Browse: Home / Attention Must Be Paid: Esther Rolle

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

Attention Must Be Paid: Esther Rolle

Posted By Gillianren on February 29, 2020 in Features | Leave a response

Every once in a while, I think of someone in a different genre than everyone else. Esther Rolle is most famous for her comedy—she’s probably most famous for first being on a spinoff and then a spinoff of that spinoff—but I think of her in one of her last roles, her performance as Aunt Sarah in 1997’s Rosewood. This is only partly because I am completely unfamiliar with the various All in the Family spinoffs, not having liked the original particularly. It is also because it’s a really powerful movie, and she’s very good in it.

Esther Rolle actually had a long and distinguished career already by the time she appeared on Maude; while she hadn’t done much in the way of movies or TV, she was well established on the stage. She was, by 1960, the director of the dance troupe founded by Asadata Dafora, variously named Shogolo Oloba, the Federal Theater African Dance Troupe, or Asadata Dafora Horton and his African Dancers; she took over when Dafora returned to a newly independent Sierra Leone to be its cultural minister. I’m not sure if she ever dances on her famous TV shows; I certainly didn’t know until just now that she could dance that well.

It sounds, too, as though Good Times was not a great experience for her. She had to fight to get her character a husband instead of just having a fatherless black family—and if you don’t understand why that was important to her, think about the optics of having one of the first black-themed sitcoms be about a single mother. As the series went on, the focus on J. J. Evans became more of a thing, taking away from the serious themes she had been hoping to explore. She even left the show, after costar John Amos had been fired.

It’s disheartening, really, that her concerns were clearly dismissed. I wonder how different the TV landscape would look if people didn’t spend as much time pursuing the gimmick character. Because the gimmick character inevitably becomes really, really annoying, after all. Look at poor Jaleel White. I think the shows that have lasted the longest have been ones that had the strength to resist putting all their weight on that character, and that’s not just number of episodes but legacy. We remember sitcoms for being funny, sure, but also for the moments when they were more than just funny.

I’ve also been meaning for years to track down, you’ll pardon the expression, Summer of My German Soldier, for which she won an Emmy. The copy of the book I’ve had for decades has a photo insert from the miniseries, with Esther Rolle as the maid who is the main character’s only friend other than the eponymous German soldier. It looks like the whole thing’s on YouTube now; I’ll have to make the time for it soon.

Celebrate the bonus extra day of the month by contributing to my Patreon or Ko-fi!

Posted in Features | Tagged Attention Must Be Paid, Esther Rolle, tribute

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Life is a mysteryCelebrating the Living: Madonna→

Clearly Pryor knew a thing or two about wooing womenAttention Must Be Paid: Richard Pryor→

Definitely how most people picture him.Celebrating the Living: John Cameron Mitchell→

A sexy hot mess bigot!Attention Must Be Paid: Patricia Highsmith→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38545 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    31175 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30573 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27739 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23676 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!