John Amos: A Tribute to America’s Dad of the 1970’s.

Kendall Rivers
3 min readOct 6, 2024
Image Source: Tandem Productions.

Man, 2024 has hit us with quite a wallop! So many lives lost both famous and not famous, and this past week another life was taken home that has hit most of us classic tv and movie fans hard. John Amos, one of tv’s greatest fathers who left behind a massive legacy. Amos passed the same week as Kris Kistofferson and John Ashton (Beverly Hills Cop & Midnight Run) and I mourn the loss of all three men as the rest of you are. But, if I’m being perfect honest Mr. Amos’ loss cuts deeper for me personally as I grew up watching him on Good Times, Coming To America, All About The Andersons (a vastly underrated and sadly short lived sitcom, btw) etc. For me, and for many of you, John Amos was the ultimate tv dad who paved the way for such iconic Black father figures as Philip Banks, Carl Winslow, Julius Rock etc. I want to take a moment to celebrate the incredible legacy John Amos left behind by highlighting his four most well known and beloved roles that he will always be remembered for.

Good Times:

While John has done many great roles in film and television, his role as patriarch James Evans Sr. on Good Times is the role that he has always been and always be most remembered and revered for. He became not only Black America’s tv father in the 1970’s, but also one of America’s tv fathers period. With toughness, sincerity, love and…

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Kendall Rivers
Kendall Rivers

Written by Kendall Rivers

Kendall is a screenwriter who’s a huge fan of classic tv and movies. He enjoys creating good stories and characters. https://www.facebook.com/kendall.rivers.3