Category Archives: trivia

Good Times Trivia No. 2

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Time for a couple of Good Times trivia tidbits!

Ralph Carter Sings . . .

Ralph Carter breaking it down in The Rent Party episode.

Ralph Carter, who played the youngest Evans sibling, Michael, started his career on Broadway at the age of nine, in The Me Nobody Knows. At the time that he was cast on Good Times, he was appearaing in Broadway’s Raisin, the musical based on Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun. In 1975, the year after Good Times premiered, Carter recorded an album called “Young and In Love.” He performed the title song on Soul Train that same year, and the following year, he’s seen performing it on Good Times, in episode 24 of Season 3, called “The Rent Party.” The episode aired on March 2, 1976. Ralph’s Soul Train appearance can be viewed below:

Ratings, Ratings . . .

The cast of Roll Out consisted of several familiar faces, including Mel Stewart, Garrett Morris, Hilly Hicks, and Stu Gilliam.

When Good Times premiered, it aired on Fridays; it replaced Roll Out, another series with a predominantly black cast (which included Garrett Morris, Hilly Hicks, Mel Stewart, and Stu Gilliam), and aired opposite The Odd Couple and The Girl with Something Extra. It was an instant success and wound up the 17th highest-rated series of the year. It did even better when it was moved in fall 1974 to Tuesday nights. It was a solid Top 10 hit, despite competition from Happy Days and Adam-12.

Do you have any trivia about the show to share, or any information that you’re looking for about the show? Let me know in the comments!

Good Times Trivia Trio No. 1

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Marilyn and Alan Bergman, who wrote the lyrics for the Good Times theme song, were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.
Jimmie Walker’s denim hat was a mainstay in his wardrobe on the show for several seasons.
  • The theme song to Good Times was sung by Jim Gilstrap and Motown singer Blinky Williams with background vocals provided by a gospel choir. It was composed by Dave Grusin, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The Bergmans were an acclaimed songwriting team who, during their careers, received four Emmys, three Oscars, and two Grammys, and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In addition to Good Times, the Bergmans penned the lyrics for TV shows like Maude and Alice, and numerous films including The Way We Were, In The Heat of the Night and The Windmills of Your Mind, for the movie The Thomas Crown Affair. The Bergmans were married for more than 60 years, until Marilyn’s death in January 2022.
  • For several seasons of Good Times, beginning with the first episode, Jimmie Walker almost constantly wore a floppy denim hat. According to Walker’s memoir, he bought the hat before he auditioned for a role as a street hood in Badge 373, a 1974 film directed by Howard Koch and starring Robert Duvall. Walker purchased the hat thinking it would make him look “more urban, more street.” He got the part. (But his lines were dubbed by an actor who sounded “blacker!”)
Ralph Carter starred in Raisin with Joe Morton.
  • Laurence Fishburne was originally cast as the youngest Evans child, Michael, but the producers really wanted Ralph Carter, who had a contract committing him to Raisin on Broadway; for his role in the musical, Carter was nominated for the 1974 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. (Here’s a clip of Carter performing the number “Sidewalk Tree” at the 1974 Tony Awards, where he was introduced by Esther Rolle.) Fishburne had participated in two weeks of rehearsals with the Good Times cast when Norman Lear bought out Ralph Carter’s contract – which meant that Fishburne was out and Carter was in.