Redd Foxx jumped ship to ABC and Desmond Wilson held out for more money, so the producers of Sanford and Son took the old setting and some of the supporting players, introduced a different central character, built a new show around them and called it Sanford Arms.
In the opening episode, it was established that Fred and Lamont Sanford had moved to Arizona. A widower named Phil Wheeler (Teddy Wilson) had put a down payment on Fred’s property at 9114 South Central in Los Angeles and was turning it into a hotel-rooming house.
On the premises were Phil’s two wisecracking teenagers (Tina Andrews and John Earl), his lady friend, Jeannie (Bebe Drake), Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) who came around to collect the mortgage payments for Fred, Esther’s husband Woody (Raymond Allen), Grady (Whitman Mayo) – who was now married to Dolly (Norma Miller) – and Bubba (Don Bexley), the bellhop and maintenance man.
Business was so slow that Phil could be heard saying, “Yes, sir, we’ll give you any kind of lease you want – day by day, week by week, month by month, or our low, low special: till death do you part”.
Unsurprisingly, this attempt to salvage the series was a total failure and it lasted less than a month.
Phil Wheeler
Teddy Wilson Angie Wheeler
Tina Andrews Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Wheeler
John Earl Jeannie
Bebe Drake Aunt Esther Anderson
LaWanda Page Grady Wilson
Whitman Mayo Dolly Simpson Wilson
Norma Miller Bubba Bexley
Don Bexley
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