The storyline of Ilunga Adell’s success in Hollywood

If you’ve ever noticed the closing credits of some of America’s popular TV sitcoms – “Sanford and Son,” “City Guys,” “Married with Children,” “Roc,” “A Different World,” “Moesha,” “That’s My Mama,” “227,” just to name a few – the name Ilunga Adell might’ve caught your attention. 

Adell, a native Memphian, wrote several episodes of each sitcom and others as well. However, before his spate of film credits started adding up, it was “Sanford and Son” that launched him as a screenwriter, TV and film producer, and story editor. 

Ilunga Adell

It all began after Adell (born William Adell Stevenson III) left Memphis to pursue a career in acting and discovered his love for the theatre. A graduate of Hamilton High School, he’d moved to New York and delighted himself as a thespian. Then he added screenwriter to his repertoire.

 “When the opportunity for ‘Sanford and Son’ came up, I was prepared,” said Adell, reputed for his stage plays. Just by happenstance, he was asked by Aaron Ruben, the esteemed producer of “Sanford and Son,” to write a script for the show.

Known for producing “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” Ruben was getting flak, Adell said, because he didn’t have any black writers for “Sanford and Son.” 

“He said he couldn’t find any.” 

Adell was in his early 20s and working at the Public Theater, an arts organization in New York City that Joseph Papp founded as the Shakespeare Workshop for up-and-coming playwrights and performers.

The theater was revered for showcasing the works of the best playwrights and performers, including Adell and others like Jason Miller, who wrote a play called “Championship Season.” He also starred as a young priest in the “Exorcist.”  

Adell was in good company with several well-known playwrights. Ruben discovered this fact when he noticed a photo of them in a New York Times article. According to Adell, Ruben said, “Well, they wrote for Papp, they can write for us.” 

He said Ruben then contacted the theater and asked him to come to California. A play Adell had written was already in the hopper and he was acting in another one when Ruben called. 

“They wanted to talk to me about doing ‘Sanford and Son,’” said Adell, who had not seen the show at that time.

Norman Lear was the executive producer of “Sanford and Son.” He said Lear and Ruben had cast funnyman Redd Fox in the lead role and actor Grady Demond Wilson as his son Lamont. 

Wilson wasn’t a stranger to Adell. “The (Off-Broadway) play I did in New York, ‘Five on the Black Hand Side,’ one of the actors in that play was Demond Wilson,” he said. 

Adell’s character was named Gideon and Wilson played the First Junkie. This was Adell’s first play in New York at the American Place Theatre.

After arriving in California and settling in his hotel room, “they gave me a couple of tapes (of “Sanford and Son”) to watch.” Confident as a writer – even though he had no experience writing for TV – Adell produced a couple of episodes.

Ruben liked what Adell had written for one of the episodes. But then he asked him to go back to the hotel and this time write a story outline. He was given a template to follow. 

“As I’m writing up my idea, dialogue comes to my mind. So I just started writing dialogue,” said Adell, and returned with 10-12 pages of dialogue. But Ruben was upset, he said, until he started reading. 

Then he started chuckling, Adell recalls, and followed with an imperative: “Okay, fine, go write the script.”

Adell had never written a script for TV, taken a writing class, or studied at a film school. What he did have was innate writing ability that he managed to hone into a new set of skills. 

He’d never written a comedy either, saying instead, “I considered myself a serious writer.” 

“Sanford and Son” was Adell’s foray into the business. Now he’s a bona fide screenwriter. “I had a knack for writing,” he said. “But through usage and overtime, the knack became a skill. I was always a good writer, but I’m a much better writer now.”

Adell had performed in, written, and directed productions at the American Place Theatre, The Black Magicians theatrical troupe, the Negro Ensemble Company, and, of course, the Public Theater in New York.

He debuted a short film, “Avenging Angels,” last year in October at the Black Hollywood Education Resource Center (BHERC) 25^th Anniversary African American Film Marketplace & S.E. Manly Short Film Showcase in Los Angeles, Calif. 

“Avenging Angels” is about two 16-year-old’s violent confrontation with an adult sexual predator. Supported by Films With A Purpose, Adell wrote and directed the 29-minute film. He has already completed the script for a feature film of “Avenging Angels.”

Not bad for a Memphian who continues to rack up film credits in Hollywood. Now he’s working with kids in an afterschool program in Memphis and Shelby County called Knowledge Quest.