The Jeffersons

The Jeffersons Featurette with series creator Norman Lear.

The Jeffersons have moved on up and are now enjoying living in their new high-rise apartment. Louise has made a new friend in Diane Stockwell, who is having a hard time believing that George made his way up the ladder without doing anything shady. However, bigger problems are brewing when George insists that Louise hire a maid but Louise is totally against the idea.

The Willis' give Louise and George a piece of primitive African art, as a housewarming gift, which leads to the discussion of family roots. This leads George to discover his family roots, from an African tribe believed to be kings.

Louise is having a hard time getting use to her new wealthy lifestyle and the boredom that comes along with it. She begins trying to talk George into letting her work in the store in the building but he is totally against it. This leads her to inadvertently get a job with another cleaning business and George hits the ceiling when he learns the news. That is until he begins thinking of using her position for sabotage.

It's Harry Bentley's birthday and the Jeffersons are planning a birthday party at there apartment. However, the joyous occasion is anything but when Tom arrives wearing the same dinner jacket as George. Meanwhile, Helen keeps the fact that she was mugged from Tom due to the fact that Tom is at the end of his rope with New York.

George doesn't know what to do with himself on a Sunday, the only day of the week George doesn't work. Tom quickly points out the obvious that George is a workaholic. Just to spite him, George decides to show him that he can relax and decides to book him and Louise on a cruise. However, Louise and George find themselves with a problem, Mother Jefferson has invited herself along.

When a young woman shows up at the Jefferson's door with the news that she thinks that she's Louise's daughter, George has a fit and begins to doubt Louise. Especially since, the young woman was born while George was in the Korean War.

George's rival in the dry cleaning business, Cunningham, is running a campaign due to the Bicentennial celebration. This prompts George to come up with his own campaign and decides to dress up as Thomas Jefferson to lure in new customers.

Florence breaks down and tells Louise that she's losing her apartment due to the fact that the building is going to be torn down, this leads Louise to offer Florence a live-in maid position at the Jeffersons. Now the only problem is to get George to allow her to accept the job.

George is sneaking around trying to hide the fact that he's opening another store. He goes so far as to convince Louise he's having an affair after she discovers a love letter she thinks is to him from a woman named Adele. However, Adele is really Bentley's girlfriend, and Adele wrote the letter to Bentley.

George is getting ready for a party to celebrate the opening of his new office. However, while George is in Charlie's bar, two men overhear George brag about his wealth and decide to make a move on his apartment. Later, a phone call puts a damper on the office party with news that Louise has been kidnapped for ransom. George hurries to scoff up the ransom money for Louise's safe return. However, both George and the kidnappers quickly learn that they have the wrong person, when Louise returns to the apartment.

George is excited when he learns that an old Navy pal is in town and wants him to stop by at his hotel for a visit. However his old pal, Eddie, has a big surprise for George, his name is now Edie and he has undergone a sex change operation.

Helping out at the Help Center, puts Louise in the middle of new program which gives street kids jobs with businesses. This leads to a street kid getting a job at one of George's stores and soon George discovers an expensive suede jacket is missing.

Prompted by Helen, Louise begins taking an art class. However, when George discovers she's been sketching models who pose in the nude, he tries to get her to stop attending class.

George decides that he needs a cleaning factory and sets out to find a place for it. Meanwhile, Alan Willis returns to New York and learns that he has inherited a warehouse from his grandfather. Seeing that the warehouse would be perfect for his factory, George goes all out to try to get it, even allowing Alan to move in with the Jeffersons' due to squabbling between Alan and Tom.

Alan moves in with the Jeffersons and George continues efforts to get the warehouse for himself. Meanwhile, battles with the landlord prompt Louise and Helen to try to find a better place for the Help Center.

Lionel and Jenny after wonderful news, Jenny is pregnant, but they only share the news with Tom and Helen, reason being Lionel doesn't want George making jokes about what color the baby will be. However, when Florence overhears the news she accidentally lets slip to Louise and she in turn tells George which leads to yet another argument.

George is ecstatic when he learns he's been named Small Businessman of the Year. However, Louise quickly learns that the basis of the award is purely physical. The award is to honor short businessmen.

Louise is excited when she receives a letter from her old boyfriend, Bill Simpson, asking her out to dinner. However, she decides not to go because she knows George will be upset if she does, so Florence secretly goes and pretends to be Louise, but things get really confusing for Bill when Louise changes her mind and shows up with George in tow.

George and Tom get into an argument over who's in better shape, so to prove who actually is, George and Tom agree to run in a marathon through Central Park.

Tom and Helen are enjoying their vacation in Hawaii, while Florence is back home wanting to take a vacation. This leads Louise to buy her a plane ticket to Hawaii. Meanwhile, George visits his doctor and learns that he must lower his blood pressure so he decides to take a vacation to Hawaii with Louise.

George, Louise and Florence arrive in Hawaii and discover that Tom and Helen have decided to stay a few more days. Meanwhile, George begins to work on lowering his blood pressure which leads him to decide that he wants to sell his business and move to Hawaii. George begins to get involved in the investment plan that would allow him and Louise to live in Hawaii and begins hinting to her that that's what he wants to do. Meanwhile, a sailing trip goes awry when Tom and George get lost.

Louise and George are heartbroken when they discover Lionel and Jenny are having marital problems that result in a separation. This prompts George, Louise, Helen and Tom to convene to try to get them back together.

Due to the separation, Lionel is living at home with George and Louise. This prompts George to trick a marriage counselor into showing up at the Jefferson's apartment for the intention of bring Lionel and Jenny back together.

A newspaper photo alerts George to the fact that the man in the photo could very well be Louise's father, since they both have the same name. Louise refuses to entertain this notion since she believes that her father died when she was young. However, George learns the truth after visiting the man.

George is in a price war with Big Sky Cleaners and they are no holds bar. A representative from Big Sky comes to the Jefferson's apartment offering to buy George out and he refuses. When Big Sky comes out with a 1,000,000 customer gimmick George tries to find his own gimmick and people with ""talent"" swamp the apartment including a bearded lady and a lion tamer. But when Louise goes down to Big Sky to end this battle she becomes the 1,000,000 customer. This leads George to decide to sell out.

George has decided to sell out to Big Sky Cleaners and he begins to hang around the apartment like he already has retired. This drives Florence and Louise up the wall since he has gotten into the habit of giving advice to everyone he meets. However, pretty soon, George has second thoughts about giving up his business.

When Tom gets his pants back from Jefferson Cleaners with a stain on them, he wants a refund however George refuses to pay for the pants, charging it was Tom's fault for leaving a candy bar in the pocket. This leads them to take their case to a TV court show.

George has a reunion with some old navy buddies and the fact that Tom has become so gullible becomes a topic of discussion. This leads his old pals to talk him into playing a little con game on Tom to teach him a lesson. However, the con becomes a little to real when George's old pals, Lloyd and Allan make off with $15,000 of Tom's money. Tom fears that Helen will divorce him if she finds out since this was money which was to be used for a down payment on a house that has come up on the market.

A furious Tom almost kills George when he learns he's been hustled out of $15,000, money that he had planned to use to make a down payment on a house. George calls in Jimmy to help him get Tom's money back. Jimmy talks George and Tom into flying out to Los Angeles, where Lloyd and Allan have fled. Once there, they meet Jimmy's cousin, a crafty man who has a well planned out way of getting Tom's money back. Meanwhile, Florence, who knows what George and Tom are up too, tells Louise and Helen and they rush to Los Angeles.

Jimmy's cousin puts his plan into effect which includes getting Lloyd and Allan to believe that Los Angeles is going to be hit by a military attack from a neighboring country. However, the plan could be ruined when Louise, Helen and Florence arrive in Los Angeles.

The Help Center is having a blood drive and Louise tries to get George to give some. However, a leery George pays Ralph to give blood in his name. But when, the blood saves the life of Mrs. Whittendale, her husband decides to pay George back for his good deed and of course Ralph wants in on the ""payback.""

The snobby socialite that beat Louise out of a Volunteer of the Year award is back and brags about how her grandson is going to win a piano recital. This leads Louise to enter her granddaughter, Jessica in the recital with the intent of beating the snobby competition.

Louise and Florence have the perfect plan to get the best of George. They've got the hidden video show, Boobles, Bangles and Booboos coming over on the pretense of an interview for George. However, Louise and George begin to doubt the validity of them when the apartment is robbed.