Steptoe and Son

In the first episode of the American sitcom Sanford and Son, the attentive viewers read in the opening credits:

Written by Aaron Reuben
Based on "Crossed Swords"
by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson

This first episode of what became one of the most popular sitcoms on television showed a fractious and contentious relationship between Fred G. Sanford and his grown son and business partner, Lamont. The two men ran a "salvage and antique" business in the Watts section of Los Angeles.

Redd Fox

John Elroy Sanford
aka Redd Foxx

For twenty years, the American audiences wondered just who the heck were Steptoe and Son. Despite the "British Invasion" of the 1960's, most of the trans-Atlantic cultures remained a mystery to the other. Even a megastar of the US like Johnny Carson was unknown in the UK.

It took the digital age to break down the informational boundaries and made the television shows in one country available to the others. Monty Python's Flying Circus was a rare exception and even then it was broadcast in censored form to American audiences.

Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson
Unknown

However, "available" and "viewable" are not necessarily the same. Some of the videos produced in Europe would not run on American players. So to this day many Americans have never seen an episode of Steptoe and Son.

We mentioned that the first episode of Sanford and Son showed a fractious relationship between Lamont and Fred. That's a mild way of putting it. In "Crossed Swords" Lamont shouts at his father, called him a "creep", and the episode ended up with Lamont chasing Fred around the house with a broom.

But this brouhaha was mild compared to the same episode of Steptoe and Son. When Harold found that Albert had dropped his prize porcelain figure, he grabbed a sword and chased his father out of the house and into a shed. The show ended with Harold reaching through the door trying to stab Albert while Albert calls for the police.

Either episode was tough to watch even in those days that were less cognizant of the effects of family violence. So perhaps it was no coincidence that in later episodes Lamont and Fred were more laid back and their relationship was never on the border of total chaos as in "Crossed Swords" (or as the Captain of the Pinafore said ...).

On the other hand, things never really calmed down between Harold and Albert. Throughout the lifetime of the show, they ragged at each other incessantly.

Lamont, who clearly saw himself as a respectable businessman and entrepreneur, seemed more content with his lot in life than Harold. We also have to say Harold was something of a whiner. He was always trying to rise to a more elevated position in society than that of a "rag and bone" man driving his horse and cart around the streets of West London.

Yes, a horse and cart. Such use of urban draft animals was routine in England into the 1960's (the Steptoe's horse, by the way, was named "Hercules"). Rag and bone men would ride through the streets and purchase old household items for resale. "Rags" did not refer only to old strips of cloth but also included discarded or second-hand clothes. In the early days "bones" meant just that. Butcher shops would sell meat on the bone - buying a "leg of lamb" was common - and the bones were then boiled clean and kept for the rag and bone man.

Bones were used in a variety of ways. Burnt and ground up they would be used for fertilizer (the phosphate content is high) and even today, burned bones are used to make "bone char" which is used for filtration and purification processes. "Bone black" is also a common artists pigment. The outside of intact and unburned bones could serve the duty of modern plastics for items like buttons, cufflinks, and pens. Scrap metal, particularly old iron, was also picked up by the rag-and-bone men, and today scrap metal is probably the main item they deal with^*.

Footnote

A preposition is a good word to end a sentence with.

Close Footnote

The rag-and-bone men - and some were women - came down the street calling out their presence. The family would then bring their old unwanted items out and sell them for a modest sum. Although today rag-and-bone men usually use trucks or vans, you can still see the occasional rag-and-bone-horse pulling its cart. All-in-all, though, unwanted items are now mostly discarded, taken to recycle centers, or sold in flea markets.

Part of the rift between Albert and Harold was politics and religion, neither of which was much of an issue on "Sanford and Son" (the only time religion became a topic was when Aunt Esther - played by Redd's long time friend Lawanda Page - showed up). Albert was a committed Tory and committed to the ideas of what made Britannia rule the waves. Harold, on the other hand, was a devoted disciple of Bertrand Russell, a confirmed socialist, and an agnostic.

Nonetheless Harold had a bit of a prudish streak. He brought home an old kinetoscope and at first was amused to see that the reel that came with the machine was a "What-The-Butler-Saw" film made during the Great Depression. But he was then shocked! shocked! when he recognized that one of the actors was a young Albert Edward Ladysmith Steptoe!

Albert appeals to Harold to appreciate the conditions. "They were hard times," he said. "Everything we had was in pawn." He pointed out that not only was Harold's mother, Emily, fully aware of Albert's venture into acting (it was a quick way to make a fiver) but one of the women in the film was Emily's sister, Harold's Aunt Rose.

Things become a bit complicated when the vicar shows up looking for odd items for donation to the parish's jumble sale. He sees the kinetoscope and is even more intrigued that there was a film reel. The vicar interprets Harold's polite attempts at refusal as modest acquiescence and takes the machine and the film.

We won't give the ending away other than to say that "What-The-Butler-Saw" movies of the early 20th century were scarcely objectionable when the 1960's were rolling along. Albert fared OK in this episode.

One of the barriers between Americans becoming true fans of Steptoe and Son is the language. And we don't mean that there was excessive swearing - even in England this was limited on television in those Cromwellian times. The problem is literally the English language. Steptoe and Son spoke with what is called the working class dialect (Harold and Albert are Cockneys) which is difficult for many Americans to follow.

Redd and Wilfrid looked older than their years and both were able to assume the more elderly roles. Albert was supposedly a veteran of World War I, but Wilfrid, in fact, was 2 years old in August 1914. He was also only 13 years older than Harry whose character was a veteran of the Second World War. In his real life Harry was 14 years old in September 1939 but it was a long war and he did serve in the Royal Marines.

Another difference between the Steptoes and the Sanfords was the casting. Although he had appeared in a few movies, Redd Foxx was primarily a stand-up comedian famed for the "party records" that your great-grandfather kept hidden until the kids went to sleep. Demond Wilson was just beginning his acting career and had only a few credits. Wilfrid, though, was a well-established actor who specialized in dramatic roles stretching back to the 1940's. Similarly Harry had been acting since the early 50's, and had taken parts in plays by Shakespeare and Ibsen.

American audiences became aware of Wilfrid as an actor - although few remembered his name - when he starred as Paul McCartney's grandfather in A Hard Day's Night. There was an on-going joke in the movie - that none of the Americans got - in that people kept saying how Paul's grandfather was a "clean old man". This was a direct reference to Steptoe and Son where Harold keeps calling Albert a "dirty old man".

Although not a recurring epithet in Sanford and Son, Fred was also sometimes called a "dirty old man". But he had a ready answer.

Because Sanford and Son was closely based on Steptoe and Son - even to the point that a number of episodes were modified only slightly - Fred and Lamont's difficulty were often economic or business related. Although this plot characteristic certainly boosted the popularity with a widespread audience, it did bring the show in for some criticism. Some African-American reviewers pointed out that Fred and Lamont never encountered racial prejudice or discrimination which, despite attempts at denial, remains rampant decades after the show aired.

British television seasons typically produced fewer shows per season than those from the American industry. In the old network days, a typical American season might be 26 individual shows, and in six years "Sanford and Son" turned out 136 episodes. But during the regular production, there were only 7 episodes of Steptoe and Son filmed per year. All in all there were 57 programs spread out over eight years.

Sometimes a bit of skullduggery would be involved in setting the schedules. For instance, one popular TV show in the 1950's filmed 26 episodes each year for the first two years. Then they got the actors to sign a contract for another 52 episodes. Next and unbeknownst to the actors, the producers scheduled only 13 shows to be filmed per year. This reduced the cost per year for the producers but also limited pay raises for the actors for the next four years.

You read that Harry was typecast by the role of Harold Steptoe. While not saying this is entirely incorrect, Harry continued to star in television and movies until the 1980's. During the run of Steptoe and Son he appeared in two other series, The Best Things in Life and Mr. Aitch. Both shows lasted only a single season and like Harold Steptoe, the main characters were looking for something better than their present situation. Harry also appeared in other shows as a guest actor.

There are accounts that the fractious relationship between Albert and Harold reflected the real life dealings of Wilfrid and Harry. Harry had a no-nonsense attitude toward his work but Wilfred, due to a real problem with alcohol, could be unreliable. The personal relationships dropped to the nadir and during a live Steptoe and Son tour in 1976, it got to the point the two men didn't speak outside of the script.

Harry's daughter, though, claimed that the stories were exaggerated, and that her dad respected Wilfrid personally and professionally. Depictions of them despising each other were incorrect, and the portrayal of the two men in The Curse of Steptoe, a television movie about the off-screen problems behind the series, was inaccurate. Yes, there were problems with Wilfrid's drinking, but she said Harry would not have gone on a tour if there had been the problems as often depicted.

In fact, Harry and Wilfrid were planning a second tour but Harry died of a heart attack in 1982 age only 57. Wilfrid died the following year, also not that old, at age 72.

"Sanford and Son", Redd Foxx (Actor), Demond Wilson (Actor), NBC, Internet Movie Data Base, 1972 - 1977.

Steptoe and Son, Wilfrid Brambell (Actor), Harry H. Corbett (Actor), NBC, 1962 - 1974.

"Steptoe and Son: The Tempestuous Ties That Kept Them Together", Christopher Stevens, March, 17, 2012.

"The Truth About My Dad 'Arold", Lisa Sewards, The Daily Mail, April 20, 2012.

"Recycling in the Victorian Era", Nancy Ruhling, Victorina Homes, February 16, 2014.

Lamont:		You're a dirty old man, you know that?
Fred:		And I'm gonna be one 'til I'm a dead old man!