Series Description

Sanford Arms was a 30 minute comedy series on NBC about a man raising two teenage children on his own and also trying to turn a beat up rooming house into a nice hotel. Unfortunately, a colorful cast of unusual characters failed to make the show a success.

Sanford Arms Cast

Teddy Wilson .... Phil Wheeler
LaWanda Page .... Esther Anderson
Tina Andrews .... Angie Wheeler
Don Bexley .... Bubba Hoover
John Earl .... Nathaniel "Nat" Wheeler
Bebe Drake .... Jeannie

Sanford Arms Trivia

Sanford Arms was a spin-off series of "Sanford and Son".

There were a couple of major reasons why The Sanford Arms didn't last very long. First, neither of the two main stars from Sanford and Son (Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson) made the move to this new series. Second, The Sanford Arms had some pretty stiff competition in its time slot with The Donnie and Marie Show on ABC and Wonder Woman on CBS!

Actually, the only reason that The Sanford Arms was produced in the first place was that Red Foxx left Sanford and Sons to star in a variety show on ABC and Demond Wilson was supposed to increase his role to make up for Foxx's absence. Then Demond apparently thought that his increased importance on the show was worth more money than NBC did and no compromise was reached. NBC decided to take as many of the secondary characters from Sanford and Son and rework the series into The Sanford Arms but, obviously, that didn't work so well. By the way, Redd Foxx's variety show didn't last one full season either.

There were four episodes of The Sanford Arms that were produced but not broadcast due to early cancellation of the series. Their titles were: "Young Love", "The TV Show", "The Wedding Reception", and "The Ernie Williams Memorial Golf Course".

Norman Lear was the executive producer on Sanford and Son but he declined to stay on in that job for The Sanford Arms. He did, however serve as a consultant for the new series. Lear was one of television's most successful producers. Some of his other series include "All in the Family", "Hot L Baltimore", "The Jeffersons", "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", "Maude", and "One Day at a Time"!

Unfortunately, the four episodes of The Sanford Arms that aired and the other four that didn't were not made available with the syndication package for Sanford and Son. The only time those episodes were seen after The Sanford Arms ended was in 1991 when BET (Black Entertainment Television) ran them.

There was another series titled simply, "Sanford" that ran for a couple of seasons beginning in the 1980-1981 season. Fred Sanford was back in the junk business but Lamont was still missing and the old charm of the loving conflict between father and son from Sanford and Son was not duplicated.

Episodes List With Original Air Dates

The First And Only Season

1. Bye, Fred; Hi, Phil (9/16/1977)
2. The Grandparents (9/23/1977)
3. Phil's Assertion School (9/30/1977)
4. Phil's Past (10/14/1977)