Tell Us Your Favorite Good Times Episode!
50th Anniversary Campaign

February 8th, 2024 is the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking television series, Good Times. Created by Cabrini-Green Homes public housing resident Eric Monte, with Mike Evans, and developed by Executive Producer Norman Lear, “Good Times” changed America’s perception of Black family life.  Florida (Esther Rolle), James Evans (John Amos), and their three children, J.J.(Jimmie Walker), Thelma (Bern Nadette Stanis), and Michael (Ralph Carter), lived in apartment 17C at 963 N. Gilbert Ave, in an unnamed project, that was widely understood to be Cabrini-Green Homes, shown in the opening and closing credits. 

In partnership with Cabrini-Green Homes, Local Advisory President Maurice Edwards, we invite current and former Cabrini-Green Homes residents to call in or send a text message to (312) 854-9412 throughout February to share their favorite Good Times episodes and why as part of the curation for a future exhibit in our permanent museum space that will open this summer in Chicago’s Near West Side. 

Good Times was the first series to feature a recurring, intact Black two-parent nuclear family, the Evanses, on American primetime television. Before February 8, 1974, 293 sitcoms appeared on American television— the overwhelming majority of which included all-white characters, exalting middle-class values, and living in mostly suburban settings. Through its representation of Black community and Black culture, Good Times presented new images of Blackness through and community, challenging racial stereotypes and addressing post-civil rights era political issues such as school busing, teen pregnancy, white privilege, and racism.