The Jeffersons Move on Up

From a moderate income neighborhood to a luxurious apartment in NYC, life only improved for George, Louise, and their son Lionel. Rounding out the ensemble is tip-hungry doorman Ralph Hart, eccentric English neighbor Harry Bentley, Lionel's fiancée Jenny Willis, Jenny's interracial parents Tom and Helen Willis provided laughs, as did George's mom Olivia. I would love to have seen the Bunker family visit, but no big deal. Great episode!

Jean Stapleton is the only All in the Family cast member who appears in this episode. The scene of Edith and Louise saying goodbye is touching. Curiously, there was no build-up to this situation within the preceeding episodes. Out of a clear blue sky, the Jeffersons are moving to East Side Manhattan. The story is well done, however. It is accurate as to what "The Jeffersons" would evolve into. Sherman Hemsley was such a strong presence as George. You may wonder why George wasn't seen on All in the Family until Season 4. The other Jefferson characters were there almost from the start. In any case, a great pilot episode. George's dislike of Tom Willis confirms that George has a few things in common with Archie Bunker. Interesting, too, that George, despite his anti-white dynamic, always wanted to live in a white area. Archie also preferred to live around whites.

The Jeffersons move to the East side of Manhattan when George opens a new cleaning store.

This pilot episode for the spin off show "The Jeffersons" is a good beginning for it. Edith is the only main cast member to appear and she has a touching good bye with Louise. We first meet Harry Bentley, an eccentric English neighbor with a bad back and asks George to walk on it. Lionel is seen with his fiancee Jenny (now played by Berlinda Tolbert) and her parents a white man Tom Willis and his black wife Helen. George is still not happy about having them as in laws. They are played by Franklin Cover and Roxie Roker both are better comic performers then the ones that originally played the parts (Charles Aidman and Kim Hamilton) on an earlier episode.

I just finished watching this episode in rerun and was surprised to find that at the end of the program, the part of "Helen Willis" was listed as Madge Sinclair , but the role was played by Roxie Roker , who played the role on the spinoff series : "THE JEFFERSONS" . I found it fascinating that this error was never corrected . Madge Sinclair was an accomplished and recognizable actress at this time , and she spoke with a slight Jamaican accent.

Other than that glaring error, the episode was a preview of the spinoff series ; only Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker was the only member of the All in the Family cast seen in this episode.

Sherman Hensley literally looked lost standing there smiling for no reason. Pilots are usually far cries from a full stride series. But this was horrendous. The actors were drowning how poorly written, and directed this was. There were huge awkward pauses waiting for lines to be spoken. The Jeffersons seem totally inept without the Bunkers. The single person laughing throughout the middle was really unprofessional. Like somebody forgot to insert the regular laugh track. What a trainwreck! All the actors looked like they wanted to shout HELP: