While exceptional exceptions exist, history’s shown superb sitcom sequels to be scant. With any luck, you’ve long since forgotten the abysmal attempts of “AfterMASH,” “The Brady Brides,” “The Love Boat: The Next Wave,” and possibly the worst of the bunch, “Jonie Loves Chachi.” These small screen sideshows failed to give us Good Times, nor did they endear us to characters we still hold dear – Benson, Frasier, Laverne, Shirley, Maude, Mork and the lovely Mindy.

These disastrous debacles did anything but invite us to sing along to their opening songs. There was no, Movin’ on Up to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Ah, The Jeffersons, which premiered in 1975 and ran for 11 seasons. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked it the fifth-best TV spin-off of all time. Think of it as the gift that All in the Family kept giving as only the brilliant creator of both George and Archie, Norman Lear, could deliver.

The beauty of The Jeffersons was the ease with which its characters elicited laughter. No longer was it 1971, when Archie Bunker’s angry sarcasm resonated so clearly with American viewers, whose own tempers were still flaring from the searing ‘60s. By 1975, we were all in the need of George Jefferson’s victory walk across the screen and the derision it elicited from Florence, the housekeeper who gave new meaning to cynically caustic comebacks.

It’s worth asking how valid the premise of The Jeffersons would be today. What are the odds a successful, entrepreneurial dry cleaner from Queens could pull up stakes and relocate to a luxury apartment at 185 East 85th Street in the Park Lane Towers? You tell me: units are available in the building with monthly rents starting at a cool $18,200.

Granted, this is an extreme example. According to Axiometrics, the national average annual rental rate is $1,304. While that figure is a record in dollar terms, there is much better news in the underlying trend of rental inflation. In May, effective annual rent growth rate was 2.2-percent, a level that’s held steady for the past six months. Critically, the rate has more than halved since its record pace of 5.2-percent was clocked in September 2015.

Chances are we will see a continued leveling off in rental inflation. Apartment construction is running at its highest level in at least 25 years. Nearly 600,000 units are currently under construction nationwide. Deliveries are forecast to be 102,000 in the third and fourth quarters, up appreciably from the average 82,000 per quarter in 2016 and early 2017. Looking out over the horizon, one million units will hit the market in the next three years.

This should be welcome news for renters. (Do you sense a however coming your way?) However, the vast majority of new construction in recent years has been in luxury units. That helps explain why half of would-be renters cannot afford to set out on their own – that $1,300-plus monthly pill is too big to swallow based on the affordability standard of 30 percent of income.