Cue the funky theme song. The “Sanford and Son” junk truck is pulling up to North Royalton – along with Rollo, Smitty and Hoppy.
It’s a “Sanford and Son” reunion, you big dummy.
From noon to 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, BlueLine Classics, a collector of vintage vehicles which owns the truck, will host a reunion for the 1970s TV series that starred Redd Foxx as the cranky funnyman of the junkyard.
Good goobily goop, the iconic red 1951 Ford F1 will be there. So will Nathaniel Taylor, who played Rollo, the lovable, jive-talking rogue. He will be joined by Hal Williams and Howard Platt, who played officers Smitty and Hoppy, respectively.
Almost four decades after the junkyard sitcom was scrapped, it remains one of TV’s most-beloved shows. Dozens of websites are devoted to it. It’s been the subject of scholarly writing.
“People of all ages, all walks, all races and places connect with that show, because it was about real people living under real pressures and circumstances,” says Taylor via phone from his home in Los Angeles. “I took bits and pieces of people I knew to create Rollo, and we all did that with the show – because it was about humanity.”
The legacy of Fred’s empire is, no doubt, greater than junk. “Sanford and Son” was a ground-breaker.
From 1972 to 1977, the top-rated NBC show about an old junk man and his son busted down the doors for a generation of black entertainers who had toiled for years on the “chitlin circuit” – comedy’s equivalent of the Negro Leagues.
At the front of the line was Foxx.
Before he became a star on “Sanford,” Foxx was known for his raunchy party records and black-and-blue stand-up act. Before that, he was a drifter who played the washtub on street corners, slept on rooftops and hung out in Harlem with Malcolm X.
Fred’s nemesis Aunt Ester was played LaWanda Page, a Cleveland native and an acclaimed comic before she was on the show.
“Man, LaWanda was so nice and so funny,” says Taylor. “She was also so encouraging – which meant a lot to me, because I was the shy guy and would usually be off to myself.”
The show’s characters earned it top ratings. It was, above all, a very human story. “It was a father-son story that transcended race,” says Taylor.
Admission to the “Sanford and Son” reunion is free. BlueLine Classics is located at 12496 York Road, Suite A. For more info, go to bluelineclassics.com or call 1-888-501-8012.
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