Story Behind the "Good Times" Theme Song

Now'days I have some time on my hands during the morning, so I've been taste testing the original and syndicated shows on TV One, the BET competitor cable network that launched a few years ago.

Original show: Black Men Revealed, a "The View"-type talk show, minus the women and white people.  The topics oscillate from silly to serious, which annoyed me at first, but now I appreciate what they're trying to do. TiVo the "Black Male Myths" episode, and feel free to skip the "Black Men and Marriage" pilot.

Syndicated show: Good Times, who's co-creator died late last year. I relate to this poor Black family dealing with their down-and-out troubles with so much heart and humor. They remind me of my own family's unfortunate travels from Harlem's Wagner Projects, to a nice house in Long Island, then back to Harlem's Polo Grounds Projects. Unlike the Cosby Show, which I also love, Good Times shows no sign of being self-conscious, and I feel as if the writers are speaking to me in the secret Black code that White folks aren't supposed to understand.

Y'know - the way hip-hop used to be.

One of my dudes passed me an interview with the Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the duo who wrote the Good Times theme. A snippet of the story:

You wrote the lyrics to the Good Times theme. Have you seen the Chappelle’s Show skit “I Know Black People”?

Both: No!

Chappelle played a quiz-show host, testing contestants’ knowledge of black culture. The question that stumped them all involved a lyric from “Good Times,” “hangin’ in a chow line.”

Marilyn: Well there’s no such line!

Alan: It’s “hanging out and jiving.”

Marilyn: No, it’s “hanging in and jiving.” I have to look it up. Norman Lear asked us to write a theme for that show, as he did for…what else?

Alan:Maude!

Marilyn: Yes. But for Good Times, he didn’t have a title. We came up with it for the song—

Alan: And Quincy Jones sang the demo."

And a quote about hip-hop lyricism:

Would you agree that with hip-hop, there has been a resurgence of attention paid to lyrics?

Marilyn: Oh, yes. Just the other day we were looking at the lyric to “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” It’s very serious and extremely interesting. A lot of interesting text, lyrics—whatever you want to call them—are coming from hip-hop writers and the urban community. It’s because they’re about something.

Yup. We're about something.

Comments

[Mike Rubinate]

Did the cast sing the Good Times theme?

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Unlike the Cosby Show, which I also love, Good Times shows no sign of being self-conscious, and I feel as if the writers are speaking to me in the secret Black code that White folks aren't supposed to understand.