Original subtitles

Good times. Any time you need a payment. Good times. Any time you need a break.

Good times. Any time you're up and under.

Not getting hassled. Not getting hustled.

Keeping your head above water.

Making a way when you can.

Temporary layoffs. Good times. Easy credit ripoffs. Good times.

Scratching and surviving. Good times.

This here box was able to hold 24 cans of Alpo.

Now you know it ought to hold whatever you cook.

Are you sure we'd rather be going to the game than sitting at home watching it

on TV?

Are you kidding, Penny? There's nothing like going to a football game in person.

But it's freezing outside, and the seats are hot, and the people are always

jumping up so you can't see, and they're always dripping mustard on you from

their hot dogs.

So where are we going?

Yeah, why are we going home? It's a great game. And besides, there are two

teams playing.

The Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions.

How come they name football teams after animals?

Honey, have you ever seen what they do to each other on that field?

Punching each other, scratching, kicking, pulling hair. I ain't seen

like that since last night on the bus.

I got it, Mr. Miguel.

Six football tickets, smack dab on the 50 -yard line. All right. Yeah. And

Thelma, make sure you make plenty of food there.

Uh, since when you start liking my cooking?

Not me, Thelma. It's for the Detroit Lions.

See, while they're holding their stomachs on the ground, Chicago Bears be

running all over.

JJ, since we have six tickets and there are only five of us, can I call a date

and ask her if she wants to come with me? No, no, Mr. Miguel.

I already invited a young lady I've been trying to get next to for a little

while by the name of Boom Boom Belinda.

Why do they call her Boom Boom?

Oh, because she works in the cannonball factory. You know, Boom Boom.

Boom Boom.

Hey, y 'all.

Did y 'all know that Fishbone's back in the old neighborhood?

You mean...

Well, let me put it to you this way, Penny.

In wine country, you have a plaque up to him.

To Fishbone the wino, with love and gratitude.

Oh, he has a drinking problem.

Oh, yeah, his problem is he can never get enough to drink.

Hey, JJ, who told you that?

Old Campbell the cop.

Told me old Fishbone was out in the middle of Rush Street with his red

on, directing traffic, waiting for his underwear to turn green.

Yeah, and don't forget you're all having dinner with the Ebony Prince today.

Maybe you know.

How come they name football teams after animals?

Because nobody want to go see the Chicago Lilacs play the Detroit

Fishbone, you old sea dog.

Where you been? What you been doing?

Working, working, boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Got a regular job now.

How long you been working steady?

What time is it?

Ten o 'clock.

One hour, 60 minutes. Yeah.

I'm delivering free samples.

Oh, yeah? Well, come on in and deliver.

Yeah, yeah. I was working for... I was delivering mouthwash outfit yesterday,

but, you know, then that only lasted a couple hours, and then, well, I got

fired.

Fishbone, why did you get fired?

Well, I found out that the mouthwash contained 2 % alcohol.

I never felt so bad and smelled so good in all my life.

Soup in the sack.

Here you go.

All you do is add alcohol.

I mean water.

It's foolproof.

We need something better than that. We need something that's Thelma -proof.

How about you and Grams go make some hot chocolate, okay?

It's Thelma. What are you doing?

Well, I'm loading you folks up with soup because it's good for you. I like you.

It's free. And I'm too tired to knock on any more doors.

Fishbone, now, come on. You can't fool us. We've been knowing you too long.

is the matter? What's the matter, Fishbone? Well, I had a birthday the

day. Oh, yeah. Well, that's it, honey. That's it. Yeah, well,

didn't nobody else know either.

I even sent myself a card, and it never arrived.

You know, you know, it made me realize I've lived half my life, and I don't

a friend in the world.

That's ridiculous.

That's right.

You a bon vivant, the man about town, a connoisseur of the great.

Yeah, and if nobody remembers you on your birthday, how they gonna remember

when you gone?

Oh, come on now. Who could ever forget you?

Now, Bookman likes you. He lets you sleep down by the furnace when it's

Oh, yeah, but even he forgot to say those three little words, happy

I tell you, it is a terrible world without friends.

Oh, come on now, Fishbone. Now, you have some friends.

Yeah, what about Ray the bartender?

Him?

I give him all my business, and what does he do? Turns right

around, makes me wash dishes all week, and all, and all over nothing.

Oh, I don't think throwing a bottle through the front window is nothing.

Well...

ever wake up in the middle of the night and find yourself locked up in a bar?

I had to throw that bottle again out of there. I was late for a meeting with my

colleagues at Alcoholics I'm the Nominus.

You know we are your friends. In fact, you are practically like one of the

family. That's right. Too bad you wasn't over here a little earlier. You could

have had breakfast with us.

Well, you mean y 'all wouldn't think enough of me to invite me over for a hot

cook meal?

Enter time.

Oh, well, in that case, I'll be over here tonight for dinner.

Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Fishbone, you see, tonight would not be the best night. Not a good night,

Fishbone, because, you see, we were getting ready to go out and didn't have

little night.

Oh, I see. Yeah, you're all busy.

Okay, well, I can understand. I don't like a lot of people around me, no way.

You know, I'm used to being alone. I can understand. Yeah, some other time,

okay, Fishbone? Yeah, yeah, yeah, some other time. Hope you understand.

No, no, of course, I understand.

A fishbone. He's feeling sorry for himself again because he has no friends.

He's got friends.

The Ripple brothers.

Paul Mason.

Manischewitz.

You know, maybe we should have changed our plans a little and come back here

dinner. You really think so, Wilma?

Good friends would have.

You know, you've been so nice to me.

I'm going to give you a little stop tip.

Oh, yeah.

Shh.

See, my broker is E .F. Hutton.

Keep an eye on the place for me? Yeah, sure, pal.

Good.

And I'll show you where my heart is. The house is buying the next round. All

right.

You know, your friend sure is a nice guy.

Well, he's all right, buddy. If he was such a friend of ours, he would have

given us something good. And it is rot good we drink.

Oh, Lord. Look here.

Look here, partner.

Oh, watch the stove. I got to go to the sandbox.

Okay.

Woo, straighten up and fly right.

That's weird. I thought for sure he'd be in here drinking his lunch.

Oh, man. Just the thing I gave up a date with Boom Boom Belinda for this.

Hooray!

By any chance, you happen to see Fishbone?

He was here just a minute ago.

Well, you see, we have to find him because JJ has an extra ticket for the

game and we want to take him with us.

Yeah, sort of like a belated birthday present, you know.

Boy, he's got to be around here somewhere. You know Fishbone would not

unless he had too many for the road.

Hey, check this out.

Hey, what's going on?

Hey, there's an accident.

Somebody's hurt real bad.

Coming through. Coming through. Hey, Ray, got to use your telephone.

Got to call a precinct. I'm going to an ambulance right now. Forget it.

That old geezer out there got nailed by a truck. He ain't going to use an

ambulance or nothing else.

He got killed?

You see this wallet here?

Well, he's flatter than this.

Yeah, we've got a traffic fatality down here at 2526 Duquesne.

Yeah?

Yeah, the victim's name is Theodofius P. Johnson.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. I'll be here.

Theodofius P. Johnson?

Does anybody know who that is? I don't know who that is. We all know who he is.

Who is he? We call him Fishbone. What? Fishbone?

Fishbone was killed?

Oh, wow. I don't believe that.

JJ, that's horrible.

Oh, wow.

Just this morning, he was saying nobody remembered his birthday and nobody

remembered him when he was gone.

And now poor Fishbone's dead.

Oh, that's terrible.

Fishpond's in heaven. Do you think they made him an angel by now?

I hope so, honey.

Just in case I'm going to God bless him tonight.

Well, if he is in heaven, I hope they don't arrest him for drunken flying.

I wish we could all just stop talking about all this, because I am depressed

I can be.

Hi, folks.

Correction, I just got even more depressed.

What you got in the suitcase, your lunch?

furnace room where old Fishbone used to sleep. I guess it belonged to him. Oh,

wow. Fishbone's estate.

Wow. Maybe we'll find out a little bit more about Fishbone now.

Picture is a wrinkled little picture.

Oh, look at this nice old couple.

Maybe they were close friends of Fishbone's. Yeah,

they were close to Fishbone, all right. This is Ernest and Julio Gallo.

Oh, wow.

Check out this foxy mama. Sweet brown sugar.

She's beautiful.

the lady in Fishbone's life.

Oh, how romantic.

She probably drove him to drink.

You got it, Thelma. It's his sister.

Oh, here's something that might be important. It's a clipping by a baseball

player named Rabbit Johnson who was third baseman in the Negro League.

You mean Fishbone was an athlete?

We don't know that. There's a lot of folks named Johnson.

Anyway, the date on this clipping is 1946.

That's just a year before Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers.

You can remember way back then.

I just happened to read it yesterday.

What's going to happen to Fishbone now?

They'll probably bury him in some unmarked grave somewhere.

Then he was right.

Nobody will remember him.

No, Michael, he was wrong.

We will remember him.

But how, J .J.? Funerals aren't expensive.

Wait a minute. Take it easy. If we all chip in...

We can handle one of Ferguson's no -frills funerals.

No -frills funerals? You know what that's like.

No flowers, no organ, no chapel, no coffin.

They just put you in a brown paper sack and marry you to Cleveland.

Well, we ain't gonna have no paper bag for fishbone. We're gonna do this thing

right so you'll always be remember...

the fishbone. Well, whoever.

Oh, Wanda, what lovely roses. Oh, these are beautiful, and what an appropriate

message. Success.

Well, if you don't mind, honey, I want to use them again. I'm going to another

funeral.

Hey, what you got there? I'll take that. Some more fishbone belongings?

No, that's fishbone.

Ferguson figured he ought to be here. I guess Fishbone would have liked it like

that.

And if I ain't got it, there ain't in there.

Though we came here to weep, I got something you can keep.

Now, it ain't a hawk, and it ain't a rhino.

It's just a memento to fishbone the wino.

for this occasion that I thought would not hold us here very long, which would

come to a conclusion of the situation.

Brothers and sisters, we are gathered here because of our

dear friend and through the courtesy of Ray, the bartender.

All right.

And we are here to pay tribute to our dear friend and comrade, Fishbone.

special mark in our hearts and in our souls.

I didn't know Harry did that.

Fishbone. Fishbone. Oh, yeah.

Later,

Wanda. Later.

You see, Fishbone was a modest and humble man.

Humble man.

He never spoke of himself.

together a few parts of his life.

Poor Fishbone was born too soon and died too soon.

Watching the asphalt roll.

Thinking how it all looks when we die.

Good times. Good times.

Keeping your head above water.

Making a way when you can.

Temporary layoffs. Good times.

Easy credit ripoffs. Good times.

Good times is videotaped in front of a studio audience.