15 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Sanford and Son’

4. The Theme Was Composed By…

Music icon Quincy Jones was commissioned to draft the now iconic theme song “The Streetbeater,” a short tune that has become so synonymous with the show that it’s very mention calls to mind a rusty old pickup truck driving down the streets of Los Angeles.

5. Red Foxx Missed Nine Episodes

In the second season, viewers were told that Fred Sanford had gone back to his hometown of St. Louis to tend to a cousin’s funeral. In truth, though, Foxx had walked off the show as part of a contract dispute over his salary. For the rest of the season, the show focused on Lamont. Happily Foxx came back at the beginning of the following year.

6. It Shares DNA With ‘All if the Family’

If Fred Sanford’s race-oriented, comically mean-spirited, social commentary sitcom approach seemed at all familiar to you, it should. Sanford and Son was produced by Norman Lear and the same team responsible for unleashing cantankerous bigot Archie Bunker on the world.