James Evans, Sr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Evans Sr. is a fictional character portrayed by John Amos in the 1970s American sitcom Good Times, from 1974 to 1976. He was born in Mississippi in 1932, and grew up in poverty on a farm. His father, Henry Evans, left the family when he was a young child. James served in the US Army and was sent to Korea. After leaving the Army, he eventually moved to Chicago, Illinois at the age of 20 where he met Florida, the woman who later became his wife. After James and Florida got married, they had their first child James Evans Jr. (also known as "J.J."). Their second child was a girl they named Thelma Ann Evans. At this time, they were living in a cold water flat where the only bathroom was in the hallway. When Florida became pregnant with their third child Michael Evans, they moved to an apartment in a housing project (implicitly the infamous Cabrini-Green projects, shown in the opening and closing credits but never mentioned by name on the show) in a poor, African American neighborhood in inner-city Chicago, Illinois. They lived in the projects, with the odds of their getting out stacked against them. But James was the hard-working father who kept the Evans family together. He worked at minimum wage jobs such as a carwash attendant and a dish washer to support his family. He also worked in construction, and was made assistant foreman on at least one building project. Although James can be stern and has a strong temper at times, he is a warm and loving father and husband with a sharp sense of humor.
In the third and fourth season of the show, James went to night school to complete his G.E.D., and afterwards was offered a construction job in Alaska and various other places away from Chicago, and even got to see his long lost father Henry again. In the opening show of the fourth season, his children and wife Florida learned that James was killed in a car accident in Jackson, Mississippi. The episode where his character was killed off was The Big Move.
John Amos' portrayal of James Evans Sr. is frequently cited as perhaps the most realistic depiction of an African-American father in television history. James' death is almost universally recognized as the moment when Good Times "jumped the shark".
James Evans Sr. serves as the template for other strong African-American TV fathers, including Lester Jenkins (227), Phillip Banks (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), Kenny Chadway (Soul Food), and the title character of The Bernie Mac Show.
