Sanford and Son is a USA sitcom about a father and son who run a junk business together. The son goes off in the truck doing all the actual work of collecting other peoples unwanted items which they either sell for scrap or sell on from their junk yard.

Sound familiar? It should do as it is heavily based on the hit UK Television Series written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, Steptoe and Son!

I started off by getting series 1 & 2 (or should that be 'season' not series?) and now have all 6 seasons! I purchased them from amazon.co.uk website and paid in £GB but they came from a seller in the USA and came within a week!

Don't get me wrong, Sanford and Son is good, but Steptoe & Son is much, much better. If you have seen both shows you will see that the acting in Sanford & Son is not as strong as in Steptoe & Son.

Redd Foxx, who played Fred G (S.A.N.F.O.R.D. period) Sanford, is a much stronger actor than that of Demond Wilson who played his son Lamont.

Redd Foxx looks quite natural as if we are a fly on the wall peering in to their lives, but with Demond Wilson you can see him avoiding looking in to the camera and pauses quite a lot waiting for a reaction from the audience.

That aside, it is still a nice accompanyment to your Steptoe & Son DVD collection.

It was a bit weird watching season one as a lot of the episodes were 'inspired' by Steptoe and Son and it can seem a bit weird watching something that you have already seen but with different actors in a slightly different situation!

To start with, I began to think that I wasn't going to enjoy watching Sanford & Son but as the seasons go on they get better and better! There are more characters turning up in later seasons such as Fred's best friend Grady Wilson and Lamonts 'ugly' Aunt Ester!

Fred G Sanford comes out with some grear one liners on how he describes Aunt Ester each time she visits such as "Beauty may be skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone."

Just like his Steptoe counter part Fred is always faking a heart attack to stop his son Lamont from doing things... "Oh, this is the big one! You hear that, Elizabeth? I'm comin' to join ya, honey!"

Visit this website for more information:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/sanfordandson/

I found Sanford & Son much funnier than Steptoe.
I agree with you that Steptoe has the better actors (by far) but they are so good they border on tragedy. Steptoe & Son strikes me as darker and more poignant than Sanford & Son.

Sanford & Son was aimed at a black American audience. If you didn't grow up in America amongst the racism and black slang of the 60s & 70s then I can imagine how various lines can go over your head.

Similar deal with Steptoe: If you didn't grow up in post-war Britain then some of the humour and pathos and accents/pronunciations go over your head.

Don't get me wrong: Steptoe & Son is great---especially when listened to (same deal with Hancock's Half Hour and Dad's Army).

Sanford & Son was lighter and more risque...and usually quite dumb. And the audience went wild. You can hear their anticipation. They couldn't wait to laugh. Remove the laugh/audience track and it would probably seem less funny.

Note: My opinion on this matter is prejudiced due to the fact that I watched Sandford & Son as a child and remember it through a haze of nostalgia.

Quote: Skibbington von Skubber @ June 11, 2007, 1:10 PM

Don't get me wrong: Steptoe & Son is great---especially when listened to (same deal with Hancock's Half Hour and Dad's Army).

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I know what you mean - I have a couple of Hancocks Half Hour DVDs but don't enjoy them to be honest, however listening to episodes like the Blood Doner changes it completely and I do enjoy listening to him, just now watchin...

Currently I'm just watching the last few episodes of series/season 5 for the very first time and have been laughing quite a bit!

I've just seen the episode with the elephant in it and when Fred sees it in the yard he remarks how much it looks like Aunt Ester! Classic.

So what's their equivalent of, "You dirty ol' man."?

Quote: Leevil @ June 11, 2007, 6:47 PM

So what's their equivalent of, "You dirty ol' man."?

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The series is only based on Steptoe and Son so Fred and his son Lamont share some of the characteristics - but not all.

The catchphrase the Fred uses at least once in each episode is "You big Dummy!"

There are loads more episodes of Sandford than Steptoe and they achieved that by brining in some more characters along the way so there is always something for them to get mixed up in!

In Steptoe it is 'arold who keeps coming up with the 'get rich quick' schemes whereas in Sanford it is the father, Fred!

Steptoe and Son in: Murder at Oil Drum Lane was bloody good.

TRUFAX!

Quote: Aaron @ June 11, 2007, 10:02 PM

Steptoe and Son in: Murder at Oil Drum Lane was bloody good.

TRUFAX!

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Did you get to see it then? I didn't get around to see it. Any ideas if they videod it so we might expect to see it on DVD or something?

Indeed I did, and I doubt it. I think it may have just finished on tour though, so you never know.