They were kind of riveting. But the series had these plots infrequently. Maybe a change of writers?
shareThe later seasons became more sillier especially with those two clowns from Married With Children taking over...
shareThe one with Florence was definitely one of the most poignant to me. Usually when a sitcom talks about suicide it ends up being a misunderstanding but this time it wasn't. Florence really was hurting and thought of ending it all....wow.
I guess Good Times had its fair share of serious episodes like that but JJ was so silly with his "MAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" It took away from some of the more serousness in an annoying way.
I really liked George's more tender moments like dealing with Louise's supposedly dead father and protecting her from the truth. Also, the family in his old apartment when he was leaving them Christmas every year and his first customer.....the woman who was rich when she first starting coming but ended up broke at the end and George never charged her for her cleaning after that. That episode really made me tear up. There were others too showing George's tender side.
But as mentioned in OP, the one with Florence and Louise's dad were pretty special.
I don't remember a Florence suicide episode. When was it?
shareThere were two tearjearking Florence episodes! The first one was when Florence wanted to commit suicide. The second one was when Florence's new pastor stole all the money that she raised for the choir and disappeared.
shareIt depended on what they wanted to do. The former thing happened early in the run and the latter was much later. They did in the later seasons have some serious stuff as well as comedy, to break up the monotony. It all depended on the writers and who came up with what and what got approved.
shareSomehow I just didn't "get" the episode with Florence's pastor during the original airings, too young to appreciate it I guess. I don't believe I ever saw it after that because I typically ignored the later seasons in reruns. I finally saw it and the episode about Louise's father for the first time recently and was surprised at the writing and the message of both. Definitely superior episodes...
shareThe flashback episode to the day Martin Luther King was killed was pretty good.
shareThree other episodes that might fit into this category- the one where George realized Lionel was embarrassed that George hadn't graduated from high school, and the one where Lionel got drunk the day of his college graduation. The other episode I was thinking of was when Florence became engaged to a born-again Christian, who was pretty abusive to her. It was interesting at the climax, because people in the studio audience were laughing so much, but really what they were laughing at wasn't funny- I think it was more like nervous laughter, but I loved how Florence finally realized it was verbal abuse when he spoke to Louise like he'd been speaking to her. Even George hugged Florence at the end of that episode!
share