A Real Cool Job

This episode is very upsetting because Florida insisted James not take the job in Alaska because he would be gone for a year. James could have returned in 12 months with experience that could have paid off ten fold! Another opportunity to get out of the ghetto but Florida prefers being comfortable and poor. Once again, Florida was selfish and short sighted. She nagged and cried until James sadly, gave in. He never found work in the construction industry. Out of desperation, James took a partnership in a garage in Mississippi. We all saw how that worked out (season 4 episode 1). Instead of James being gone for only 12 months, he was gone forever.

"A Real Cool Job" kicked off the third season, the first to give Jimmie Walker special billing as JJ, kept for the rest of the show's run. The Evans family is preparing to celebrate James' graduation from trade school, hoping to move into a foreman's job with his diploma. A salesman (David Moses) tries to take advantage of James' newfound wealth by offering cemetery plots: "the economy done killed me, now this dude wants to bury me!" "it's your funeral!" The diploma promises everything but employment, nothing in construction available, but there is for fry cook and topless waitress: "wait a minute, they both for the same job!" James receives a phone call from his union, offering $500 a week for one year out of town... working the pipeline in Alaska! The prospect of financial success without her husband for 12 months doesn't suit Florida: "I don't want to live good, I want to live with you!"