This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Sadly Over-hyped

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Many reviewers note and comment upon how this series transitioned over the seasons, for the worse. Most pivotal was the shift from it being a series about the travails of James and Florida, raising a family and trying with make ends meet, and overall do the right thing, and doing it with dignity, to a show about the antics of their teen-aged/young adult son, J.J. The show had good ratings in its early seasons, so why the change?As is always the case in life, follow the money. In this instance it's about selling advertising time. The good ratings this show enjoyed during it's first seasons did not hold up in the key demographic: 18 to 34 year-old viewers, with money. They were trying to attract a younger audience.

I certainly hope that the phrase "Kid Dynamite" will come back into common usage some day.This show about a "lower middle class" or "higher lower class" black family was really about J.J., or "Kid Dynamite", as he would call himself."Kid Dynamite" was the Laurel to the family of "Hardys". He was as skinny as you could get, and wore a hat that made him the kind of guy all kids would admire, and hope to be some day.Flo, the mother, was a stereotypical straight force to the comedy of J.J., but she never lost her dignity, and her character was more three dimensional than one would think. It was just very very subtle.The father and other two siblings were other straight roles to J.J., no doubt about it. It's easy to see why the father left the show. It was a pleasant role that Amos played, but really sort of a block of wood. Playing that role, one would think "why do I even need to be here"? The writers tried to invoke some "thoughtful" ideas into this, but the show was "Kid Dynamite" all the way. And that meant basic comedy. Still, they did a pretty good job of bringing up meaningful topics

Knock on any door in the low-income areas of America and you will find the Evans family - black, white, hispanic, etc.This was an accurate account of a family living week-to-week. It was the 70s, but the problem still exists today.Just the right amounts of comedy and drama made this show believable. It stood above the other African-American-type shows because it was real.I think John Amos, as the family patriarch James Evans, was the cornerstone of the show. Would he be happy or mad when he walked through the door? If mad, it was only because he had to struggle with racial problems and low-income jobs in order to support a family of five. I thought Amos was truly superb in his role. Esther Rolle as Florida and the rest of the cast could draw tears from the audience as easily as they could draw laughter.The fact that they could show comedy through the drama makes it, I think, one of the top 10 television series of all time, even though it declined after John Amos left.

First,I'll give my rating for the series overall; ******** 8 out of ten stars. I've taken away two for the dip in quality this series suffered after season 3. You'll read why in a bit.In February of 1974,a really great sit-com (with dramatic overtones)premiered on CBS. It was a TV first,a show about an African-American family living in the Chicago Projects in the 1970s.Created by Norman Lear as a spin-off of "Maude",he once again struck the right chord with viewers. Not since this show, have I seen a situation comedy directly talk about the struggles of inner-city families. (Well,there was Fox's "South Central" in '94 but was not renewed.) John Amos as James Evans Sr. was the ultimate father figure for this family and acted as any father should to keep his family together and his kids from going down the wrong paths in life, which in their situation, can be all too easy.Esther Rolle was a wonderful no non-sense mother figure who was on the same page as her husband when it came to their kids upbringing. Ralph Carter as Michael a young but very bright young man for his age but stuck in a school system that doesn't meet his academic needs. His character's name is the same as the show's founder Mike Evans (best known as Lionel Jefferson on "All In The Family & "The Jeffersons". (Mike Evans passed away Dec. 2006).Thelma is a young girl of 16 or 17 and has to deal with the dangers of being a young woman in the streets of the ghetto. She is strong but at the same time, a sweet girl looking for her Prince to take her out of the ghetto.Jimmie Walker as J.J. Evans Jr. is the typical young wise-cracking jive-talking kind of young man who does not take life seriously enough. yet at the same time, is a gifted artist who can paint wonderful things on canvas. After the demise of the James Evans character (aka the firing of John Amos) the show lost a good deal of it's stability. Many viewers departed. Esther Rolle left (after Season 4) for an entire year, not wanting to play second fiddle to J.J.'s smart-aleck Dyno-mite's.As well as the writers lack of quality story lines. She returned after securing a guarantee that the writer's would even things out.Florida's neighbor Wilona Woods was a divorced woman who ended up adopting an abused little girl Penny Gordon (played by a then 10 year old Janet Jackson). Penny's abusive mother was played by Totie Fields,Kim Fields' Mother.The final season brought the character Keith. A young Pro-football payer who falls for and marries Thelma and (for awhile) ends up living with the Evans's. With this addition and Rolle back in the series, the episodes were the best they'd been in sometime.....but, in August of 1979 the show came to an end,with all leaving the projects for a better life. J.J. the artist had sold an idea to a comic-book company, Michael went off to live on campus at college. Wilona's financial out look changed, allowing her to find her & Penny a place to live uptown. Keith knee fully recovered and he signed contract with the Bears & also get he and Thelma a new place. Thelma made it known she was going to have a baby and that she wanted Florida t come live with them. As it turned out, Wilona and Penny's place was the 'very' same building Keith & Thelma were moving too. Meaning, Florida and Wilona wouldn't have to say goodbye. Some might feel it wasn't the most plausible of endings, but for those of us who came to know the Evans family, it was certainly a deserved one(END)