in his act and thought that he would be perfect for the series they were gonna do, which was an adaptation of a british series, "steptoe & son." - "sanford and son" was a more authentic show because of writers like paul mooney and ilunga adell. - redd and i said, "you know what? we need to have some black writers." - what you doing combing your hair? - why does anybody come their hair? to look neat. - but you just going to a job. - pop, just because i work in junk don't mean i have to look like it. - when we had white writers, they would write, "i'm gwan," g-w-a-n. we gwan hit it over der," and redd said, "hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. you don't need to do that. write words, and we, the characters, will say those words the way black people say those words. - who you calling ugly, sucka? (audience laughs) (upbeat music) - we shot the pilot in september of '71, and it just went through the ceiling. we didn't just usher in black shows.