227

This show came on after my bedtime when it first came on. Therefore I saw the first seasons episodes in reruns. Marla Gibbs had that same Florence Johnston personality. But she did not whine as much. Hal Williams was the husband who was a construction worker. He was not funny. Regina King played Brenda, the spoiled daughter. Then there was Alaina Reed, the lady from Sesame Street, who had a daughter who disappeared (a la Judy Winslow) and fly Jackee Harry who also lived in the building. Helen Martin played Pearl, who was just a reoccurring guest star who would just look out the window and make wise remarks the 1st season. The 2nd season she became a regular and finally came out of the window. She had a grandson named Calvin who thought he was cool. I hated the episode when Bobby Brown appeared. When Brenda got in trouble, she should have really been punished by not seeing Bobby Brown. She was still allowed to dance with him! When Countess Vaughn came on the show, the show got worse. When Jackee got demoted to guest star and Toukie Smith, Paul Winfield, Barry Sobel, and Stoney Jackson became regulars, the show got even much worse than that! I was still mad that the 227 characters didn't get to win on Wheel Of Fortune or Family Feud. I was also mad at the episode when Gary Coleman was a criminal on the show and Mary and Lester didn't get to go to Hawaii as planned. It's not their fault that they got robbed!

This show was EXCELLENT for about the first two seasons....then they started messing with it. It became too socially conscious and in the process became almost unwatchable. It was hilarious when Mary and Sandra were enemies. When they became too friendly it just wasn't funny any more. I can name the episode when the slide began....When they introduced Countess Vaughn. It was straight downhill from there. Too bad. It had an excellent cast and much potential, but it wasted it trying to be too relevant. Then they had to go and add Stoney Jackson, Paul Winfield, Barry Sobel, and Toukie Smith. No offense to them, but the whole show was unraveling by that time. In the first two seasons, almost all the episodes were hilarious, but by the third season, there were only a handful that were good. The fourth and fifth season were abominable. I LOVE Marla Gibbs, but season 3-5 were substandard.

After Marla Gibbs left "The Jeffersons" she walked right into her own show: "227." 227 was the apartment number she lived in and it's where everything happened. It's where Pearl Shay (Helen Martin) sat at the window and clowned folks. It's where Sandra Clark (Jackee Harry) sassed it up. And it's where we got our first look at Regina King (she played the daughter, Brenda Jenkins) whose career is only getting stronger the older she gets.

"227" was another family favorite in our house. My mother tuned into it weekly and I enjoyed it as well. Not a whole lot happened on their stoop, but enough to make us laugh.

This show and Amen both aired on NBC. Both show featured the comic genius of two Jeffersons' alums, Sherman Hemsley, and Marla Gibbs. We all watched her play the wisecracking maid, Florence Johnston, on the Jeffersons. Now she shines in her own show but not without a great supporting cast. There is Emmy winning Jackee Harry as Sandra, her upstairs neighbor, or veteran actress Helen Martin as the nosy neighbor on the stoop. The show was named 227 after it's address. No it was set in Washington D.C. of all place, a nice change in location. Hal Williams played the ideal spouse to Marla Gibbs' husband. If you look, you will see Regina King who is on her way to becoming a star with credits like Jerry Maguire and Ray. It was a good show with wholesome family entertainment.

Episodes usually begin with the daily gossip on the front stairs of 227. There was one episode featuring Sherman Hemsley; the character thought Mary was a maid and the two spar is if they were still on The Jeffersons together. Jackee Harry is wonderful as Sandra. The episode that caught my attention is on disc 2: "We The People." This story is about Lester's supposedly wealthy friend who becomes the building's maintenance man. He doesn't complete all jobs and wears the same shirt for many days. Pearl senses something fishy when the maintenance man's friends enter but don't leave the building. Pearl and Mary visit the man to figure out what is happening and the door is opened for Mary.