After picking up pointers from the owner of Lawrence’s Merry Maids franchise, an actress well-known for playing a TV housekeeper is putting her new real-life skills to work on – where else? – TV.

Marla Gibbs, who played Florence Johnston on “The Jeffersons,” appears tonight on “Back to the Grind,” a TV Land reality show that lines up iconic TV performers to work in jobs that their TV characters once held.

To prepare for her stint working as a housekeeping supervisor at a boutique hotel in Los Angeles, Gibbs received cleaning instruction a year ago from three Merry Maids representatives. Among them was Kim Hinkly, owner of Merry Maids franchises in Lawrence, Topeka and Calgary, Alberta.

While Hinkly doesn’t know yet if she’ll appear on the actual show – TV Land officials declined to forward an advance copy of the episode to Merry Maids representatives – she won’t have to wait much longer.

“Back to the Grind” will be shown at 9:30 tonight on Sunflower Broadband channel 53. Also appearing: fellow “Jeffersons” star Sherman “George Jefferson” Hemsley, who spends a day sweating it out at a real dry cleaning shop by taking orders and ironing, pressing and eventually delivering clothes in a company van.

Other performers featured in the series include Erik Estrada, Betty White, Bea Arthur, Ed Begley Jr. and Jimmie Walker.