Nathan Bookman

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Nathan Bookman was a fictional character in the television show Good Times. He was played by actor Johnny Brown.

[edit] Buffalo Butt

Nathan, referred to as simply "Bookman", was the sometimes inept; often indolent and at times, scheming, building superintendent of the housing project resided by Florida Evans and her family and Willona Woods. Bookman was knowledgeable in the inner workings of the building, but was often fooling around when he should have been working.

The Evans children, J.J. Evans, Thelma Evans, Michael Evans; as well as Willona and even Florida have, at one point or another, called him by the unflattering nicknames of "Buffalo Butt" or, in Willona's case, "Booger". More often as not, J.J. would call him "Lardo" in reference to his weight.

He has often threatened to evict the Woods and Evans families, but he has never done so, because he knows that without them, his life would have been empty. He occassionally is shown to have personal issues in common with the Evans family and extented family: he was adopted like Willona's daughter Penny and had the same heart operation that Florida's second husband Carl had (performed by the same doctor). He was married to a shrew of a wife, and although she was rarely seen, she made it clear that she ran the roost. He once claimed to have an affair with Willona to hide the fact that he was studying for his GED.

His antics have often caused the two families trouble, and thusly, has landed him in hot water, more times than not. One of his schemes almost jeopardized Willona's adopting child abuse victim Penny Gordon Woods, although his intentions were good in that instance. However, despite Bookman's antics, Willona did succeed in adopting the little girl, and it was shown that Bookman had helped convince the social worker assigned to the case to reconsider her initial decision. Even Penny got into the act of insulting Bookman. In her first appearance, she also called him "Buffalo Butt", which cemented her place into the family.