Grady

1 9 7 5 – 1 9 7 6 (USA)
12 x 30 minute episodes

This spin-off series starred Whitman Mayo in the role he created in Sanford and Son.

Fred Sanford’s big-talking pal Grady Wilson had now moved out of Watts and into the middle-class neighbourhood in Santa Monica where his daughter Ellie (Carol Cole, eldest daughter of singer Nat King Cole) lived with her hard-working husband, Hal (Joe Morton) and their kids Laurie (Rosanne Katon) and Haywood (Haywood Nelson) at 636 Carlisle Street.

The Marshalls had some kooky neighbours in Rose and George Kosinsky. George (George Dzundza) was an undercover policeman and Rose (Alix Elias) was a cheerful busybody who was always borrowing something.

Dzundza left the show very early in its run, but his absence was never explained and Alix Elias continued in the role of Rose.

Jack Fletcher played the prissy landlord Mr Pratt (who lived only three houses down).

Grady – brought in by NBC to replace axed Italian-American comedy The Montefuscos – was one of the first TV shows to portray a middle-class black family.

12 episodes were videotaped before a live studio audience. Only ten of them actually aired.

The character of Grady would later return to Sanford and Son and even stick around for the short-lived sequel called The Sanford Arms.

Grady Wilson
Whitman Mayo
Ellie Wilson Marshall
Carol Cole
Hal Marshall
Joe Morton
Laurie Marshall
Rosanne Katon
Haywood Marshall
Haywood Nelson

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