Rhyming slang purchase a wood burning range from a junk trader called Sam, who litters his language with phony slang in hopes of getting higher payment. He comes up with a fake story as to the origin of Cockney Rhyming slang and is caught out rather quickly. In "The Jeffersons" season 2 (1976) episode "The Breakup: Part 2", Mr. Bentley explains Cockney rhyming slang to George Jefferson, in that "whistle and flute" means "suit", "apples and pears" means "stairs", "plates of meat" means "feet". The use of rhyming slang was also prominent in "Mind Your Language" (1977–79), "Citizen Smith" (1977–80), "Minder" (1979–94),
Rhyming slang spread beyond the purely dialectal and some examples are to be found in the mainstream British English lexicon, although many users may be unaware of the origin of those words. Most of the words changed by this process are nouns, but a few are adjectival e.g. "bales" of cotton (rotten), or the adjectival phrase "on one's tod" for "on one's own", after Tod Sloan, a famous jockey. Rhyming slang is believed to have originated in the mid-19th century in the East End of London, with several sources suggesting some time in the 1840s. According to a Routledge's slang dictionary from