Based on a play about the lives of women residing in a black apartment building in 1950s Chicago, by Christine Houston, Marla Gibbs, who first shot to stardom for playing the sarcastic housekeeper to Louise & George Jefferson, Florence Johnston, in "The Jeffersons," got her own series. In this sitcom, she starred as Mary Jenkins, a tart-tongued, sharp housewife, who enjoyed a great deal of gossip, and often spoke of what she'd believed, not-so-good results. 227 was also about the many African-Americans who resided in a Washington, D.C.