CBS aired the series finale of Good Times entitled “The End of the Rainbow”. It was in season six, episode 21. Directed by Gerren Keith and written by Michael G. Moye and Jacqueline Henken, this farewell installment tells the last story of the long suffering yet happy-to-be-alive Evans family. James (John Amos) is long dead and Florida (Esther Rolle) has shattered the punch bowl and uttered the immortal “Damn, damn, damn” and now it’s time for some seemingly real good times to visit their tenement dwelling.
For once it seems everybody is working. Thelma (Bern Nadette Stanis) has a husband named Keith (Ben Powers) who gets a football contract. Meanwhile JJ (Jimmie Walker) has created a comic book character based on Thelma called Dyno-Woman. They love it and now JJ has a steady job. Wilona (Ja’net Dubois) gets employment paying good money and so she moves on up with Little Penny (Janet Jackson) in tow. Michael (Ralph Carter) is in college so he’s not working and neither is Thelma, but that’s because she’s pregnant, not lazy. As a matter of fact they insists that Florida move in with them to help with the new baby (of course which is just what a woman of Florida’s age needed after raising three children of her own). However the real coincidence occurs when it turns out Wilona and Thelma’s family all moved into the same building (and never bragged about it to each other). And they all lived happily ever after in syndication.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
