stupid", but rather hard of hearing, which his mother refused to believe. At the end of the first part, Larry almost fell down an elevator shaft because he couldn't hear everyone telling him that the elevator was out of service. In the second part, it was revealed that Keith pulled Larry out of harm's way, Larry's mother apologized to Florida for being stubborn, and Larry received the ear surgery he needed to hear again. (Courtesy Wikipedia, 2006)

The Cast:
Jimmie Walker as James 'J.J.' Evans, Jr.
Ralph Carter as Michael Evans
Ja'Net DuBois as Willona Woods
BernNadette Stanis as Thelma Evans Anderson
John Amos as James Evans (1974-1976)
Johnny Brown as Nathan Bookman (1977-1979)
Robert Guillaume as Fishbone
Moses Gunn as Carl Dixon (1977)
Janet Jackson as Penny Woods (1977-1979)
Ben Powers as Keith Anderson (1978-1979)
Esther Rolle as Florida Evans (1974-1977, 1978-1979)
Teddy Wilson as Sweet Daddy (1978-1979)

Episodes:
Season One Episode Guide

Season Two Episode Guide

Season Three Episode Guide

Season Four Episode Guide

Season Five Episode Guide

Trivia:
Despite the show's emphasis on reality the following two unsolved TV mysteries surround Good Times:

1) Why was Amos' character of James originally called Henry on Maude?

2) How did the Evans family get from New York to Chicago? Florida worked for Maude in the sleepy town of Tuckahoe, New York. Given the appearance of the Good Times set it looked like the family had been in Chicago forever.

3) Despite the fact that they portrayed father and son, John Amos is less than 8 years older than Jimmie Walker. When "Good Times"
premiered in February 1974, Amos was 34 and Walker was 26.

4) J.J.'s paintings were actually created by African-American artist Ernie Barnes. The series helped to make the artist and his distinctive style famous.

Here are the lyrics to the theme song:
Good Times.
Any time you meet a payment.
Good Times.
Any time you need a friend.
Good Times.
Any time you're out from under.
Not getting hassled, not getting hustled.
Keepin' your head above water,
Making a wave when you can.
Temporary lay-offs.
Good Times.
Easy credit rip-offs.
Good Times.
Scratchin' and surviving.
Good Times.
Hangin in a chow line
Good Times.
Ain't we lucky we got 'em
Good Times.