Rant #3,877: Dummy!

Word came over this past weekend that actor Demond Wilson, 79, passed away on January 30.

Although he portrayed many characters during his decades-long acting career, he is best remembered as Fred Sanford's big-hearted son Lamont on the classic NBC sitcom, "Sanford and Son "

That show was probably one of the funniest TV shows ever, running for 135 episodes from 1972 to 1978. 

Redd Foxx, the foul-mouthed adults-only comic, somehow found his way onto prine-time TV as Fred Sanford, the lovable patriarch of a Los Angeles--Watts--junk business.

Johnny Brown was the original choice for the role, but he could not get out of his commitment to "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," so the role of Lamont went to Wilson, who had earlier appeared in a one-shot role as a burglar in "All in the Family," a Norman Lear production, as "Sanford and Son" was.

Wilson--an Army veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart during the Vietnam War--played Fred Sanford's  son Lamont, and the interplay between the two stars--with Wilson as the straight man--was stuff made of TV legends.

Boosted by a supporting cast list of chitlin' circuit mainstays who were Foxx's real-life friends, "Sanford and Son" became one of TV's most popular shows on TV in the 1970s, and was must-see TV every Friday night.

Wilson's Lamont character wanted to be upwardly mobile, but the millstone of his father around his neck kept him grounded, literally and figuratively.

And Fred often referred to his son as "you dummy!" when things didn't go right.

When the show ended, Foxx continued his role in a couple of poor "Sanford" spinoffs, but Wilson had had enough.

He starred in a couple of other sitcoms--including a black version of "The Odd Couple"--but he pretty much left the business in the early 2000s, with a drug history also on his resume--after earlier finding religion.

On screen, Foxx and Wilson seemed to have great chemistry, and they really seemed to like each other as actors.

But in recent years, in some videos that are easily accessible on the Internet, Wilson has painted a different picture of the duo's relationship.

Wilson claimed that Foxx was very narcissistic, had an ego the size of the Grand Canyon, and that Foxx treated him poorly and disrespected him up to Foxx's last breath.

Wilson also criticized show business, in general, and I have watched a couple of these videos, and quite frankly, they are very difficult to watch.

The actor came off as bitter as can be, but in a bizarre way, he is very convincing, and you don't, and can't, doubt what he is saying.

Even when making what happened to be his last visit to Foxx--right before the comic died of, you guessed it, a heart attack--Wilson said Foxx pretty much ignored him during this meeting, acting as if he barely knew his on-screen son.

It was sad hearing about this, and Wilson's candor--even if true--was a bit alarming.

Whatever the case, "Sanford and Son" was a landmark show, still funny 50 years after the fact, and Wilson was a major part of that funny-ness.

And the great thing is that it is still played pretty regularly in reruns on TV--sometimes censored, sometimes not--so it is very easily accessible.

R.I.P. Demond Wilson.

Your TV father might have called you a "dummy," but in real life, you were far from it.