Series · NBC · 1972
Pass it on
Sanford and Son
44Leave it.
The junkyard is honest work, and too many of the laughs are a stereotype said louder.
Take controlThis scores 44. Sanford and Son cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it
The review
A widower and his son run a junkyard in Watts, and the yard is a business with scrap in it, not a job painted on the wall. Fred is lazy, he schemes, and he is afraid his son will leave. The fear is true. It usually comes out as an insult, because the affection has to ride underneath the laugh or the laugh will not have him.
Often the joke is a stereotype said out loud, and the meanness is the habit, not a slip. Father and son needing each other could have been the whole week. Too many weeks the laugh wants the slur more than it wants the yard. Laugh at the scheme if you want. Do not laugh at the line that only works by shrinking a kind of person.
Journal
Keep Sanford and Son in the record.
No house has filed a sentence for this yet.
Live Historic number 44. Yours can differ.
The glance
Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.
Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?
This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.
Consider this
The Wonder Years
55 instead of 44
The Wonder Years is still a comedy show, and it scores 55 instead of 44. What you gain is temperance: It does not sneer at the parents as hard as the decade wanted.
The eight
- 6Industry
The Watts junkyard is a real business, even on days Fred would rather scheme than lift.
- 7Household
A widower is afraid his son will leave, and that fear is the feeling under the noise.
- 3Piety
Conscience almost never stops Fred's scheme or the insult that comes right after.
- 4Courage
The risk that matters is the son leaving, and Fred will not face it without a joke.
- 4Republic
Watts is named, but the yard is rarely asked what it owes the block around it.
- 3Temperance
Meanness is the habit, and the next insult is what the laugh keeps asking for.
- 4Truth
The love is real, and it rides under schemes and stereotypes used as punchlines.
- 4Stewardship
The son would inherit a working yard and a mean habit, and the yard is the better part.
Where to watch
Finding the page.
Live Historic · Sanford and Son · 44IMDb
