Good Times
Too Old Blues
TV Flash files “Too Old Blues” as the hour the catalog opens — Good Times (1974–1979) on CBS, season 1, episode 1, aired 1974-02-08, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 133 in the Good Times guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1974-02-08 (30 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Black Jesus” (S01E02).
February 1974: the Evans family as ordered. The catchphrase is loading. The rent is already the plot.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Tests indicate that James is a candidate for a union apprenticeship program, but his birth certificate says differently
Viewer FAQ
Where does Too Old Blues sit in the Good Times guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 133 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did Good Times S01E01 air?
Too Old Blues aired 1974-02-08 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Too Old Blues, then Getting Up the Rent. The first season is the family the series promised before the catchphrase ate the table.
In the series
Why this series still plays
For the heat under the hug: a projects sitcom that became a catchphrase, a firing, a sit-out, and a family that still had to make rent on CBS while America bought the one joke the affiliates could sell.
Flash: February 8, 1974, Too Old Blues, a living room that is not Queens, and a laugh track trying to hold a family that has to make rent before the second commercial. Esther Rolle's Florida, John Amos's James, Jimmie Walker's J.J. already loading the catchphrase that will eat the table. Norman Lear's factory had spun this one off Maude, which had spun off All in the Family, which is the kind of family tree a publicist calls a universe and a shop steward calls a job. The afterglow is warmth. The leak is that…
Filed against
- Esther Rolle as Florida Evans
Esther Rolle grounded Good Times as Florida Evans, bringing dignity and steel to a projects sitcom that fought creative-control battles as hard as any storyline. Her exits and returns became industry legend. On TV Flash she is Black…
- John Amos as James Evans
John Amos brought steel and heart as James Evans on Good Times, then became Roots event-TV royalty as the adult Kunta Kinte. A Chicago projects sitcom’s creative-control battles became industry lore; an ABC week became national weather.…
- Jimmie Walker as J.J. Evans
Jimmie Walker’s J.J. Evans is Good Times as the heat the affiliates could sell — a catchphrase that ate the table, a projects sitcom that wanted dignity and jokes in the same half-hour. Dy-no-mite became a national product. Rolle and Amos…
- Ja'Net DuBois as Willona Woods
Ja’Net DuBois’s Willona Woods is Good Times as the neighbor who sees everything — assistant energy this desk always clocks, a projects sitcom with catchphrases and heartbreak in the same half-hour. J.J. fever ate the table; Willona kept…
- BernNadette Stanis as Thelma Evans
BernNadette Stanis played Thelma Evans on Good Times — projects sitcom heart, catchphrases nearby, and industry control battles humming under the laughs. She kept dignity in a landmark Black family series. TV Flash honors the sister…