Nathan Bookman

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Nathan Bookman
First appearance The Family Business
Last appearance The End of the Rainbow
Portrayed by Johnny Brown
Information
Nickname(s) Buffalo Butt
Booger (by the Evans family and Willona Woods, respectively)
Species Male
Gender Male
Age 39-43
Date of birth 1935
Occupation Janitor (1974-1977)
Landlord (1977-present)
Spouse(s) Violet Bookman

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 where Florida Evans, her family and Willona Woods resided. 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 often threatened to evict Woods and the Evans family, but he never did, because he knew that without them, his life, as well as his stomach would have been empty. He is occasionally shown to have personal issues in common with the Evans, for instance: he was adopted like Willona's daughter Penny and had the same cancer operation that Florida's second husband Carl had (performed by the same doctor). He was married to a shrew of a wife named Violet, and although she was rarely seen, she made it clear that she ran the roost and wore the pants. He once claimed to have an affair with Willona to hide the fact that he was studying for his GED.

His antics often caused the two families trouble, and thus, 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.