Antenna TV will celebrate The Jeffersons with a “Still Movin’ On Up: The Jeffersons 50 th Anniversary Marathon” starting ...

Many of the surviving cast members have retired and stayed out of the spotlight.

Sanford as Louise Jefferson, along with Mike Evans as their son Lionel, had been semi-regulars since 1971, but Hemsley, whom Lear wanted as the family patriarch, wasn’t available until 1973.

Gibbs herself played the Jeffersons' maid, Florence Johnston. At the time a TV novice and mother of three, Gibbs had been working as a reservation agent for United Airlines and figured she'd have a ...