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The Jeffersons, The Complete Second Season

Spinoff television series can sometimes be strange animals. I'm not talking about staged spinoffs where one show is used to introduce us to characters in a new show, like Andy Griffith appearing on the Danny Thomas show. I'm talking about shows developed for characters who have outgrown their supporting roles on a parent show, resulting in those characters getting a chance to star in their own vehicles. Sometimes the spinoff retains the feel of the original, as Rhoda always retained a "Mary Tyler Moore" feel, while at other times the spinoff will develop its own unique style independent of its parent. ***

"The Jeffersons" is one of the more extreme examples of the latter. While "All in the Family" found humor in stereotypes and everyday life, "The Jeffersons" took on the guise of the other 70s black sitcoms ("Good Times" and "Sanford and Son"), relying on insults and jive instead. This lasted for about a season until the writers discovered they could only wean so much milk from that cash cow. ***

Thus, the second season of the show began to offer more character development and issue-driven episodes. Now, instead of simply having George and Florence take verbal stabs at each other, we saw Lionel start drinking and George choose between business and cultural pride. While providing more broad opportunities for comedy, the move started eroding the edginess of the show and paved the way for the generic fare that would be found in later seasons of the series. The episodes were still enjoyable at this point, but there was a definite drop in artistic quality in season two.

You shouldn't expect much from a 25+ year-old video-taped source, and from that standpoint you won't be disappointed. If you look at it compared to the clear picture that DVD is capable of, the pictures will seem soft and aged. Color saturation, contrast, and clarity all reflect the degraded source. The monaural Dolby Digital sound fares no better than the image. In short, the discs are about as good as episodes you would record from digital cable or satellite.