Original subtitles

Well, we're moving on up. We're moving on up. To the side. We're moving on up.

To a deep.

Neither can I, Florence.

I mean, I'm all for getting new furniture, but that price was a bit

A bit?

Shoot, with the money y 'all spent, y 'all could have got Chrysler out of

trouble.

Well, George wanted the best furniture money could buy, so we had to shop at

Moreau's. Oh, I can't wait till it gets in.

Neither can George.

He's been so excited, he's just like a little kid.

Damn.

now, but his mouth just went through puberty.

Willis is a jerk.

I just tried to call him, wasn't no answer.

Boy, they ought to bring back the death penalty for that one.

See that guy?

I mean, our new living room furniture is about to be delivered any minute, and I

can't even find Willis to make him feel miserable.

He's gonna be so sorry he missed that.

George, why can't we just enjoy our new furniture instead of rubbing people's

noses in it?

Because we, in this life, there are two kinds of people. The rubbies and the

rubbers.

Now, I have spent most of my life being a rubby.

But then, by using my head and rising to the top, though I may appear on the

outside to be a rubby, in here is all rubber.

Want to take a shot at it?

No,

it's too easy.

Here,

here.

Oh, I'll get it.

No, hold on. I'll get it, Mr. Jefferson.

What kind of time do you want me to get this? Well, you don't know that.

Hello,

Mr. Jefferson.

I was just wondering if I might...

But never mind, I've taken enough already.

No, no, Mr.

Bentley. We were just expecting some new furniture.

Oh, good. This room could use some. Oh, yeah, well, if you want to see our new

furniture, be here around 7 .30 tonight.

Actually, I planned on taking Trudy out for an elegant dinner tonight. I really

want to impress her.

Hey, you want to impress her? 7 .30, baby, right here.

I got to call Wolf.

George, I don't think it's right.

Using our new furniture just to impress the neighbors.

Oh, come on, Winston. We're going to be sitting on it, too.

Oh, it's too late. Furniture's here.

Is this the Jefferson residence?

It sure is. Good.

I've got the delivery from Morose. Tell your boss.

Wait a minute. I am my boss. I am George Jefferson.

You? Yeah, me.

Well, all right.

Listen, gentlemen, I want you to be extra careful with Mr. Jefferson's

furniture. This isn't bargain basement stuff.

Hi, Jimmy. I'm Louise Jefferson.

Nice meeting you, Mrs. Jefferson.

And I'm Florence Johnson.

How are you doing?

Mr. Jefferson, could I have a glass of water? Would that be all right? Sure.

Hey, Florence, why don't you give Jimmy some water? Sure, follow me.

Oh,

George, aren't they beautiful?

And they go so well with the new carpet.

Yeah. There's only one thing missing.

What? Tom Willis.

No way, Florence.

Even if I could afford furniture from Morose, I ain't got nowhere to put it.

Where do you live?

Well, right now with my brother out in Queens.

I used to live in Harlem, right near the old Greenlight Dance Hall.

The Greenlight?

Yeah. You know where it is?

I sure do. I used to live next door to it. No kidding.

So I guess you know they're tearing down the block, huh?

They are?

Yeah. The city's putting up some new buildings down there. It's just a shame

about the green lights. Oh, excuse me for a minute.

Oh, come on, Willis, old buddy.

Look, I can't tell you what the surprise is.

You got to come down here and see for yourself.

Oh, man, you can watch the best of the Flintstones anytime.

George. I just found out they're tearing down the building I grew up in. Oh,

that's too bad.

George, I know this sounds silly, but I never thought about my building being

torn down before.

Me neither. I remember when I was a little girl in that house. Whenever

I got caught doing something bad, Mother used to always send me to

my room.

Of course, my sister Maxine could get away with murder.

But I must have spent most of my childhood in that room.

And then, you know, whenever I got sent to my room, I'd pretend my old

glass doorknobs were diamonds.

And that when I grow up, I'd take them and sell them and be the richest woman

the whole wide world.

That's cute, Will.

So look, Willis. Hello.

Willis? Damn it, he humped.

I gotta go up and get him.

Oh, would you take me to see my building before they tear it down? Yeah, sure.

You better hurry. They're tearing it down tomorrow.

Tomorrow? Oh, George, we've got to go see it tonight.

Tonight? We can't go tonight.

We've got new furniture.

Bentley's coming. The Willows are coming. This is a big night for them.

Oh, Miss Jefferson, I made fresh coffee for everybody. You want some?

No.

I'll be back to Lawrence.

Where are you going?

To my room.

To her room?

Hey! Ain't you taking the money?

Hello?

Anybody here?

I have a dog with me.

I'm glad my mother's not here to see this room.

She would have probably made me clean it up.

Oh, my favorite corner.

Oh, and my dress used to be right here next to the bed.

Whenever I woke up, I'd always have my toy dog, Ruru, to watch over me.

Gee, I wonder what ever happened to Ruru.

Oh, yeah.

Maxine pulled his front paws off that time she tried to dance with him.

Of course, Maxine always was hard -headed.

I just wonder why she never seemed to get in any trouble.

It was always me.

Always me.

started it. Now get into that room and don't come out till tomorrow morning.

You hear me, child?

But what about supper?

You heard what I said now.

Maxine started it.

Shoot. I don't care.

I didn't want no supper anyway.

Keep your raggedy supper.

We don't care if Maxine gets supper.

Cause she don't know that we can sell those doorknobs and be ripped as Lena

Horne, right?

And then we can run away and never see Maxine again.

Mama would like that cause she likes Maxine better than us, right?

Yeah, I know.

So what do we do now?

We ought to just stay in here and never eat again.

So Mama's so sorry for us, huh?

Yeah, you're right.

Just because we're never going to eat again, it doesn't mean we have to starve

to death.

Who is it?

Who's there?

Oh,

thank God.

Oh, there you are.

Now, how did you get in there?

Somebody still thinks this house is good enough

to stay in.

I used to live here myself, you know.

As a matter of fact, that hole in the wall over there used to be the heating

duct where I kept my diary.

And of all the entries I ever put in that diary, there's

still one I remember the most.

Dear diary, guess what?

Today's the day I finally kissed Dennis Walker.

Whoever said kissing was neat?

Sure never kissed Dennis Walker.

He leaned his head the wrong way, the gap between his teeth kept making me

laugh, and he even kisses with his eyes open.

I know, because I peed.

But all I know is, kissing sure isn't as great as Maxine says it is, and I'm not

going to do it again for a long, long time.

Signed, Louise Mills.

P .S.

But then again, why should I suffer just because Dennis can't get it right?

Dennis Walker must have finally got it right.

Last I heard, he had 12 kids.

I don't believe it.

Yep, that's the alarm all right. It's still there.

Oh, no matter what we were trying to get away with, that alarm.

was a hotline to Mama's room.

One time, my cousin Deborah was spending the night with me, and we were sneaking

in late.

Oh, it was about one or two in the morning.

Come on, Louise, be quiet before you wake your mother.

I can't help it, Deborah. It's just so funny the way you and that lanky David

Taylor looked at the dance tonight. I mean, he's got to be eight feet tall.

He's six feet five and fine, thank you.

Six, five, maybe.

Fine, forget it.

Let's not talk about boyfriends, because that George Jefferson ain't exactly no

Cal Calloway.

You're just jealous because George is going to join the Navy like a man.

David could have joined the service, but they said he had flat feet.

Yeah, they match his butt.

Louise, you got a mouth on you as bad as Maxine.

Look, I don't talk about my sister since she ran off and left us.

Okay.

Okay. All I'm saying is that if your mother heard you talking like that,

smack your face.

Shoot, Mama don't scare me. I'm grown.

Now let's get to bed before she wakes up. Okay.

Watch out for the alarm.

You was out running around with that sorry old Jefferson boy again.

No, Mama. Child, if you lie to me, I'll skin you.

Okay, I was okay.

Girl, you're going to do what I tell you to do.

As long as you stay black, you're going to obey me, Louise.

But, Mama. Now, just hush up, because I told you what time to be in this house.

Now, I'm going to get the belt.

But, Mama, wait.

Deborah Ann, too, because if she would sleep for real, she would have woke up

now.

You know, I don't know what was worse, the beating itself or the speech that

came with it.

Oh, but Mama wasn't all that bad.

She loved us.

We loved her, and we all loved this house.

Oh, it always was a hard place to leave.

Can I come in?

Um, sure, Mama. Come in. It's open.

Oh, let me see my baby.

Oh, Louise, that dress looks every bit as good on you as it did the day I wore

it. Thanks, Mama. Oh, I'm so proud of you.

Oh, honey,

what's the matter?

Don't you feel well?

I don't know.

Got the butterflies, don't you?

I guess.

Well, that's natural.

But don't worry, because you got a good man, and that's the important thing.

Well, when George and me got engaged, you kept saying, with so many fish in

sea, how come you had to catch a guppy?

Oh, shoot.

I was just teasing, child.

I knew you wouldn't listen to me anyway.

But something else is troubling you, ain't it?

Come on, then. You can tell me.

Well, Mama, it's just that I don't feel right leaving you all alone.

With Maxine gone, you'll be all by yourself now.

Girl, is that all?

I just remember how upset you got when Maxine ran away.

Listen, Maxine was different.

Maxine was always different.

I know.

Louise, I never told you this before, but you remember all them times when it

looked like I was favoring Maxine over you?

Yeah.

Well, you probably won't believe it, but I was really favoring you over Maxine.

Oh, yeah.

And when you're a mother, you'll see why, too.

You're going to be able to look at your children and tell which one has the

goodness in her and which one doesn't.

And as sure as I'm sitting here, you're going to treat that good child just the

way I treated you.

But shouldn't they all get treated alike?

Yeah, they should.

But they don't.

Maxine wasn't a bad child.

She always had a little devilment in her. So when she tried to drag you in

mess, I would just jump on you a little harder because I knew you knew better.

You understand?

Don't get me wrong, when Maxine left, I was upset because it hurt me.

But you ain't running nowhere, Louise.

Oh, you're making me proud.

And you know you should be proud, too.

Because you ain't hardly losing a home.

You see, I've heard that Jefferson boy run his mouth.

It's like gaining another me.

Now go on.

Go on, fix yourself up. That preacher see you looking like that, he gonna

that that man's been knocking you in your head. Now go on.

What's the matter?

Nothing. I was just thinking.

You know what I used to do when I was little?

What? I used to pretend these doorknobs were diamonds.

And all I'd have to do was sell them and I could buy anything I wanted to.

So embarrassing, all that kid stuff.

Uh -uh, child.

You just keep right on hoping for the future.

That Jefferson boy's got potential.

You, you never know. He might accidentally amount to something one

But no matter what happens, Louise, always look ahead. You hear?

You're on your own now.

So don't look back.

Don't you ever look back.

Hey, Louise.

It's George.

Louise, it's one and one. That pizza charge is about an hour. Oh, yeah,

honey. You're going to do just fine.

Louise, come on.

Come on.

Wheezy! Wheezy!

Wheezy!

Wheezy! You in there?

Huh?

George? Is that you, Wheezy?

Yeah, I'm in my old bedroom.

So there you are. Hi, George.

I've been worrying all about you. You should be running around in these

buildings this time of night. You could be hurt or something.

I'm sorry, George.

But I just had to come back.

What? Oh,

just to look around and reminisce.

This old building holds a lot of memories for me.

Smiles and sighs, laughs and cries.

You've been cutting those poems out of Reader's Digest again.

I knew you wouldn't understand.

It's just that when they tear down this building tomorrow...

it'll be like I'm losing my whole childhood.

Oh, that's not true, Weezy. Just because they're tearing down this building,

they ain't a wrecking ball in the world that can tear down your memories.

I guess you're right, George.

Hmm.

You know, this must have been a pretty nice little room on this day.

Yeah. You never got to see it.

Are you kidding?

Your mother wouldn't allow me within 50 feet of this room.

Look, boy, if they wanted you there, they wouldn't have put doors on the

Yeah, I forgot about that.

Me too.

Well, uh, look, um, I got a taxi downstairs, but if you're ready.

Oh, uh, in just a second.

Oh, uh, would you take this cat and turn him loose outside?

I'm afraid that they might not see him tomorrow when they, you know... Oh,

sure, Lisa.

I'll be out in a second. I just want to say goodbye, okay?

Oh, okay, okay.

Uh, you know, just take all the time you need.

Look what you did. It'll make you feel any better.

I really hate to see him tear it down, too.

Thank you, George.