He particularly objected to the increasing prominence of the character of his son JJ, played by Walker, who had the catchphrase “dyn-o-mite”.
“I felt too much emphasis was being put on JJ in his chicken hat, saying ‘dy-no-mite!’ every third page,” Amos recalled.
“I felt just as much emphasis and mileage could have been gotten out of my other two children, one of whom aspired to become a Supreme Court justice, played by Ralph Carter, and the other, [played by] BernNadette Stanis, who aspired to become a surgeon.
“But I wasn’t the most diplomatic guy in those days, and [the producers] got tired of having their lives threatened over jokes.
“So they said, ‘Tell you what, why don’t we kill him off? We can get on with our lives!’
“That taught me a lesson – I wasn’t as important as I thought I was to the show or to Norman Lear’s plans.”
Good Times was adapted in the UK in 1976 as The Fosters, the first British sitcom with an all-black cast.
Norman Beaton played the father, with Lenny Henry in one of his early roles as one of his sons.
