Life in the Chicago projects is never easy, However, the Evans family never gives up trying to make the best of things. While Florida and James struggle to provide for their family, their sons J.J., an aspiring painter, Micheal, the undying political crusader, causing trouble while their sister, Thelma, stands between them as the voice of reason. Living in the same building were Willona Woods, Florida's best friend from High School who provided support, love and gossip and Nathan Bookman, the overweight janitor who gave them grief and was the butt of alot of fat jokes, especially Willona who often referred to him as Buffalo Butt or Booger. Life, at least, is never boring while they fight to keep their heads above water and one day leave the projects, which they did in the series finale. Sadly, it was without James who was killed off in the 4th season.

When Norman Lear, Mike Evans, and Eric Monte were first developing this show, it was not a spin off of "Maude" (1972) (itself a spin-off of "All in the Family" (1971)). Later, they decided to cast Esther Rolle and 'John Amos (I)' as the leads and promote the show as a spin off featuring Florida Evans and her family. The originally chosen family name was changed to Evans and the wife/mother's first name to Florida, but those of the other characters were left unchanged. It was nothing but coincidence that the younger son's name thus became the same as co-creator Mike Evans'. Two huge contradictions with "Maude" - that John Amos's character there was a Tuchahoe, N.Y., fire fighter named Henry who insisted that his wife cease demeaning herself and quit her job as a servant to a white family when he received a hefty raise as part of a promotion and they no longer needed that additional income, while here he was a man named James who was unemployed and had been for a significant amount of time; and that the characters here live in Chicago, Illinois, projects rather than the aforementioned New York suburb and repeatedly indicate that they have done so for many years - reveal that this series does not genuinely qualify as a spin-off of "Maude".

Thelma:
Hey, that's weird. It's gone. Now I know that cake was in here this morning.

Music by Dave Grusin
Lyrics by Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman
Performed by James Gilstrap and Blinky Williams