Marla Gibbs recalls using tough love on Regina King on the “227” set

• Marla Gibbs spent 11 seasons portraying Florence Johnston.
• The Jeffersons’ stern maid, and made her name as well as garnering five Emmy nominations.
• She naturally took that same attitude to her on-screen romance with future Oscar winner.

Marla Gibbs spent 11 seasons portraying Florence Johnston, The Jeffersons’ stern maid, and made her name as well as garnering five Emmy nominations. She naturally took that same attitude to her on-screen romance with future Oscar winner Regina King in her subsequent project as the star of NBC’s 227.

In actuality, 227’s core has always been a mother-daughter cooperation.

After learning about a stage play Gibbs and her daughter, actress Angela Gibbs, were producing at their Crossroads Arts Academy and Theatre in Los Angeles, Jeffersons creator Norman Lear gave the go-ahead for the show, which ran on NBC from 1985 to 1990 and depicted the daily life of a middle-class Black family in Washington, D.C.

“One day, Norman said, ‘I hear you got a good play over there,” Gibbs, 91, tells PEOPLE. “I told him I did, and he said, ‘Why don’t you and I do it [for TV]?'”

In addition to turning series regular Jackée Harry into a star, 227 also gave audiences their first look at King as Brenda, the adolescent daughter of Mary Gibbs from Gibbs and Lester Jenkins from Hal Williams.

The actor remembers, “I campaigned for Regina [to be cast].” She absolutely resembled Hal and had light brown hair and eyes.

Gibbs had pleasant memories of working with King, who is now 52, despite the fact that their on-screen mother-daughter connection was sometimes ambiguous.

“Regina went to regular school while she was on the show, and her friends would tell her the clothes her character wore made her look like a doofus,” Gibbs remembers with a laugh. “I had to tell her, ‘Now, look, do you want to be on TV? Or do you want to be with your friends, watching TV?’ You’re not dressing the way you want to dress; you’re dressing the way I make you dress. We can have an argument about it if you want to.’ She never forgot that.”

Gibbs claims that one lesson she taught through her tough love was how to have a successful job.

According to Gibbs, “sometimes she’d come ask me if the outfits made her look too [young].” “In response, I would tell them, “I’ll tell you one thing: If you get too old, [the producers] will send your rear to college, and you won’t be on the show anymore!” So enjoy your youth while you can!”

Angela Gibbs, who presently plays the lead role in the ABC sitcom Not Dead Yet, can attest to her mother Gibbs’ strict discipline methods.

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