Beautiful theme song. You dont hear this high quality TV theme anymore the way you did back then when TV shows had really good theme songs. In fact, some might say, TV and music in general was better back in the 70s. Glad I got to experience it
Hearing this brings back memories of some good times. I was still a kid, life was carefree and less complicated, the world seemed less dangerous, and most importantly, my mom and dad were still alive and we had a great family life. I really miss those times, but hearing the Good Times theme song makes me fondly remember and relish those memories. And I loved the show Good Times.
It reminds me of being poor, hungry, cold and the chaos that was our life. We were rural poor. We knocked a hole in the wall and made a wood stove out of scrap. We ate our pet milk cow and I think a few cats, never knew the truth about that. The frost and ice would form on our walls as the snow fines would drift in. Kids at school brutalising us as we had so little and it drove my mom crazy. Still, we grew up and never went to prison or jail. My mom was down to a dress and a pair of jeans. Dad worked when and where he could. Just no jobs. Everyone was losing the farms around us. Too proud to ask for food stamps. We would rather die. I always identified with the mom. Strong and just. Do the right thing. I met her as an adult. An amazing lady. The looking for work. Standing in a job line. Getting government cheese when I worked in the job corps. We need the food. I lied about my age. Hyperinflation of the era. Still, I love the song. Aint we lucky we got them, ..good times. Also, it reminds me of going to Chicago very young to look for opportunity. I stayed not far from the Green. River North....... wow how it has changed.
I use to watch those shows in reruns on TBS SuperStation back in the 80's and 90's and now it's on TV One WGN SuperStation also aired reruns of Good Times and The Jeffersons as well
"Just lookin' out of the window. Watchin' the asphalt grow. Thinkin' how it all looks hand-me-down. Good Times, yeah, yeah Good Times" Always liked those lyrics in the closing credits!
The 1970's was a golden era of good TV programming and classic opening and ending theme songs. In those days, there were really 5 or 6 options on TV - the 3 major networks, PBS, and a couple of UHF stations. So everyone pretty much watched the same shows and and we all had shared experiences Also, it was a time for breakout stars that were not the main characters of the shows: Esther Role was the main character of "Good Times", but Jimmy Walker was the star; Ron Howard was the main character of "Happy Days" but Henry Winkler was the star; Gabe Kaplan was the main character of "Welcome Back, Kotter" but John Travolta became the star. Looking back, there was more good television then than there is now in 2019, though today there are more stations. People are more disconnected from each other now and that's a shame.
When I'm in Old Town in Chicago walking around in the backdrop of where they shot the closing with the El train, this song often plays in my head. It looks like they filmed the projects exterior at Cabrini Green, which is now torn down.
Yes! The show was set in Cabrini Green. I landed here from reading an article about Cabrini Green! I grew up watching Good Times, and I never knew that factoid about the show! The theme song somehow tugs at my heartstrings and rolls a wave of nostalgia over me!
Good Times. Any time you meet a payment. - Good Times. Any time you need a friend. - Good Times. Any time you're out from under. Not getting hassled, not getting hustled. Keepin' your head above water, Making a wave when you can. Temporary lay offs. - Good Times. Easy credit rip offs. - Good Times. Scratchin' and surviving. - Good Times. Hangin and Enjoyin - Good Times. Ain't we lucky we got 'em - Good Times. CLOSING THEME LYRICS Mmmmmm Just lookin' out of the window. Watchin' the asphalt grow. Thinkin' how it all looks hand-me-down. Good Times, yeah, yeah Good Times Keepin' your head above water Makin' a wave when you can Temporary lay offs. - Good Times. Easy credit rip offs. - Good Times. Ain't we lucky we got 'em - Good Tim
I always wonder where all those kids are today. The ones you see at the intro & outro of the show. First are the ones seen running away from the camera, riding bikes, etc. Then the ones seen during the extended end music walking by the camera. They look like older kids. Around high school age. That one girl, quickly shown, with the big afro stood out.
I had forgotten what a beautiful song this is.. and beautifully sung !! I don't know why that chord at 00:16 when they say ''keeping your head above water'' always tugs my heart. This song is actually better than a lot of today's music!! And does anybody know who sung this? Was it the cast of the show?
This was a damn good show. Best theme song ever, in my opinion. I could relate having been raised in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago (mostly Polish and Mexican, though).
The apartment used was the notorious Cabrini Green housing projects. Beginning and end you see a mini travelogue of Chicago(IE Merchandise Mart, John Hancock building, Marina City, and The Loop).
I'd assume most are still living, must own the dvds & feel proud each time they see it! It must be especially cool when they catch reruns on tv! If anyone here *is* one of those kids or are connected to any of those kids (all would be in their 50s by now), it'd be cool to read some insight on the filming of those clips.
Norman Lear was the best tv Producer ever. He wasn't afraid of the tough issues or controversy, and he presented the toughest issues in the most entertaining manner. Good Times and All in the Family are tied for my all-time favorite tv show- both Norman Lear masterpieces. 👍
marioTmaggot hey minorities simply have a different experience in America than whites. This is how blacks have always dealt with adversity - turn it into music. Not to celebrate the tragedy and vile nature of white supremacy but because misery loves company. Music could carry you that one more step you didn't think you could take because others would start to sing to let you know you aren't suffering alone.
OptimisticCynic715 Lol, smh. Why do white people always feel the need to equivocate? Okay so are there poor white people? Of course there are. Are there white people who understand adversity? Of course there are and have always been. Are there beautiful white people with good souls that fought and bled and died with blacks every step of the way? Of course there has always been all the way back to the beginning (and God bless them). That's not the point. The point is that blacks were strategically segregated and discriminated into ghettos. Blacks . . . the entire race was segregated and discriminated against. Blacks never had a choice. They couldn't escape bigotry, and hatred, and discrimination not even for a minute. The good white people that chose to struggle and fight the fight with black people had a choice. Poor white people, even the ones dying of black lung had options and choices and always did. Choices and options that blacks didn't.
John there was a scene in the movie Platoon when King - played by Keith David, tells Charlie Sheen's character Taylor - "everybody know the poor always getting fucked over by the rich, always have . . . {takes a drag off a joint then passes it to Taylor in a way to say welcome to reality bro} . . . always will." Sorry for using a movie to make that point, but welcome to reality bro. If I had a joint I'd pass it to you. What happened in Michigan is a True travesty beyond words. I actually work in that field believe it or not, so I am well aware of how devastating lead is. And yes it is incomprehensible how permanently, detrimentally those people's lives will be affected. I mean how do you compensate someone for a child who will be mentally disabled for life? You mentioned that because water is a public utility and the public office holders responsible are public employees they are offered legal defense funded by public dollars and how unfair that is. I can do you one better. Those children are going to require a lifetime of social, educational, mental, legal, and health services all of which technically, legally, the tax payers will also be on the hook for. So on the flip side, how do you punish someone for all that? I'm almost certain that no one involved who is responsible has the personal resources to provide any significant relief to the families or the state financially. And putting them to death solves nothing because those children still have a lifetime of hardship and struggle ahead of them. So what's the answer? Well personally I think forcing the people responsible to drink 2 liters of the most contaminated water everyday for the length of time they had unsuspecting residents drinking it would be a good start. I think watching them go insane from lead poisoning would be gratifying and cathartic.
In hard times, we like to celebrate the Good Times. That "hell" you speak of produces beautiful and stronger people. And yes, this show is a classic of American TV.
When I was a kid I thought at the Ending Credits, The Girls were in a Reform School. I had no idea that Chicago, Ill was a Northern Mecca for Southern Blacks. So much History. Chess Records, Soul Train, Ebony Magazine, and home to Veejay Records that The Impressions recorded For Your Precious Love that was played on American Bandstand when it was still based in Philly.
Still my favorite opening & closing credits theme song. Music was so much better then, as was television. Actually, pretty much everything was better. Glad I was there for the good times.
Until now, I never noticed that the opening credits pans from the city into their apartment, and the closing credits pan from their apartment out into the city.
That closing theme especially gets me every time. It has a world-weary bittersweet philosophy to it - hard-won experience undercutting the more carefree innocence of the opening theme's high spirits. The shows cross-racial appeal seemed to show that working poor whites and blacks could come together. Little did we know how deep the divisions would still be forty years later.
Willona should have been arrested for fraud. There is no reason she should have been living in subsidized housing, she had a good job working at the boutique and was single also if she was so poor living in the projects, what kind of adoption agency would let her adopt a child?
Exactly, and they were writing him into more and more episodes and putting a spotlight on him more. John Amos was a great role model; he portrayed a father who would do whatever it took to provide for his family, a lot of times he worked two or three jobs that he hated. What I really hated was the way they just wrote him out of the series without giving him any kind of send-off, they just killed him off.
Indeed, if I was Robert Wood, president of the CBS Television Network at the time, I would have demanded that Norman Lear and his producers reinstate Amos, and if they refused to comply, I would have yanked every single show they produced off the CBS schedule, and I would have also blacklisted them so they couldn't get jobs anywhere else.
I don't blame him cause I'd be sick of it too. Esther Rolle was fed up also and she left after the end of the 4th season. I couldn't stand Jimmie Walker, he's arrogant and obnoxious and he always wanted to be the center of attention. AND he did NOT attend Esther Rolle's funeral when she passed away nearly 20 years ago.
+jim hatten in my opinion bernadette and jimmke were the stars of the show they made the show agreed? how long ago did miss esther pass? she was beautiful
That's the great Jim Gilstrap on lead vocals. He's also the first voice you hear on Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" with Lani Groves before Stevie sings.
I was born in 1978 but remember watching reruns of this as a kid. I swear shows like this will never come around again. So much garbage on TV these days. Gone are the days where shows meant something and taught America important morality lessons. Sigh.
It reminds me of being poor, hungry, cold and the chaos that was our life. We were rural poor. We knocked a hole in the wall and made a wood stove out of scrap. We ate our pet milk cow and I think a few cats, never knew the truth about that. The frost and ice would form on our walls as the snow fines would drift in. Kids at school brutalising us as we had so little and it drove my mom crazy. Still, we grew up and never went to prison or jail. My mom was down to a dress and a pair of jeans. Dad worked when and where he could. Just no jobs. Everyone was losing the farms around us. Too proud to ask for food stamps. We would rather die. I always identified with the mom. Strong and just. Do the right thing. I met her as an adult. An amazing lady. The looking for work. Standing in a job line. Getting government cheese when I worked in the job corps. We need the food. I lied about my age. Hyperinflation of the era. Still, I love the song. Aint we lucky we got them, ..good times. Also, it reminds me of going to Chicago very young to look for opportunity. I stayed not far from the Green. River North....... wow how it has changed.
Seems like most of Norman Lear's sitcom theme songs have the theme end on a long note, like "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons," "One Day at a Time," this, and the short-lived "Checking In." However, I was listening to a song called "Operator" from The Manhattan Transfer and it definitely sounded like it could've been for a Norman Lear sitcom.
Great song. And nice editing - pairing the intro and end credits. My favorite, "temporary lay-offs", "making a wave when you can", and "scatchin' and survivin'" - so depressing but so true.
OPENING THEME LYRICS Good Times. Any time you meet a payment. - Good Times. Any time you need a friend. - Good Times. Any time you're out from under. Not getting hassled, not getting hustled. Keepin' your head above water, Making a wave when you can. Temporary lay offs. - Good Times. Easy credit rip offs. - Good Times. Scratchin' and surviving. - Good Times. Hangin in a chow line - Good Times. Ain't we lucky we got 'em - Good Times.
Sadly, people who have jobs sometimes are not able to afford to feed their families. The theme song is about life in the projects in Chicago, not necessarily the Evans family specifically but overall life in the projects during this period of time (which, unfortunately, is the same life for some today).
I love this show and this song, and it has nothing to do with being black or white. I am white and shows like this and All in the family are important because they depict a certian time in history and we can see the progression through history of ideas through these types of shows.
Why would they do an interview? Because the songwriters, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, are very famous in the music world and have written for some of the most famous singers ever including MJ and Sinatra. So sometimes people like to ask them questions.
Both David Letterman and Jay Leno used to write for this show very early in their careers, and they knew Jimmy Walker from the LA stand-up circuit. Connections. It's all about connections.
The last line was not "Hangin' in a chow line". It was "Hangin' in and jivin'. Bern Nadette Stanis confirmed that on an episode if TVOne's "Life After".
Anyone notice the ending song the people walking in the background? They look like they mean business pretty focused on the camera, I wonder who they are. Did the camera just film anywhere and kept that footage?
