From Good Times To Bad: Whatever Happened To The Cast Of Good Times?

Esther Rolle Quits!

In addition to Amos being fired, Esther Rolle was so fed up with J.J.’s buffoonish storylines that she eventually quit the show. At the end of season four, the character Florida was written out by getting engaged to Carl Dixon (since her husband dies), then getting married and moving to Arizona by the start of season five. But after this, executives at CBS realized the show was plateauing due to lack of parental guidance with both of the Evans household heads gone.

They decided to invite Rolle back to the show, who only did so on the condition that she get a higher salary and higher-quality scripts. This entailed that her character was no longer with Carl (since she believed that Florida couldn’t possibly move on so quickly after James’s death) and mostly making J.J. are more responsible character, so that he’d be a better example for African-American youth.