Good. Good Times is one of the most important and compelling and

interesting shows of my youth. I grew up watching it. It felt like everybody around me was watching

it. There weren't that many channels then, but still it was a really important show that showed

the dignity of a black family and it was quite an honor to

talk to Thelma from Good Times Bernadette Stanis about the show. For some folks who may not recall fully, can you help the

people understand the importance of good times because it was you know I mean I was

I was young when it came on but I do remember watching it you know like you know in

real time my mother was excited about the show

because there weren't many if any black families on television there were not

they were definitely not like these sort of ghetto black families

that had dignity, that were the center of the show,

right?

Like you had Archie Bunker before that, so you had a little of Sammy Davis

Jr and him but this is before the Jeffersons right so you were very early in

television history in terms of like black people representing on TV to help people understand the importance of good times.

Well, it was very important because it was the first black family show, whole show together.

And I played the first black female teenager ever on television.

Esther Roll was a very strong woman and a very loving lady and she and Norman loved her so he wanted to give her own show and they wanted to make it a

matriarch girl show where is no daddy and Esther said no we're not going to have that.

So she wanted a husband and so therefore John Amos was the husband.

The show is very, very important because that's what we were going through in the 70s right after the 60

revolution 65 revolution they did a lot more for us as black people you know especially normally he was very daring and he didn't give a heck you know he had some

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