Redd Foxx was a comedy legend — unpredictable, unapologetic, and larger than life. But one episode of Sanford and Son pushed him to the edge — and he never filmed a single frame.
The plot? Fred Sanford was to discover an old friend had come out as gay. Written to be “edgy,” the script instead came off as full of cheap stereotypes and mean-spirited jokes. Redd Foxx read it and immediately told the producers: “I ain’t saying none of this.”
He refused to leave his dressing room for three hours. Co-stars tried to calm him down, but Foxx remained silent. Eventually, Norman Lear himself called to defuse the tension.
Foxx gave a firm ultimatum: “Either you rewrite it, or I walk.”
The episode was shelved. The script never saw the light of day. And for years, it remained a quiet piece of studio history — a line the star simply refused to cross.
