Trivia: Long before Eddie Murphy, Andrew Dice Clay, or Howard Stern raised the ire of censors and threatened the delicate sensibilities of mainstream American good taste, there was Redd Foxx, arguably the most notorious "blue" comic of his day. Prior to finding fame in the 1970s as the star of the popular sitcom Sanford and Son, Foxx found little but infamy throughout the first several decades of his performing career; salty and scatological, his material broke new ground with its point-blank riffs and brazen discussions of sex and color, and although his party albums were generally banned from white-owned record stores, the comedian's funky narrative style and raspy delivery proved highly influential on comic talents of all ethnic backgrounds.Foxx was born John Elroy Sanford in St. Louis on December 9, 1922. While still in his teens, he became a professional performer, working as both a comedian and actor on the so-called "chitlin circuit" of black theaters and nightclubs. He formulated his stage name by combining an old nickname, "Red" (given because of his ruddy complexion), with the surname of baseball's Jimmie Foxx. After cutting a handful of explicit blues records in the mid-'40s, beginning in 1951 he often teamed with fellow comic Slappy White, a partnership which lasted through 1955. Foxx was performing at Los Angeles' Club Oasis when a representative from the tiny Dooto label contacted him about cutting an album. The comedian agreed, and was paid 25 dollars to record Laff of the Party, the first of over 50 albums of Foxx's racy anecdotes. An onslaught of Dooto releases followed, among them over half a dozen other Laff of the Party sets, The Sidesplitter, The New Race Track, Sly Sex, and New Fugg. His records were poorly distributed, and offered primarily in black neighborhoods. When they did appear in white record stores, they were sold under the counter. In the 1960s, Foxx signed to the MF label and his routines became even more explicit, as evidenced by titles like Laff Your Ass Off, Huffin' and a Puffin', I'm Curious (Black), 3 or 4 Times a Day, and Mr. Hot Pants. After a brief tenure on King, he signed to Loma, a division of Frank Sinatra's Reprise imprint. With records like Foxx A Delic and Live at Las Vegas, he became one of the very first performers to use four-letter words on major-label releases.As the 1960s wore on and long-standing cultural barriers began to crumble, Foxx's audience expanded, and he made a number of television appearances. In 1970, he made his film debut in Ossie Davis' Cotton Comes to Harlem. When the film became a surprise hit, Foxx became a hot talent, and soon signed to star in Sanford and Son, a retooled sitcom version of the British television hit Steptoe and Son. The series, which starred Foxx as junk dealer Fred Sanford, premiered in 1972 and became a huge hit, running through 1977. He also continued recording, issuing You Gotta Wash Your Ass, a live set taped at the Apollo Theater, in 1976. The short-lived programs Sanford, The Redd Foxx Show, and The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour followed; additionally, he starred in the 1976 feature Norman, Is That You?, and became a Las Vegas headliner.By the early '80s, Foxx's career hit the skids. By the end of the decade, however, his influence on the new breed of African-American comedians was openly acknowledged, and in 1989 Eddie Murphy tapped him to co-star in his black-themed crime-noir film Harlem Nights. Although the film flopped, Foxx's career was renewed, and in 1991 he began work on a new sitcom, The Royal Family. Tragically, he suffered a heart attack on the series' set and died on October 11, 1991. Still, even in death, Foxx's name remained synonymous with off-color comments; on an episode of the hit show Seinfeld broadcast several years later, Jason Alexander's character, George, was chastised for the "curse toast" he delivered at a friend's wedding, prompting an exasperated Jerry Seinfeld to exclaim, "You were like a Redd Foxx record up there!"

Trivia: Began his acting career at the age of 4 with an appearance in the Broadway play Green Pastures. Was drafted by the Army and served a tour of duty in Vietnam. Guest-starred on an Emmy-winning episode of All in the Family, which helped him earn a lead role on the popular sitcom Sanford and Son. Scaled back his acting work after experiencing a spiritual awakening and becoming a minister in 1983. Is also a writer whose works include several children's books and the memoir Second Banana: The Bitter Sweet Memoirs of the Sanford & Son Years.

Trivia: Much-loved funnyman Slappy White spent the bulk of his long career performing in nightclubs, particularly those catering to black audiences in Atlantic City, NJ and Las Vegas. He only occasionally appeared in feature films. Born Melvin White in Baltimore, Maryland, he was raised in poverty and started out dancing on the streets for small change. At one time, he partnered with Redd Foxx. Many years later, after both had become famous comics, they would sometimes perform together. White often drew upon the hardships of his early life to create his comedy. The wearing of a white and a black glove on either hand to symbolize the need for racial harmony was one of White's special trademarks. In 1969, White teamed with Steve Ross and they became one of the first successful racially mixed comedy acts. White made his feature-film debut with Ross in the silly sexploitation film The Man from O.R.G.Y. (1970). White sometimes appeared on television. In 1972, White played "Melvin" on Red Foxx's sitcom Sanford and Son. He also had a regular role on the 1995 children's series Fudge. He made his last film appearance in the Billy Crystal vehicle Mr. Saturday Night (1991). White was an honor board member and inductee in the National Comedy Hall of Fame.

Trivia: Against some very long odds -- including being blacklisted -- Charles S. Dubin enjoyed a long and honored career as a director, primarily on television. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1919, Dubin was attracted to the arts while attending Samuel J. Tilden High School, and set the goal for himself of being an opera singer -- indeed, he wanted to be the next Feodor Chaliapin. He attended Brooklyn College, studying drama with Joe Davidson, the father of director Gordon Davidson, and graduated in 1941. He later trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan under Sanford Meisner and also subsequently studied directing with Lee Strasberg. Dubin began performing in the Catskills, doing comedy, drama, and music, and was asked back as a director the following year. Thus began his directorial career, although standing six feet tall and extremely handsome, and possessed of a powerful voice, he couldn't avoid the inevitable offers of acting and singing work. After the Neighborhood Playhouse, Dubin moved on to the Papermill Playhouse and performed later professionally in Something for the Boys, understudying Allen Jenkins in the lead and in other productions, making his Broadway debut in early 1945; he also understudied William Gaxton and Victor Moore in Hollywood Pinafore, and performed with the Philadelphia Opera Company. Dubin was able to make the jump to the small screen when television became a commercially viable medium. In 1950, he was hired by ABC as an associate director and moved up to the director's chair a few months later; his first programs were Tales of Tomorrow, a science fiction anthology series, and a comedy series starring Peggy Ann Garner entitled Two Girls Named Smith. TV was all live in those days and Dubin became an expert at juggling actors, cameras, and microphones coherently and even artistically, on shows such as Motorola Playhouse, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, and Philco Playhouse. On Omnibus, his productions included Advice to Bathers with Esther Williams, William Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands, the opera The Ballad of Baby Doe, and a brace of programs featuring Leonard Bernstein (including Young People's Concerts: What Does Music Mean?) and Agnes de Mille, dealing with music and dance, respectively. His reputation for being able to deliver quality quickly also got Dubin his first theatrical film credit, for the Alan Freed jukebox movie Mr. Rock and Roll (1957), featuring Clyde McPhatter, Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, and an enviable array of other early rock & roll and R&B stars. By the mid-'50s he was working as the director of one of the medium's top-rated quiz shows, Twenty-One. In the spring of 1958, Dubin was called to testify by the House Un-American Activities Committee, in its investigation of alleged Communist infiltration in the television and theater industries. Dubin refused to testify, asserting his right to silence under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, invoking the right 22 times. He later explained that he was not, at that time, a Communist Party member and had never known of any activity contrary to the interests of the United States, but also believed in his right not to testify. He was never cited for contempt, but NBC and the producers of Twenty-One dismissed the married father of two the next day. He didn't work in television for the next three years, until the makers of the series The Defenders hired him as a director -- he followed that with an episode of The Virginian, and then The Nurses, and suddenly he was back. After directing the 1964 television production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical Cinderella, Dubin became one of the busiest directors in television over the next 25 years, on series such as Ironside, Bracken's World, Room 222, Judd for the Defense, Cannon, Hawaii Five-O, Kung Fu, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Lou Grant, Sledge Hammer, and Matlock, though he probably made his greatest impact on the series M*A*S*H, for which he directed more than 50 episodes. In the mid-'70s, he also moved into miniseries and made-for-television features, among them episode two of Roots: The Next Generations and the 1979 remake of Topper with Kate Jackson and Andrew Stevens. He also directed his second feature film, Moving Violation (1976), a chase-thriller similar in plot to Richard Compton's Macon County Line (1974). Most of his work was confined to television, however, and beyond his activities for the commercial networks, Dubin also did top-notch work for PBS, including a special devoted to Agnes de Mille, and acclaimed dramas including The Belle of Amherst, starring Julie Harris. By the mid-'80s he had ten Emmy nominations to his credit, and was equally at home doing serious, high-brow subjects or light comedies. Dubin retired after 1989 at the age of 70, after 39 years in television and 48 years in entertainment. He died in 2011 at the age of 92.

Trivia: Marlene Clark, a black supporting actress and occasional lead, appeared on screen beginning in the '70s.