S5.E6

Brother, Can You Spare an Act?

Name: Brother, Can You Spare an Act?
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1975-10-17
Duration: 30 min
Rating: 7.2

Episode aired Oct 17, 1975
TV-PG
30m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

129

YOUR RATING

Comedy

When Fred's white brother-in-law Rodney lands a job emceeing a local vaudeville revival, Fred, Lamont and Smiley Rogers help out by providing the song and dance.When Fred's white brother-in-law Rodney lands a job emceeing a local vaudeville revival, Fred, Lamont and Smiley Rogers help out by providing the song and dance.When Fred's white brother-in-law Rodney lands a job emceeing a local vaudeville revival, Fred, Lamont and Smiley Rogers help out by providing the song and dance.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

129

YOUR RATING

1User review

See production info at IMDbPro

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User reviews1

7.2129

Featured reviews

6kevinolzak

Timmie Rogers sings and dances

"Brother, Can You Spare an Act?" features Timmie Rogers as Smiley Rogers, the very first black comic to avoid blackface and wear a tuxedo on stage, a great influence on later brethren like Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, and Richard Pryor in that he even used his real name. We get right into it at the start (his catchphrase: "oh yeah!"), he and Redd singing a duet of "Tis Autumn" with guitar, setting the stage for the second appearance of Fred's sister Frances (Mary Alice, last of two) and white brother-in-law Rodney (Allen Drake, second of three). Frances wants her brother to hire Rodney to manage the Sanford Arms so they can live there rent free, but he has other ideas, booking his act in a local theater trying to bring back vaudeville-style live performers. Smiley and Fred duet on "Lulu's Back in Town," while Demond Wilson tap dances as he previously did in "The Stand-In." Nancy Kulp's May Hopkins (second of five) volunteers to represent the Sanford Arms tenants, their complaints falling on deaf ears: "well I never!" "I can believe that!"

Trivia
The character of Smiley Rogers is played by actor, comedian, and singer-songwriter Timmie Rogers. Timmie Rogers got his start in vaudeville and was a pioneer in (Black) comedy, and never wore blackface (while most Black comedians wore blackface back then) and he was also the first Black person to wear a tuxedo during his routine, something that was also rare for the era. As a singer he would accompany himself with a 10-string tiple, which is a steel stringed instrument in the guitar family and sounds similar to a ukulele. Rogers plays the Martin tiple in this episode, in his duet of "'Tis Autumn" with Redd Foxx.