Yes, this is one that stood out and that everyone remembers. The subject matter was relatively unchartered for the times, especially on television. It had been touched on in films from the sixties like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, One Potato Two Potato and A Patch of Blue. This time, it was handled comedically and, as I've always maintained, the only way to tell people the truth is to make them laugh. It also used characters we were all familiar with. And it drew out sides of each of those characters that we hadn't necessarily seen in action before. Archie, Henry, Mike and Gloria each expressed their true feelings about a situation they were personally involved with, as opposed to commenting in the abstract about political or news issues. Edith was called on to delve into her feelings. And Lionel broke out and expressed himself, like we hadn't seen him do up to that point. This was an exceptional standalone episode, if it in fact stood alone. As part of the series, some of the statements were inconsistent with what was said, before and after.
According to earlier episodes, Lionel and Archie had known each other and had their own interpretation of a friendship for years, before Lionel's family moved to the neighborhood. Though Lionel appeared on the series pilot and was said to have been doing odd jobs for Archie for years, the Jeffersons didn't move in until the eighth episode. On this episode, Lionel implies that he didn't meet Archie until his family moved to the neighborhood. On this show, Edith says that she met Archie a year after her father died. When Archie and Mike are trapped in the basement of Archie's bar, several years later, Archie tells stories about his experiences with Edith's father. On this episode, Archie talks to his brother Fred on the phone as if they are close buddies. Five or six years later, Fred shows up, after not speaking to Archie in twenty years. The first two inconsistencies could have easily been corrected by changing a couple of lines of dialogue. For the third, I never understood why Archie couldn't have two brothers. The death of the brother they were both close with might have reunited the other two.
Anyway, all inconsistencies aside, this is a strong, funny, revealing and powerful episode. Since the last few years have brought home the fact that racism is still rather prevalent in the United States, watching this episode might actually alter a few perspectives. I'm sure that was the original intention, fifty years ago.
