Especially abhorred was the portrayal of black professionals. Neither The Kingfish nor Sapphire Stevens could engage in a conversation without peppering their speech with faulty grammar and mispronunciations. To some, the characters in Amos 'n Andy, including rude, aggressive women and weak black men were offensive. They were determined to realize improved images of themselves in popular culture. The frequent appearance of black stars on early television variety shows was met with approval from black leadership.Īfrican-Americans were still exuberant over recent important gains in civil rights brought on by World War II. To them, the medium could nullify the decades of offensive caricatures and ethnic stereotyping so prevalent throughout decades of motion picture history. Post World War II African-Americans looked upon the new medium of television with hopeful excitement. black characters could be lawyers, teachers and contributing members of society. American motion pictures presented its first glimpses of black soldiers fighting alongside their white comrades black entertainers appeared in sequined gowns and tuxedos instead of bandannas and calico dresses. Within black America, a new political consciousness and a new awareness of the importance of image had emerged." Though hardly void of the cruel insults and disparaging imagery of the past, Hollywood of the post World War II period ushered in an era of better roles and improved images for African-American performers in Hollywood. Media historian Donald Bogel notes "Neither CBS nor the programs' creators were prepared for the change in national temperament after the Second World War. Why did the Amos 'n Andy show go on to become one of the most protested of television programs? Eventually, the controversy surrounding the television version of Amos 'n Andy would almost equal that of the popularity of the radio version.Ĭontemporary television viewers might find it difficult to understand what all the clamor was about. The program's portrayal of black life and culture was deemed by the black community of the period as an insulting return to the days of blackface and minstrelsy. The basis for these characters was derived largely from the stereotypic caricatures of African-Americans that had been communicated through several decades of popular American culture, most notably, motion pictures. The adventures of Amos 'n Andy presented the antics of Amos Jones, an Uncle Tom-like, conservative Andy Brown, his zany business associate Kingfish Stevens, a scheming smoothie Lawyer Calhoun, an underhanded crook that no one trusted Lightnin,' a slow-moving janitor Sapphire Stevens, a nosey, loud-mouth Mama, a domineering mother-in-law, and the infamous Madame Queen. It was the first television series with an all-black cast (the only one of its kind to appear on prime-time, network television for nearly another twenty years). The position of the Amos 'n Andy show in television history is still debated by media scholars in recent books on the cultural history of American television.Īmos 'n Andy was first broadcast on CBS television in June 1951, and lasted some two years before the program was canceled in the midst of growing protest by the black community in 1953. The significance of Amos 'n Andy, with its almost thirty year history as a highly successful radio show, its brief, contentious years on network television, its banishment from prime-time and subsequent years in syndication, and its reappearance in video cassette format is difficult to summarize in a few paragraphs. Amos 'n' Andy was conceived by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, two white actors who portrayed the characters Amos Jones and Andy Brown by mimicking so-called Negro dialect. Like many of its early television counterparts, the Amos 'n' Andy television program was a direct descendent of the radio show that originated on WMAQ in Chicago on 19 March 1928, and eventually became the longest-running radio program in broadcast history.
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