Tyrades! by Danny Tyree

In 2007 the farmers cooperative for which I work relocated its maintenance shop from the back lot to a building with actual road frontage.

As editor of the company newsletter, I couldn’t resist reporting the change with the headline “We’re movin’ on up.”

I was confident that People of a Certain Age (or People with a Reliable Source of Reruns) would “get” the playful reference.

That’s my roundabout way of saying that January 18 marks the 50th anniversary of the premiere of the legendary Norman Lear sitcom “The Jeffersons,” starring Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford.

Yes, it has been half a century since George and Louise (“Weezy”) Jefferson moved from the Queens neighborhood of Archie Bunker to “a deluxe apartment in the sky” (or at least the Upper East Side of Manhattan).

Thanks to George’s hard work and Louise’s long-suffering support, the family “finally got a piece of the pie.” Granted, such an accomplishment meant more in 1975 than it would in 2025. Nowadays spoilsport RFK Jr. would ask, “Are you sure you really want that pie? Most of the ingredients are banned in Europe…”

Yes, dry-cleaning magnate George (described by one critic as a feisty bantam rooster of a man) pulled himself up by his own bootstraps in the 70s, whereas now he would hire someone with an H-1B visa to pull him up by his own bootstraps.

Dutiful son Lionel, daughter-in-law Jenny and matriarch Olivia “Mother” Jefferson were important parts of the show’s appeal; but back-talking, wisecracking housekeeper Florence Johnston (played by Marla Gibbs) frequently stole the show.

If “The Jeffersons” was being made today, the self-assured Florence would probably be a fact-checker instead. (“The science is settled: I need a raise. And you’re short and losing your hair, and it’s all Trump’s fault.”)

The idea of an interracial couple (neighbors Tom and Helen Willis) was edgy at the time, but pretty tame for 2025. Now you can’t produce a 30-second commercial for replacement windows without the couple first speed-dating the entire United Nations.

Back in the day, tip-hungry doorman Ralph Hart actually performed services for his gratuities. How quaint! Now a typical business announces, “We’re tacking a mandatory 20 percent to your bill because one of our associates nodded in the general direction of the self-checkout.”

In 2025 we wonder whether drones are from another planet; but in the heyday of “The Jeffersons,” George wondered whether eccentric British neighbor Harry Bentley was from another planet.

I hope that new generations can learn to appreciate the series, but relevance won’t be recognized immediately. Few youngsters would care about the line in the theme song “Fish don’t fry in the kitchen, beans don’t burn on the grill” – as long as no banned cooking appliances were involved in the aforementioned frying and burning.

The line “Took a whole lotta tryin’ just to get up that hill”? “Get a *^%$# Uber!” would be the response today.

The thrill of “Now we’re up in the big leagues, gettin’ our turn at bat” would mystify younger viewers, unless the turn at bat involved a $765 million Mets contract.

Oh, well, no matter what the rest of the world thinks, my wife and I will continue to appreciate classic television.

“As long as we live, it’s you and me, baby. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that…unless you stand between me and my high-fructose corn syrup…”
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Copyright 2025 Danny Tyree, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at [email protected] and visits to his Facebook fan page “Tyree’s Tyrades.”