The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • 50

From 'Amos and Andy to 'Sanford and Son American TV you' ve come a long way 1 By Judith L. Kcssler (Special to Iowa TV Magazine) VMERICAN television, 1952: Amos says to Andy: "Now lissen yere, I Is done enough work 'round yere." Andy replies: "I know, but de man is payin' us by de week. We got do what he tells us to do." American television, 1972: Lamont Sanford, partner to his father in a junk business, describes a white woman from whom he bought some porcelain: "She's got orange hair and she's wearing a negligee," says Lamont. "Don't mess around with them," says his father, iiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, REYIEWillllllllllllllllllllllllllll iiiiiiiiiimiiiimmmmiiiiMiiiiiiiii Fred. "Pop, she was about 90 years old," says Lamont.

"There ain't nothin' on earth uglier than a 90-year-old white woman," replies Fred. The era of old stereotypes, cliches, and cartoon blacks is passing. First came "All In the Family," with Archie Bunker espousing the philosophy of American bigotry. Now comes "Sanford and Son," the new NBC comedy series starring Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson. In a medium which until now usually has delicately sidestepped controversial topics and handled most subjects with white kid gloves, a change in American situation comedy is evident.

"They would have stopped this show up front three years ago," says Foxx. "If damn and hell won't make it, sure as hell no blacks gonna make it." Archie Bunker solved the problem of damn and hell. America's lovable bigot throws words like that out every Saturday night to millions of viewers who lap them up. IRED SANFORD is not a black Archie Bunker. But thanks to Archie, he can ba as honest as a black man as Archie FRED SANFORD Is old enough to retire.

His son Is in his 30s, but still convinced that at any moment he will get his big break. He talks about going into the shipbuilding business: "Like that Greek cat that married Jackie Kennedy. He started out poor just like me," says Lamont. "Just one difference," replies his father, "he started out as a Greek." In one episode Fred leaves his son a suicide note after one of their common altercations: "By the time you read this I will be with your mother in that great junkyard In the sky. I think it is better this way.

The whole place Is yours now. You can change the sign and cross the part that says 'Sanford and' it is now just 'son Unlike "Amos and Andy," the dialogue of "Sanford and Son" is not Step-n' Fetchit dialect. "A lot of me is in the script," says Foxx. "It's funny, Demond and I recognize things that just aren't right Immediately, simultaneously. Some words are so obviously Negro to me not black but Negro.

I wouldn't say it. I've ducked so many shows that are supposed to sound like the color of you." References in the show to blacks and whites alike are handled less tenderly than In the past. Fred candidly expresses his thoughts and feelings. When his son is going to marry a girl whose family Is what he terms "uppity" he refers to them as a "bunch of jive niggers." When Lamont thinks he is going to be able to take advantage of a white businessman in a transaction, Fred says: "Just because he's white don't mean he's dumb." LEAR does not relish a comparison between "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son." 'Sanford is not sensational like 'AH in the he Is as a bigot. There have been shows like "Julia," which weakly attempted to break down the practice of white casting in American television.

But Julia herself could have been white. Fred Sanford Is definitely black. Like "All in the Family," the new "Sanford and Son" show is based on an English comedy series. It is produced by Tandem Productions, headed by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, the same company that produced "All in the Family." England's "Steptoe and Son" dealt with a cockney father and son In the junk business. There was no plan for a black cast when the idea for the show was conceived.

But like "All in the Family," the show must reflect the American situation. "The more we thought about it," says the show's producer, Aaron Ruben, "the more we realized if we did it with mmmiwwmmtmmwRmmMMmmmm 7 p.m. Fridays on NBC whites it would be a copy of what they did in London. Who's in the junk business In this country? It's got to be an ethnic group like blacks, Italians, or Jews." The fact that Sanford and his son are black alone does not make the show what it is. The major focus of the series is the relationship between a father and son who fight with each other constantly but are so mutually dependent that they cannot get along without each other.

It is a human aspect. They are fighting to survive in a business world and in a white world. They are both constantly bungling opportunities and in their pursuit of success, encounter one failure after another. At the same time, the fact that they are black is a recognized aspect of the reality they face. Norman Lear producer-creator says.

"It deserves to be considered on Its own merits." "Sanford and Son" comes to the screen after what producer Ruben calls "a case of arrested development in situation comedy." 'T can't tell you what the stories will be like a year from today," he says. "It depends. Every series takes on an evolutionary process. We'll probably get Into politics in time." Ruben wrote the first nine episodes of the show based on scripts from "Steptoe and Son." But he intends to have black writers and directors as the show progresses. The evolution and success of "Sanford and Son" remains to be seen.

But as Wilson puts it: "For the first time it won't let the blacks down, in terms of like a 'Julia'. It's honest. I'm not saying that all black people will be able to relate to it. But a lot of them will." That $10,000 luncheon Joan Crawford in TV doctor role? Philadelphia jv- xfii I BERMUDA k. hltv 'BAHAMA i 'mslands 05) 1972 Newsday) TrHAT DO these people VV have in common: Prof.

John Kenneth Galbraith, chess wizard Bobby Fischer, Sen. and Mrs. Jacob Javits, Richard Roundtree, the star of Two things: first, they (among others) all recently flew to Bermuda from New York just to have lunch. See-o they've all become members of that curious fraternity, the TV talk show parade. It's a capricious kind of fame, likely to pass as quickly as it comes, but you could tell who's solid right now from the excursion, because the host was David Frost, whose "now" instincts are sharp.

Who else but Frost would dream up a lunch party that required the guests to spend a total of nearly four hours in a 747 to get there and back? Frost, who simultaneously anchors talk shows in London and New York, spends more time in planes than most people could endure, and the modest hop down to Bermuda was the equivalent for him of traversing a city block. There were 60 guests in all. but the TV celebrities were almost outnumbered by the media manipulators there -f ere both the woman's editor ar.3 the drama critic of the New York Times, reporters from Life Magazine and Women's Wear Daily, Pete Hamill the columnist, and the "Today" show's Barbara Walters. The list of people who had been invited but couldn't make it failed to leave a sense of anticlimax: LB had politely declined; Gov. Rockefeller was otherwise engaged; Gloria Steinem was recruiting sisters, and John and Yoko were supposed to have accepted but didn't show.

Frost, in a burgundy seersucker suit, presided over everything expansively, taking care to make each person on board feel that he was Frost's personal guest. A buffet lunch was served at a hotel atop a finger of the Island which provided a commanding view of a golf course, and there was just time after lunch for guests to choose between a swim, a round of golf or a demolition derby with the golf carts. IT WAS at this point that the only potential friction emerged. Prof. Galbraith.

his languid frame drap across the brow of a tee on the golf course, was reminiscing about his Harvard years for the benefit of the lady from Wonicn'j V.f tr Daily. A small circle of Henry Fonda, George Kennedy all canceled, and Jimmy Stewart and James Garner barely holding on). There's another point of speculation, too. Until now, women who have made the grade in television have done so either in variety (Carol Burnett) or mostly In situation comedy. Situation comedies have been the most successful outlet for women talents, top examples being Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Doris Day, Elizabeth Montgomery Mario Thomas, and even Sandy Duncan, despite going off early due to an eye disorder.

OTHERWISE, have been only a few isolated instances of successful efforts in dramatic or adventure shows by actresses in television. Barbara Stanwyck, of course, top-lined "The Big Valley," a Western drama which had a good run, for four seasons and then went into good syndication. And there was Diana Rigg, who, although second-billed to Patrick MacNee, had as much W7TIEN next season rolls around for television (1972-73), it could be a big year for women. You might run across Joan Crawford and Susan Hayward and even Jennifer Jones all starring in their own series. How about Joan Crawford as a doctor, in a medical series a woman-type Marcus Welby? And Susan Hay-ward as a lawyer, a la Owen Marshall? The William Morris Agency, the world's largest talent agency, Is in strong negotiations with networks for two such series, which would ac-ually star Miss Crawford as a medico, and Miss Hayward as a lawyer.

The agency also has been told by another its clients, Jennifer Jones, that she too would like to star in a TV series. In an age when there is keen man vs. woman competition, it will be interesting to see how the famed stars do in the wake of a disastrous invasion this year by big-name male movie stars (Anthony Quinn, Rod Taylor, braith fans materialized, the way that they tend to do, when suddenly from behind, the president of CBS television, no less, advanced with club in hand to play through. At the last second, the executive recognized the distinguished raconteur and gracefully made a diversion. On the plane home Bobby Fischer devastated all comers with a pocket chess set; Mrs.

Javits had her future foretold by a palmist, and the Senator did the same. The cost was estimated to total $10,000. Somebody asked for tea and cakes and got them. The dynamic Dave, meanwhile, was just pausing in his jtride. After the Bermuda jet to rest he dashed over ti smuher terminal to catch a plane to Bangladesh, where he's interviewing Sheik Rahman.

Diana Rigg helped pave the way to do with the success of the British adventure series, "The Avengers." Actually, actresses have been starred on TV dramas in the daytime series, less endearingly known as soap operas, but they have been the oppressed and pitied. Now, with Joan Crawford wearing a stethoscope, and Susan Hayward to defend her if she ever gets accused of malpractice, it could very well cue in on the next TV trend. IO-TV Dn Monn Sunday Rgitr j. jo. if a.