Change in Direction
Almost from the premiere episode, J.J., an aspiring artist, was the public's favorite character on the show and his frequently invoked catchphrase "Dy-no-mite" became very popular. As the series progressed through its second and third year, Rolle and Amos, who played the Evans parents, grew increasingly disillusioned with the direction the show was taking as J.J.'s antics and stereotypically buffoonish behavior took precedence in the storylines. Rolle was rather vocal about disliking the character of J.J. in a 1975 interview with Ebony magazine.
"He's eighteen and he doesn't work. He can't read or write. He doesn't think. The show didn't start out to be that...Little by little—with the help of the artist, I suppose, because they couldn't do that to me—they have made J.J. more stupid and enlarged the role. Negative images have been slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child."
Although doing so less publicly, Amos also was outspoken about his dissatisfaction with J.J.'s character. The ill feelings came to a head when it came time to negotiate Amos' contract in the summer of 1976, and he was dismissed from the series.
"The writers would prefer to put a chicken hat on J.J. and have him prance around saying "DY-NO-MITE", and that way they could waste a few minutes and not have to write meaningful dialogue."
Read more about this topic: Good Times
Famous quotes containing the words change in, change and/or direction:
“[The boss] asked me if I was not interested in a change in my life. I answered that one can never change lives, that in any case all lives were the same, and that I was not at all unhappy with mine.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“That man is a creature who needs order yet yearns for change is the creative contradiction at the heart of the laws which structure his conformity and define his deviancy.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“Your Englishman, confronted by something abnormal will always pretend that it isn’t there. If he can’t pretend that, he will look through the object, or round it, or above it or below it, or in any direction except into it. If, however, you force him to look into it, he will at once pretend that he sees the object not for what it is but for something that he would like it to be.”
—James Agate (1877–1947)