September 28, 2023 – The Jeffersons

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today we’re spotlighting the year 1975, the year The Jeffersons premiered on CBS. It ran for 11 seasons from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, making it one of the longest-running sitcoms in history. It’s the second-longest-running series with a predominately African American cast (after Tyler Perry’s House of Payne) and it was the first to feature a married interracial couple.
The show was the second spin off of All in the Family. The Jeffersons had been the neighbors of Archie and Edith Bunker. During the January 11, 1975 episode of All in the Family, Edith tearfully says goodbye her neighbor, Louise Jefferson, she and her husband George and son Lionel moved from Queens to the Upper East Side. The Jeffersons premiered the next week and was an instant hit. It was the number 4 show on TV during its first year.
The show ended in controversy after CBS abruptly canceled it with no series finale and without any warning to the cast. Many cast members found out the show was canceled by reading about it in the newspaper or tabloids!
The Jeffersons was nominated for 14 Emmy Awards. Isabel Sanford became the first African American actress to win a Best Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy in 1981. Learn more here.