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Monday, January 4, 2010

TV A Moment with the Good Times: Sexual Behaviour in the Ghetto

Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 2:37 PM

In this scene, James Evans (John Amos) has to come to terms with the fact that his daughter, Thelma (BernNadette Stanis—her character is the quintessential ghetto flower, in much the same way that Christina Applegate's character in Married with Children is the quintessential mall Lolita), is now ready to experience (rather than learn) the facts of life. Enter the man who wants to date (raw dog) Thelma. He is a graduate student; he is played by a young Philip Michael Thomas; he is a fictional William Julius Wilson; he has just completed a controversial research paper: "Sexual Behavior in the Ghetto."

Amos is shocked! Thelma is not only dating a pervert, but the pervert interviewed her for the pervy paper. The young intellectual keeps his cool and informs the boiling father that what he learned from Thelma and others in her situation is that ghetto girls who have strong fathers don't have loose legs—they keep them closed. Because Amos is a strong father, he has nothing to worry about. The most beautiful ghetto flower in the history of TV is not going to become another statistic, another single-parent, another welfare queen. Impressed with this scholarship, Amos (a proud and hardworking man) permits the promising intellectual date his special, special flower. It's just another day in the projects.

Comments (11) RSS

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It was just another day in the television sitcom version of the projects, which had about as much relation to real world projects, circa 1973, as "Leave It To Beaver" had to real world suburban life in the late 1950s: ZERO.

Posted by Fool multitude on January 4, 2010 at 2:58 PM

That was back before John Amos got that wrinkle in the bridge of his nose.

(cf. Die Harder)

Posted by Brucencrantz on January 4, 2010 at 3:04 PM

Men worrying about and controlling the sexual life of their women. How nice.

Posted by kersy on January 4, 2010 at 3:42 PM

that was Dy-no-mite!

Posted by stinkbug on January 4, 2010 at 3:50 PM

Charles, you of all people should know that Lolita wasn't a sexy teen; she was a barely pubescent girl. Think 12. Christina Applegate was 16 when she started on that show -- way too old to be a "mall Lolita", unless you're using that term as wrongly as most people do.

Posted by Fnarf

on January 4, 2010 at 4:24 PM

Thanks for this. "Good Times" was my second-favorite show as a child (right behind "Ultraman", but ahead of #3 "Barney Miller" and #4 "M*A*S*H"), which mortified my Irish/German lower-middle-class college professor parents. I envied JJ his family's bond to one another, and their sit-down family dinners. I thought ghetto kids had it pretty good! Such is the magic of TV, I guess.

Posted by eric (the other one) on January 4, 2010 at 5:26 PM

What choo talkin' bout Willis?!?

Posted by Urgutha Forka on January 4, 2010 at 6:09 PM

@7: For shame, Urgutha! This isn't Diff'rent Strokes!

Sheesh. You're getting your 70s teevee black people mixed up.

Posted by TVDinner

on January 4, 2010 at 6:13 PM

"Let's", Charles? LET'S?!!!??!!

Posted by Mischa Vainburg on January 4, 2010 at 6:57 PM

@8,

Well, Shee-it! Ok then, how about "Ah well we're movin' on up! To, thee top! Of a dee-luxe apartment. In the sky-yeh-yeh."

In the 80's, and 70's, and basically 90's too, blacks were ALL the same anyways.

Slap my fro'!

Posted by Urgutha Forka on January 4, 2010 at 11:15 PM

As an AA, I hated that show back in the day: black inner city cliches galore-characters couldn't speak a line of dialogue without clapping their hands and any AA who came off erudite, educated and wanted to flee the crime and disorder of the ghetto were labeled Uncle Toms.

Gimme the Wire, Sanford and Son and........The Cosby Show

Posted by East Coast Realist on January 5, 2010 at 12:46 AM