I
don’t know why Puff Daddy or P-Diddy or whatever the hell he’s calling
himself this week hasn’t already plundered it, quite frankly. After
all, between its undeniably slap-happy beat and lyrics of empowerment
and collective
arrival (“Now I’m up in the big leagues/Getting my turn at bat”), the theme song from The Jeffersons is ripe for a hip-hop remake.

I
suppose we might have to wait until a big-screen adaptation of the
series, though surely that can’t be too far away in the offing either.
I’m not sure it would work quite as well in juxtaposition to modern
life, though. The story of a hotheaded, newly successful small business
owner who’s arrived in the form of a posh Manhattan high-rise, The Jeffersons
bowed in 1975, and quickly made comedic hay from Sherman Hemsley’s
irascible run-ins, as George Jefferson, with his ever-friendly
neighbors, including Englishman Harry Bentley (Paul Benedict) and
mixed-marriage pals Tom and Helen Willis (Franklin Cover and Roxie
Roker). The formula would be fairly well-groomed and maintained over
the years, but always draw a lot of its comedy from both George’s
maverick/outsider status in contrast to the stuffy white-collar culture
around him and his own casual bigotry, a flipside response to All in the Family’s Archie Bunker.

The two dozen fifth-season episodes included in this DVD include a
guest shot from Billy Dee Williams, a show where wife Louise (Isabel
Sanford) suffers amnesia after a knock on the head, and “A Bedtime
Story,” wherein Louise mistakes George’s problems with temporary
erectile dysfunction for insomnia when he begins habitually avoiding
her. In “George Finds a Father” (where an “N” bomb is casually dropped,
proving rap culture didn’t birth this trend), meanwhile, George must
contend with the realization that his beloved “uncle,” in actuality a
family friend, carried on an affair with his mother after his father’s
death. The main appeal of The Jeffersons is still Hemsley,
whose self-centered peacock strut still seems amusing, even if the
stories themselves are somewhat dated. Ever-keening Sanford’s line
readings are as halting as ever, though Marla Gibbs continues to wring
a few chuckles from her role as sassy, quick-witted maid Florence.

Spread out over three discs, The Jeffersons: The Complete Fifth Season
comes in gatefold packaging with a paper insert that includes episodic
summaries. The shows are presented in clean, 1.33:1 full-screen
transfers free of grain, with a Dolby digital 2.0 stereo track. There
are no supplemental extras. B- (Show) C- (Disc)