The BEST episodes of 227
Every episode of 227 ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of 227!
This popular sitcom that starred Marla Gibbs, who played Florence Johnston for many years on The Jeffersons, got her own show. She played Mary Jenkins, a housewife who lived with her contractor husband, Lester and their 14-year-old daughter Brenda. Mary's best friend was Rose Lee Holloway, who used to sit out with her on the stoop of the apartment building (#227) and discuss many things, especially Sandra Clark, the wise-cracking, hyperactive, and often scatter-brained woman from upstairs. Rose had a daughter named Tiffany. Next door to the Jenkins was the gossipping, yet loving, Pearl Shay, a crotchety busybody who lived with her grandson Calvin Dobbs, who was Brenda's first love. Throughout the final two seasons, several new characters appeared. Broadcast History September 1985-June 1986----Saturdays----9:30 p.m. June 1986-May 1987----Saturdays----8:30 p.m. June 1987-July 1987----Saturdays----8:00 p.m. July 1987-September 1988----Saturdays----8:30 p.m. October 1988-Jul
#1 - A Pampered Tale
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/14/1989
The women head to a spa to prepare for a beauty contest. Meanwhile, Travis & Dylan care for a baby left in Travis' limo. Later Lester & Julian help out until the baby's mother returns.
#2 - Take My Diva...Please!
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/23/1989
Mary's organized a charity benefit featuring Diva Beverly Morris. Now she's a prima donna and Mary's worried that if she finds out that Sandra's dating her former boyfriend, Armand she'll back out. So she tries to keep her from finding out but when they end up in the powder room together things get hairy.
#3 - And Baby Makes Three
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/24/1987
When Mary is concerned at Calvin and Brenda's nonchalance about teenage pregnancy, she designs an experiment with their sex education class where the kids must take care of an animal. Brenda and Calvin ""adopt"" a piglet named Alberta and she is a handful. All of the kids in the class realize how hard it is to take care of animals, let alone a baby.
#4 - Low Noon
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/3/1987
When Sandra is dating a man who wants to open a sleezy night club down the street, Mary starts a petition to keep it from opening. Meanwhile, Brenda is working on an assignment about black cowboys. While reading about he historical figures, Mary dreams that they all live in the old West. Mary is ""2-Gun Mary,"" the fastest gun in the West. Lester is the marshall and Brenda-Sue is his daughter. Rose is a school marm turned cocktail dancer, Pearl is a dancer, and Sandra owns the saloon. When bad-guy Jessie comes into town, the town bands together to defeat him (which is what Mary would like to do iun reality). When she awakens from her dream, she finds out that the petitions were successful and the club will not open.
#5 - The Sing-Off
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/23/1988
For a choir sing-off, Mary has found housing for all of the competitors except one, and for good reason. He is rude, pushy and impatient. He winds up staying with the Jenkins. He tries everything he can to guarantee that his choir will win, including taking the judges to dinner and bringing in a professional gospel singer. The D.C. choir brings in Brenda, Tiffany and friends to sing with their choir, which gives them a unique, youthful sound. The competition ends in a tie, where both teams will represent the East Coast in the California semi-finals.
#6 - Family Hero
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1985
For an assignment that requires her to write about her ""Most Interesting Relative,"" Brenda asks her parents for help. Lester suggests his aunt Lucy who was a woman brakeman. After Mary hears about Sandra's supposed relative who was a Moroccan prince, she searches through an old trunk to find information about an interesting relative of hers. What she finds is that she had an uncle, Corporal Mortecai Hurley, who was in the Civil War's 54th Infantry. She persuades Brenda to re-write her paper on Mortecai. Not to be out done, Sandra goes to the library and finds out that Mary's uncle Mortecai was actually a ""coward"" in the war, and deserted his infantry disguised in the flag made to look like a dress. Mary and Lester tells Brenda and she becomes upset. She and Mary talk, and Mary apologizes for making her re-write her paper in the first place. But they decide that since the assignment calls for her to write about her ""Most Interesting Relative,"" she can still turn in the assignment on Mor
#7 - Do You Love Me?
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/19/1985
News of the breakup of her neighbors' marriage has Mary worried that the same thing could happen to her and Lester. Mary plans an evening of romance for her and Lester. Lester buys flowers (at Mary's suggestion) and they try to force romance by going out to eat, dimming the lights, and playing romantic music. But they realize that they only think that works is by letting it happen naturally and reminiscing about the past. Meanwhile, Sandra has to babysit her 6-year-old niece Susie while her sister Harriet and her husband visits his sick mother. She solicits Mary's advice on what to feed her and how to get her to fall asleep.
#8 - The Refrigerator
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1985
When Mary tries to convice the landlord to order her a new refrigerator, he refuses. Mary then agrees to loan Sandra her apartment for a extravagant party if Sandra will ""persuade"" the landlord to get Mary a new refrigerator.
#9 - The Whiz Kid
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/8/1988
Mary is the director for the church production of ""The Wiz"" and her cast is edgy. Meanwhile, the Jenkins' have a house guest. A college student who will be staying with them for a year. They are all surprised when 11 year old Alexandria shows up. She gets on everyone's nerves with her know-it-all attitude. She reveals to Mary that she wants everyone to like her and she thinks that no one does at that moment. Mary tells her to just be herself, even if it means acting her age.
#10 - The Bed of Rose's
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/4/1986
Sandra starts dating a man who works with her and Lester, however she finds him boring. She leaves it up to the Jenkins to cancel their date. When he comes to the apartment, he meets Rose and she goes out on the date instead. The two hit it off very well. He asks Rose to go to New York with him and Mary and Sandra disagree on what Rose should do. Mary thinks she should not go, because they may end up sleeping together, which would be too soon for the time they were dating. Sandra thinks she should live life to the fullest. Rose finally decides to go and Mary apoligizes for meddling into Rose's business. Rose has a great time but does not reveal if they went through it or not.
#11 - A Letter to the President
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/9/1985
When Mary writes a letter to the President about the pothole that is on her street that no one has seemed to fill in 3 months, the secret service starts snooping around 227 and gets the residents nervous. Then they find out that the President was actually praising her for her consideration of her neighborhood. He makes plans to come to the street and refill the pothole with Lester. When the Jenkins' catch the city filling in the pothole, they stop them and tell them that the President and Lester will be doing that later. The President cancels his appearance because of an emergency meeting but calls and commends Mary and also flies over the street in his helicopter.
#12 - Father's Day
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/6/1986
Calvin's dad comes to visit D.C. He and Calvin have fun going to basketball games and going to see the Blue Angels fly. Because he and his grandma have been arguing a lot lately, Calvin makes the decision to live with his dad in Iceland, thinking it would be more fun than living in D.C. Pearl is sad about it but doesn't want to show it too much. Mary throws Calvin a going away party, and after he hears what nice things every one has to say about him, he realizes that he has more ""family"" than he thought and decides to stay in D.C.
#13 - The Real Decoys
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/7/1989
Sandra gets a job as a meter maid. When Pearl gets her purse snatched while on her way to the bank with Mary and Rose's dues, Sandra and Mary hatch up an idea to stage a stake-out in the park. Rose and Mary pose as elderly women. They become suspicious when a skater continues to skate past them and suspect that he is the mugger. An older man comes and sits on the bench with Mary and Rose. He eventually snatches their purses and the skater, who is an undercover cop tries to handcuff him. Sandra decides to be the hero when she jumps in, but she handcuffs the skater instead and the mugger gets away. When they get home, Pearl realizes that the dues money wasn't in her purse but pinned inside another bra.
#14 - The Sidewalk Sale
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1985
The tenants have a sidewalk sale to pay for the repairs needed to fix up 227. Lester asks Mary not to sell his aunt's old, ugly lamp, but she does anyway, for $5. When Lester finds out, he is upset, but for more reasons than one. The lamp is where he hid the profits of the sale. The tenants get upset with Mary and outcast her. Luckily for her, the wife of the gentleman who bought the lamp comes by her apartment to give it back to Mary, because she did not like the lamp either. They buy it back from the couple for $50 and got the money back to save 227.
#15 - Young Man with a Job
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/3/1986
When Calvin has a hard time finding a part-time job, Brenda and Pearl persuade Mary to convince Lester to offer Calvin a job working at the construction site. But when Calvin proves to be inept with his hands, he gets terminated. With some helpful advice from Mary, Calvin later lands five interviews.
#16 - A Date to Remember
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/18/1989
When Sandra goes on the Love Connection, she chooses Gary because he is the owner of a jewelry store. When he arrives, Mary is in Sandra's apt to greet him, because Sandra has gotten Mary's phone glued to her fingernail. They decide not to eat out, and Gary says that he will cook for Sandra. The problem is, Sandra doesn't have any food in her apt, so she goes to the Jenkins' to ""borrow"" food. While in the kitchen, Lester arrives with the loan officer. It turns out that the loan officer is Gary's ex-wife! Mary tries to keep Sandra and Gary in the kitchen until Cynthia leaves. When she finally leaves, the coast is clear...until Cynthia comes back and sees Gary in the apt. She tells Lester that the deal is off and throws a pie in Gary's face. She later returns to apologize for being unprofessional, but once again runs into Gary, this time kissing Sandra. She calls the deal off once again, and the entire group gets into an argument outside 227. Sandra later finds out that Gary is the owner
#17 - The New Neighbors
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/20/1988
When Rose is looking for a live-in superintendent, Manny suggests his father, knowing that the Super's family will live with a 50% decrease in rent. When his family moves in, they later find out that he is also the Superintendent, but Alfonso has no skills in that area. Instead, he would rather play concert violin in a symphony. When a try-out conflicts with his job as Super, he decides to complete his job as Super, but Rose allows him one more day to complete his job so he can try out for the Orchestra. He doesn't make it, but vows to put his all into being the Super.
#18 - How the West Was Fun (2)
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/4/1989
Conclusion. Lester puts together a posse to find the womenfolk when the water rustlers take them hostage.
#19 - Jackee
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/11/1989
Sandra has moved to New York, but finds herself jobless after she finds out that the film company that she works for specializes in porn films! So once she find her apt., she meet a woman who tells her about a job opening at her job. Sandra goes with her the next day and gets the job at the spa. Sandra finds out that her new friend's boyfriend is using her, but when she tells her, she doesn't believe Sandra. Finally, when she hears it for herself, she cuts the boyfriends loose and her and Sandra are back on good terms.
#20 - See You in Court (a.k.a. They're Playing Our Song)
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/21/1987
Mary and Sandra go to court over song royalties.
#21 - Rich Kid
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/11/1987
Calvin befriends a new kid named Ron who says that his money comes from his rich uncle. He buys Calvin a new pair of shoes and offers to take Calvin and Brenda to a Stevie Wonder Concert. Mary doesn't like the way Ron is ""trying to buy friends."" For $50, Ron gets Calvin to give someone a sealed package and in return he receives $1000 to give back to Ron. Once Pearl and Mary find out, they conclude that Ron is a drug dealer. Mary goes to talk to Ron's mother about his free spending and the fact that he is a drug dealer, but his mother refuses to believe Mary. Calvin confronts Ron about using him to deliver drugs and Ron admits that he used Calvin and all it cost him was a pair of shoes. Later that day at a drug meeting, Ron's mother shows up and tells the 227 residents that Ron was stabbed to death in a drug deal gone bad.
#22 - The Honeymoon's Over (a.k.a. The Most Happy Marriage)
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/28/1987
When Lester's cousin and his wife come to visit the Jenkins, Mary brags about how they are the perfect couple who never argue and still begave like Honeymooners after five years of marriage. When they arrive, Sherry reveals to Mary that Ed is stiffling her and is too overprotective and she says that she is going to leave him that night. Once Ed finds out that she left, he becomes depressed and there is nothing that the Jenkins or residents of 227 can do to cheer him up. Sherry decides to come back and Mary coaches Ed on what to say, and tells him that he should change; he should be less overprotective. Sherry takes him back (or rather they take each other back).
#23 - The Wheel of Misfortune
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/4/1986
Mary and Sandra become contestants on ""Wheel of Fortune"" and wind up competing against each other.
#24 - Flying Down to Leo's
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/18/1989
En route to Lester's birthday party, Mary and Sandra run into gang members who want them as their biker chicks. (TVguide.com)
#25 - The Facade (a.k.a. Tangled Web)
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/12/1987
When Mary goes to a seminar about success, she meets a business man who wants to build a $50 million museum. She tells him that Lester is a big time contractor and sets up a meeting date. She uses Sandra's boyfriend's penthouse across the street to prove to Mr. Mortimer that she and Lester have lots of money. When Sandra's boyfriend comes home early, Mary's plan begins to fall apart. She admits what was going on to Mr. Mortimer and his wife. They understand, because Mrs. Mortimer says she, too, would do almost anything to aid in her husband's success. They end up using Lester's company for a smaller project.
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