The Jeffersons - The Complete Second Season
Long before Bill Cosby started wearing his friendly sweaters, urban  middle-class African Americans burst onto television in the form of Louise  (better known as "Weezy") and George Jefferson, portrayed by Isabel  Sanford and Sherman Hemsley. Spun off fromAll in the Family,The Jeffersonsran from 1975 to 1985, and it's easy to see what  made the show so popular--Sanford and Hemsley were a knockout comic duo,  surrounded by a skilled supporting cast that included the interracial  couple Helen and Tom Willis (Roxie Roker and Franklin Cover), British  expatriate Harry Bentley (Paul Benedict), as well as George's cantankerous  mother Olivia (Zara Cully) and their snappy, cynical maid Florence (Marla  Gibbs).Set in a high-rise apartment building in the heart of New York  City, the show spun around George, a classic character portrait of vanity,  arrogance, and petty prejudice. Balanced by the more level-headed but just  as strong-willed Weezy, George's self-serving abrasiveness struck comic  gold, particularly in the second season, when the show's style had been  set but was still fresh. Episodes tackled subjects trivial (George and Tom  wear the same tacky dinner jacket to a party) and trenchant (a country  club invites George to join, but only so that a newspaper reporter will  think the club is open to minorities). The black and white mix of the cast  allowed for a sharply satirical take on race relations, which managed to  have a genuine sense of hope while never glossing over the complexity of  racial tension--andwas consistently funny. In fact, it's striking  how well the show's humor holds up;The Jeffersonsturned a series  of half-hour farces into a sly examination of marriage, race, class, and  the battle of the sexes; it's sad that so few contemporary sitcoms have  this kind of intelligence, courage, and sheer talent.--Bret Fetzer