Sketch o’the Week- Sanford and Son!

It’s the big one!!! I’m comin’, Elizabeth!! It’s back to the 1970’s with our sitcom series, this week featuring one of my all time favorites, Demond Wilson and Redd Foxx of “Sanford and Son”.

I was surprised a few years ago to learn that “Sanford and Son” was not an original show, but an American remake of a British show called “Steptoe and Son” from the early 1960s. The BBC show was about a grumpy old man and his son who ran a struggling old junkyard/salvage business. “Sanford and Son” came about because of the success of another American sitcom that was adapted from a British show. “All in the Family” was based on the BBC show “Till Death Do Us Part”. “All in the Family” became a huge hit, as did “Sanford and Son”. This started a long and ongoing American television tradition of stealing show concepts from the Brits. “Three’s Company”, “The Office”, “Dear John”, “House of Cards”, “Veep”, many dozens of other shows that maybe aren’t so well known, and a number of reality and competition shows like “American Idol”, “Trading Spaces” and “Antique Roadshow” were all originally British shows.