Remembering the Cast of The Jeffersons

TV's East Side family celebrate their 40th Anniversary.

Movin on Up to 40 Years of The Jeffersons - This week marks the 40th anniversary of the premiere of The Jeffersons, the longest running Black sitcom in TV history. For eleven seasons, audiences laughed until they cried at the hilarious situations George and Weezy found themselves in. To celebrate the Ruby anniversary of our favorite TV neighbors on Manhattan's Upper East Side, BET.com takes a look back at its very talented cast of actors. (Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Norman Lear - Legendary TV writer and producer Norman Lear is 'The Godfather of Classic Black Sitcoms.' Thanks to Lear's groundbreaking hit All in the Family, TV audiences gained two trailblazing spinoff sitcoms, Good Times and The Jeffersons. The characters of George, Louise and Lionel Jefferson were first orignated on All in the Family in 1971. In his memoir, Even This I Get To Experience, Lear said The Jeffersons was created in contrast to Good Times to showcase the life of the upwardly mobile, successful and rich Black family.(Photo: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)
Marla Gibbs - As The Jeffersons' sassy maid Florence Johnston, actress Marla Gibbs whipped out snappy comebacks in the blink of an eye. And in doing so, she contributed to Florence and George sidesplitting verbal dustups that gave the sitcom some of its most classic moments. Post-The Jeffersons, Gibbs did lengthy TV stints on 227, The Hughleys, The First Family and starred in the films The Meteor Man and Madea's Witness Protection Program. (Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images For Lupus LA)Berlinda Tolbert - Berlinda Tolbert portrayed Jenny Willis Jefferson, the biracial but all-Black looking daughter of Helen and Tom Willis and wife of Lionel Jefferson. Tolbert stayed busy in both film (Harlem Nights, Goodfellas and Patriot Games) and television (ER, Six Feet Under and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) following her time in TV's deluxe apartment in the sky. (Photo: CBS/Landov)

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Movin on Up to 40 Years of The Jeffersons - This week marks the 40th anniversary of the premiere of The Jeffersons, the longest running Black sitcom in TV history. For eleven seasons, audiences laughed until they cried at the hilarious situations George and Weezy found themselves in. To celebrate the Ruby anniversary of our favorite TV neighbors on Manhattan's Upper East Side, BET.com takes a look back at its very talented cast of actors. (Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

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