John Amos Fought Norman Lear for Actual Black Representation on ‘Good Times’
by Matt Solomon · Cracked.com‘We had no African-American writers on the show’
October 01, 2024
John Amos, the actor who found sitcom stardom on Good Times, passed away today at 84.
The fiery Amos often fought the show’s creator Norman Lear about the inauthentic stories the show's writers wanted to tell about the Black community. “The truth of it was when the show first started, we had no African-American writers on the show,” Amos told Sway in the Morning in 2017. “Some of the attitudes they had written, as per my character and, frankly, for some of the other characters as well, caused me to say, ‘Uh-uh, we can’t do this, we can’t do that.’ And they’d say, ‘What do you mean we can’t do this?'”
The writers fought with Amos, pointing to their years in comedy as proof they knew what they were doing. “I’d look at each and every one of them and say, ‘Well, how long have you been Black? That just doesn’t happen in the community. We don’t think that way. We don’t act that way. We don’t let our children do that.’”
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Amos admits that he wasn’t always diplomatic about his criticism, becoming, in his words, a disruptive element. “Being born in Newark, raised in East Orange, I had a way of voicing my differences against the script that weren’t acceptable to the creative staff,” admitted Amos. “I mean, the writers got tired of having their lives threatened over jokes.”
That strife eventually led to an unfortunate phone call with Lear. “Norman called me one day and said, ‘John, I’ll share two things with you: The good news is the show has been picked up for another 24 more episodes, ’ which was a given because we were in the top 10,” Amos remembered. “‘The bad news is that you won’t be with us.’ So there was a long, long pause and Norman said, ‘Are you still there?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m still here.’”
But Amos was no longer the star of a hit comedy show. Good Times killed off James Evans.
Amos and Lear worked together again years later thanks to Jimmy Kimmel’s love of Good Times. An episode of the show was recreated as part of Kimmel’s Live In Front of A Studio Audience, and despite their differences, Amos told Entertainment Weekly that reuniting with Lear was “a quadruple blessing.” Lear “literally changed the face of television for all time,” said Amos. “He’s the most creative person I’ve ever worked with in my career, and I feel so blessed to have been able to work with him again.”
What changed over the years? “One way or the other, we resolved our differences,” Amos explained. In fact, Amos starred in three more Lear sitcom pilots after the two parted ways on Good Times.
Amos appeared in the Good Times tribute as politician Fred Davis, playing opposite Andre Braugher in his old role of James. “It was so surreal!” Amos marveled, shouting out Tiffany Haddish, who played Wilona, for organizing a cast party in honor of his 80th birthday.
“I really felt a tremendous outpouring of love,” Amos said about reuniting with Good Times. “I was in tears for most of the night, but they were tears of joy.”
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