By RM
sunday, september 14, 2025 at 12:34:00 p.m. edt
How does the tag go? "Here is a story you will like..."
TV Guide, 1975, about Sherman "George Jefferson" Hemsley-
Make of it what you will, he has a stage-musical background, and no wife or family are mentioned; instead, he shares a "commune"-type living arrangement with two other actors, one male, one female.
[Emphases mine:]
"WHEREVER THEY GO, they lug along a pair of FIFTY-INCH LOUDSPEAKERS suitable for permanent installation in Radio City Music Hall. This 'family' is crazy about music... [Oddly enough, they seem to prefer psychedelia to black music.]
"Last year, accompanied by [the MALE member of the trio], Sherman set out to realize his childhood dream- traveling to South America. 'We wanted to see the spiritual side [BLA BLA BLA...]' ... They traveled with one small suitcase, plus OF COURSE, their customary MASSIVE SPEAKER SYSTEM. but NO SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRY WOULD PERMIT ENTRY of this highly suspicious cargo."
Was Archie Bunker right? You know the answer. Personal note: The only time I ever saw blacks on the Staten island ferry, they were dragging a boom box with them (this was probably in the '80s); while driving around the country with a friend (same period), the only time I ever encountered blacks at a scenic lookout, they pulled up in a car with, you guessed it, music blasting.
That's where I draw the line.
-RM
N.S.: The Jeffersons was one mediocre show. It's too bad, because Helmsley was an excellent supporting player on All in the Family, and Isabel Sanford was very good as his wife, Louise/"Weezy," there and on The Jeffersons, but the show had weak writing. Mike Evans, who played their son, Lionel, on both shows, was a mediocre actor, and then was named head writer on The Jeffersons and on Good Times, where he proved to be a mediocre writer. (Evans' real talent was in investing in real estate, where he made a fortune. However, he was a heavy smoker, and died of lung cancer at 59. He was apparently a homosexual because, when he died, he had no wife or children to leave his fortune to. Yes, I know there are men who die without wives or children, but at the time, that was exceedingly rare.) The show was geared toward black supremacists and their white allies. Thus, they had only one White character, early on, a tall Englishman played by Paul Benedict who, I just learned, was born and bred in America.
Benedict's function on the show was to be racially humiliated, which wasn't funny. My legions of black supremacist/communist/racial socialist readers will surely retort, "But Stepandfetchit's function was to be racially humiliated!" There are two problems with such statements. 1. If past injustices justify present ones, then Whites have the right endlessly to rob, rape, maim and murder blacks; and 2. I've seen Stepandfetchit in movies, but White characters didn't racially humiliate his characters.
According to an imdb.com capsule bio by Peter Sean that is even worse written than the usual,
"in 2025, after decades of speculation about the unmarried Hemsley, fellow cast member Damon Evans stated in an article for [homosexual periodical] the advocate Hemsley was, like himself, gay, and that it was an open secret on the Jeffersons set and in Hollywood. 'I just didn't understand why it needed to be hidden for so long, Evans said, 'but Sherman really didn't like to be in the spotlight.'."
Three matters must be noted. First, although the "George Jefferson" character was brilliantly conceived as a next-door doppelgänger to Archie Bunker, nowhere on Sherman Helmsley's imdb.com page, will you find any mention of this, let alone reference to the word, "bigot," which George Jefferson certainly was. Secondly, imdb.com is edited by illiterates. The bio of Hemsley is actually better edited than usual. However, the improper punctuation of the foregoing paragraph is typical of most imdb.com bios. (The editors will routinely add a superfluous period after a question, exclamation, or quotation mark.) Third, the bio contradicts itself regarding Hemsley's sexual persuasion. Early on, it reports that shortly before his death, he signed his home over to his long-time, live-in girlfriend, Flora Enchinton Bernal, but at the end, asserts that he was "gay," complaining that he hadn't "come out." He didn't come out, because he wasn't a homosexual, he was bisexual. Also, although Hemsley had made millions on his hit shows (The Jeffersons and Amen), while they ran and through residuals, and was constantly working after their respective cancellations, he blew all his money, and had nothing at the end.
To come back to Paul Benedict, he also never had a wife or children.
Apparently, if you were an actor and sought work on The Jeffersons, you were not permitted to be normal.
Postscript: All information at imdb.com about Mike Evans has been completely changed. All references to him having been head writer at The Jeffersons and Good Times have been deleted, and the previous bio, which for years had him dying womanless and childless, has also been changed. His bio now speaks of him having fathered two children, Carlena and Tammie. However, he apparently gave birth to both girls, since no mother is mentioned.
With each passing day, imdb.com becomes less and less reliable.
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14 comments:
If the Jeffersons had stayed on "All in the Family",no doubt the excellence of the first three/four years could have extended further with more race battles. The Lorenzos had a few moments(early),but Vincent Gardenia(Frank Lorenzo)left the show out of boredom(supposedly). CBS cut AITF's throat with the spinoff of the Jeffersons.
--GRA
JEFFERSONS 2025
Louise:George,I have a big surprise for you--I'm PREGNANT!
George:WHO'S THE FATHER THIS TIME,Louise--HUH?
Louise:Well it sure as hell ain't you,Gomer Jefferson .
George:Shhhh,quiet,Weezy.
Lionel(walking in):Did I hear that right--you is queer too,Pop? So am I.
George:That's right son. Good thing Bunker never knew about this--I would have NEVER heard the end of it.
(phone rings)
George:HELLO!
Archie Bunker:Hey,Jefferson.
George:WHAT! Bunker?
Archie:Is this THE George Jefferson--who we now know is a tip toe through the tulips,fruitcake?
George:Whatchoo want?
Archie: Hey Jefferson--what do you call a black who's a queer?
George;I'm hanging up.
Archie:A fagger.
(click)
Archie:The fagger hung up on me. After all we did for that black pansy. EDITH--I need a beer.
Edith:Right away,Archie.
--GRA
jerry pdx
Show could have been much funnier but they never took the character of George Jefferson as a bigot far enough. The writing weakened that aspect of his personality because he was black, even back then they were cautious in how they portrayed blacks, whereas with Whites they were free to make them as racist and bigoted as they wanted.
Nowadays in the era of woke, nobody would even dare put a George Jefferson like character on air, neutered as he was.
Pam Bondi is a DEI hire.
Never would have guessed Hemsley as a fag.
--GRA
If Helmsley was bisexual, that would explain the odd triangular living arrangement. There's a much more famous actor who had a similar situation, living with his wife and another man under the same roof. Not naming him because it's someone we all know and love, and if he was "peculiar," it never came out. He was rather happy when he split from the wife, who was very controlling!
-RM
PS- There were always plenty of closeted gay actors in the movies and TV, and there was even a "Velvet Mafia" among Television higher-ups that was well-known within the industry, so the casting situation with "The Jeffersons" probably wasn't unusual, especially by the 1970s with the upheavals of the previous decade. It would be a while before the general public would accept this stuff, though they pushed the envelope with the likes of "That Certain Summer" and the "Medical Center" transgender episode. There was no outrage (that we know of), so...
-RM
Initials C.G.?
--GRA
No, not Cary! Hint: this actor was in a classic suspense movie where he played the villain, and had a partner who definitely seemed to have unhealthy inclinations.
-RM
Not A.P.- he's well known as a bi. A.P. went the OTHER way--married a gorgeous girl later in life and had kids--after his early days of homo activity.
Ray M.? My last guess.
--GRA
Actor 2 (also famous, though not of the stature of actor 1) said in an interview that it was his idea to play his henchman role as a homosexual, which the director (world famous) approved of when approached with the idea. I don't remember the exact details, but actor 2 said actor 1 was mortified when he realized he was being depicted in a gay relationship!
-RM
Arnold Palmer was gay? Gosh!
-RM
Only if it was a different Arnold Palmer than the golfer--maybe. Anthony Perkins was my A.P. inference.
Sounds like you're describing "Midnight Cowboy" and Dustin Hoffman.
--GRA
OK- it was James Mason, who lived with his domineering wife Pamela and another man under the same roof. His biographer (Sheridan Morley, son of Robert) obfuscated about the situation, so who knows what the truth was. Still, one of the all-time greats. Trivia note (though it really wasn't trivial): he lived in the mansion formerly owned by Buster Keaton in the 1920s, and discovered Keaton's films stored in the basement- he had them preserved, which is why they survive today! (Of course, the other actor was Martin Landau, in NORTH BY NORTHWEST).
-RM
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