Redd Foxx left NBC’s Sanford & Son to create The Redd Foxx Show on ABC, a variety show. NBC tried to keep Sanford & Son alive with Lamont-centered show called Sanford Arms, but actor Demond Wilson quit in a salary dispute. They recast the show with Teddy Wilson — no relation — who was supposedly Fred Sanford’s “old Army buddy” who takes over both the junk yard and the neighboring rooming house, the Sanford Arms, which he is determined to turn into a successful hotel.
Instead Demond went to CBS for a sit-com called Baby, I’m Back about a gambler addict (Wilson) named Ray who abandons his wife and children. Seven years later, his wife (played by Denise Nicholas, a Golden Globe-winning actress from Room 222) declares him legally dead so she can marry a straight-laced military man (played by Ed Hall). Ray comes back and gets a job to try to win his family back.
The two children on the series were played by Kim Fields, who would go on to play Tootie on The Facts of Life, and Tony Holmes, who would play the mugger in the “that’s not a knife” scene in Crocodile Dundee!
The series was around the middle of the pack in the ratings with an 18.4. It beat out several shows you’ve heard of, like The Jeffersons, The Bionic Woman, The Carol Burnett Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Wonder Woman, Kojak, and Chico & The Man… and… maybe most satisfyingly of all to Wilson… both The Redd Foxx Show and Sanford Arms.
But Baby, I’m Back wasn’t renewed for a second season — in fact, it was one of the highest rated new series not renewed for a second season.
The reason it wasn’t renewed was because Norman Lear wanted to a sixth season of CBS’s Good Times (which had a 17.4 rating). Lear told CBS if they gave him another season of Good Times he’d create a new show for them, so they cancelled Baby, I’m Back instead. Sanford Arms and The Redd Foxx show were both cancelled that year as well.
A couple years later, Redd Foxx tried to reprise the role with a TV show called Sanford but Demond Wilson refused to return for it. Wilson said after Sanford & Son was cancelled, he only spoke to Redd Foxx one time, and it was “less than affable.” Wilson said he genuinely loved working with Foxx, but was hurt that when Foxx quit for for The Redd Foxx show, he didn’t tell him first.
