About Good Times
Good Times is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1974 to 1979. Developed by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and produced by Norman Lear, it began as a spin-off of Maude, which was itself a spin-off of All in the Family. The series follows the Evans family, who live in a high-rise housing project on the South Side of Chicago as they cope with financial hardship while holding their household together with humor, faith, and a strong sense of pride.
At the center of the show are James Evans Sr. and his wife Florida, hardworking parents raising three children: the ambitious eldest son James Jr., known as J.J.; the academically driven daughter Thelma; and the politically minded youngest son Michael. Their neighbor and Florida's friend Willona Woods, along with the building superintendent Bookman, round out a tight-knit community navigating unemployment, rising costs, and the everyday challenges of inner-city life in the 1970s.
Good Times was notable as one of the first American sitcoms to center on a two-parent Black family, and it blended broad comedy with episodes that addressed serious social issues such as poverty, racism, gang violence, and economic inequality. J.J.'s exclamation of "Dyn-o-mite!" became a widely repeated catchphrase, although cast members, including Esther Rolle and John Amos, publicly objected to the character's increasingly buffoonish direction and the way it overshadowed the show's more grounded themes.