George Jefferson

Infobox character
name = George Jefferson
caption = George Jefferson
first = "Henry's Farewell"
last = "I, Done Part 2"
cause =
gender = Male
age = 79
born = 1929
occupation = Dry-Cleaning Business Owner (1968-)
family = William T. Jefferson (father)
Olivia Jefferson (mother)
Henry Jefferson (brother)
Ruby Jefferson (sister-in-law)
Raymond Jefferson (nephew)
Jessica Jefferson (granddaughter)
Maxine Mills (sister-in-law)
Jason Mills (nephew)
Julie Williams (niece)
Jenny Willis Jefferson (daughter-in-law)
spouse = Louise Mills (1951-present)
children = Lionel Jefferson (son)
episode = 15 (All in the Family)
253 (The Jeffersons)
2 (E/R)
3 (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
portrayer = Sherman Hemsley
creator = Norman Lear

George Jefferson is a fictional character played by Sherman Hemsley in American television sitcoms "All in the Family" (from 1973 until 1975) and its spin-off "The Jeffersons" (1975-1985).

Character overview

George Jefferson was born in Harlem in 1929, an ambitious African American entrepreneur who started and managed a successful chain of seven dry cleaning stores in New York City called Jefferson Cleaners. The only background on the Jefferson family is that they were Alabama sharecroppers. George's father died when he was very young leaving him to take care of his mother therefore George was unable to complete high school; he was a cook in the US Navy during the Korean War and also worked as a janitor. On "All in the Family", Jefferson lived in a working-class neighborhood in the borough of Queens, next door to the Bunker family, with his wife Louise (Isabel Sanford) and son Lionel (Mike Evans). Jefferson was referred to on "All in the Family" before he was first seen in 1973 (on the program, the reason given for his initial non-appearance was that he refused to set foot in his bigoted neighbor Archie Bunker's home; the actual reason was that Hemsley was appearing in the Broadway musical "Purlie" and would not commit to starring in "All in the Family" until his Broadway run ended). When the spin-off series "The Jeffersons" began in January 1975, George and his family had moved to a luxury apartment in a high-rise building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, or as the theme song described it, "a deluxe apartment in the sky."

Like his neighbor Archie Bunker, George Jefferson was frequently opinionated, rude, bigoted and prone to scheming. In these ways, he was very similar to a "black Archie Bunker". Unlike Archie, however, George was more quick-thinking, and usually more intelligent. Frequently, plots in "The Jeffersons" revolved around George's attempts to prove his intellectual superiority, and schemes to obtain things he wanted. These attempts more often than not ended in comedic failure. In one farcical episode, George schemes to obtain a new client (a mixed-race couple) by inviting them and the Willises (also a mixed-race couple) to dinner. When the Willises realize that George is using them, they leave before the new client shows up. This makes George bribe Florence the maid and Ralph the doorman into pretending to be the Willises. Eventually the Willises return, and by pretending to be Florence and Ralph, they help George land the client, while trapping George into throwing them an extravagant anniversary party. Similarly to Archie Bunker, George Jefferson's personality softened somewhat as years passed. By "The Jeffersons" series finale in 1985, the frequent racism and interracial marriage plotlines of early seasons were replaced with plots involving the Jeffersons' family life, as well as interactions with maid Florence (played by Marla Gibbs) and neighbors. A plot hole in "The Jeffersons" has an early episode in which Louise remarks that George's father had told her of the Jeffersons' African roots; however, in a later episode, it is revealed that George's father had died when George was ten.Another Jefferson family plot hole exists in "All In the Family". George remarks that his brother-in-law {like Archie Bunker} had fallen victim to a scam. In The Jeffersons, it is revealed that Louise Jefferson had a sister, her brother is never mentioned.

Jefferson Cleaners

The third episode of “All in the Family” explained how George Jefferson acquired his dry-cleaning business. In that episode, George Jefferson's son Lionel explains that the family had been involved in a car accident, and used the insurance money, thirty-two-hundred dollars ($3,200) to start up Jefferson’s Cleaners. A Christmas flashback episode, which featured Sherman Hemsley playing his character's father, explained how he got the idea to open a dry cleaning business as child after his father told him that dry cleaning was expensive. This episode also showed how George had been involved in money-making schemes since childhood, with him working as a shoe-shine boy then paying a schoolmate to push people into mud puddles, forcing them to get their shoes shined.

Before the Jeffersons' store opening, George had worked as a janitor, and Louise as a housekeeper. The family lived in a derelict section of Harlem. After the store opening, they moved to Queens. However, as depicted in a "flashback" episode which aired during one of "The Jeffersons"' later seasons, their grand opening was overshadowed by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. This marked a continuity lapse, as Dr. King's assassination occurred in 1968, and the "All in the Family" episode in which the Jeffersons were said to have just opened the business aired in 1971.)

George's former janitorial job had the effect of referring to all men who did cleaning work as janitors. When Louise says that the building's white janitor was properly referred to as a "cleaning technician", George says: "Well, whenever a man of our race has that job he is a janitor!"

George Jefferson’s chief business rival was Gil Cunningham, with whom George had a considerable antagonistic relationship. Later in the series, after Gil Cunningham died, the Jeffersons discovered that Gil never desired to be enemies with George. It was revealed that Gil's wife (played by future L.A. Law star Susan Ruttan), had been the motivator behind this competition all along. In his will, Gil left George the bowling trophy he won vs. Jefferson Cleaners, with a letter inside which warned: “she put the ‘cunning’ in Cunningham.” and also advised George to never trust her.

Although not often mentioned, George and Louise had a niece living in Chicago; nurse Julie Williams, played by actress Lynne Moody, who also played Jenny in the Jeffersons pilot. It was presumed that Julie was from Louise's side of the family, but that was not ever explored.

Cultural impact

The lingering cultural impact of the George Jefferson character is such that Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama, referenced George Jefferson in a June 2008 interview with the "New York Times". Referring to an unfounded rumor discussed by a blogger that she had once used the word "whitey" in a speech, Michelle Obama told the "Times": "You are amazed sometimes at how deep the lies can be . . . I mean, ‘whitey’? That’s something that George Jefferson would say. Anyone who says that doesn’t know me. They don’t know the life I’ve lived. They don’t know anything about me." [cite news | author=Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor | title=Michelle Obama Looks for a New Introduction | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/us/politics/18michelle.html | publisher=New York Times | date=2008-06-18 | accessdate=2008-06-18]

References