Pre-Owned Sanford and Son: The Second Season [3 Discs] (DVD 0043396003507) directed by Jack Shea, Peter Baldwin, Rick Edelstein, Sid McCoy

0043396003507. Pre-Owned: Good condition. DVD. Run time: 30 mins. A confirmed hit in its inaugural 14-episode season, the NBC sitcom Sanford and Son returned to its familiar Friday-night berth for a second batch of 24 episodes beginning September 15, 1972. In true "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" tradition, producer Norman Lear made virtually no changes in the series' winning format. Cantankerous junk dealer Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) was still umbilically joined to his cash-poor salvage business; Fred's son Lamont (Demond Wilson) was still seeking a way out of the family trade and into a more lucrative profession; and Fred continued to prevent Lamont from leaving by a variety of methods, primarily by staging highly suspicious "heart attacks." The only significant differences between Sanford's first and second seasons were manifested in the supporting cast. Hal Williams continued to make periodic appearances as police officer Smith (aka "Smitty"), albeit with a new partner, Officer Hopkins (Howard Platt), who was immediately nicknamed "Hoppy." The Sanfords' circle of friends was more or less solidified, with the departing Slappy White (as Melvin) replaced by Fred's somewhat shady crony Bubba Hoover (Don Bexley), and Lamont Sanford gaining a new chum in the person of reckless Rollo Larson (Nathaniel Taylor). More significant additions -- at least in providing grist for the comedy mill vis-à-vis Fred Sanford's endless personal insults -- included Gregory Sierra as the Sanfords' new neighbor and business rival, Puerto Rican junk dealer Julio Fuentes and especially LaWanda Page as Aunt Esther, Fred's contentious, Bible-thumping sister-in-law (Page was a slightly younger and more volatile replacement for Beah Richards, who had made a handful of appearances as Aunt Ethel). Also, Lynn Hamilton continued popping up from time to time as Fred Sanford's erstwhile fiancée, nurse Donna Harris. As with season one, some of the episodes seen during Sanford and Son's second season were adapted from scripts previously telecast on the series' British prototype Steptoe and Son, but these were fewer and farther between than in previous months. And also as with season one, Sanford sustained its enormous popularity, ranking as the second most popular TV series in America (another Norman Lear effort, All in the Family, was first). Hal Erickson, Rovi