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Amos 'n' Andy, one of the most popular and
long running radio programs of all time, was brought to
television in the summer of 1951. The series was produced by
Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, the two actors who had
created and starred in the radio version. Since they were
white, and the entire cast of the show on television had to be
black, a much ballyhooed search was held, over a period of
four years, to find the right actors to play the parts. Only
Ernestine Wade and Amanda Randolph were brought over from the
radio cast. |
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Set in Harlem, Amos 'n' Andy centered
around the activities of George Stevens, a conniving character
who was always looking for a way to make a fast buck. As head
of the Mystic Knights of the Sea Lodge, where he held the
position of "Kingfish," he got most of the lodge brothers
involved in his schemes. That put him at odds not only with
them, but with his wife Sapphire, and her mother. Mama, in
particular, didn't trust him at all. Andy Brown was the most
gullible of the lodge members, a husky, well-meaning, but
rather simple soul. The Kingfish was constantly trying to
swindle him in one way or another, but the "big dummy" (as
Kingfish called him) kept coming back for more. More often
than not, Kingfish would get them both into trouble, but win
Andy's cooperation with an appeal to fraternal spirit-"Holy
mackerel, Andy! We's all got to stick together in dis heah
thing...remember, we is brothers in that great fraternity, the
Mystic Knights of the Sea." |
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original amos
and andy |
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Amos was actually a rather minor
character, the philosophical cabdriver who narrated most of
the episodes. Madame Queen was Andy's girlfriend and Lightnin'
was the slow-moving janitor at the lodge. |
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Civil rights groups such as the NAACP had
long protested the series as fostering racial stereotypes, to
little avail. Amos 'n' Andy drew sizable audiences during its
two-year CBS run, and was widely rerun on local stations for
the next decade. The turning point came in 1963 when CBS
Films, which was still calling Amos 'n' Andy one of its most
widely circulated shows, announced that the program had been
sold to two African countries, Kenya and Western Nigeria. Soon
afterward, an official of the Kenya government announced that
the program would be banned in his country. This focused
attention anew on the old controversy and in the summer of
1964, when a Chicago station announced that it was resuming
reruns, there were widespread and bitter protests. CBS found
its market for the films suddenly disappearing, and in 1966
the program was withdrawn from sale, as quietly as possible. |
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As to whether the program was in fact
racist, there was no agreement on that. The creators certainly
didn't think so, and actor Alvin Childress (Amos) was quoted
as saying "I didn't feel it harmed the Negro at all....
Actually the series had many episodes that showed the Negro
with professions and businesses like attorneys, store owners,
and so on, which they never had in TV or movies before..."
Others pointed out that the situations were no different than
those found in many comedy programs with white characters. |
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Nevertheless, the humor certainly derived
from the fact that these were shiftless, conniving,
not-too-bright blacks. The very stereotypes that had so long
been unfairly applied to an entire race were used throughout.
As a result, it is unlikely that Amos 'n' Andy will ever be
seen again on television. |
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