Lexi Shepard

February 16, 2003

Dr. Rohler

 

Amos and Andy

On March 19, 1928, Amos ‘N’ Andy was introduced to radio and eventually become one of the most popular programs ever to air.  Because of the widespread popularity of the show, the creators and producers Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll decided to take their show to television.  In 1951, Amos ‘n’ Andy aired for the first time on CBS. Gosden and Correll starred in the radio version of their show but because they were both white, it would be impossible for them to portray 2 black men.  Because of this reason, a nationwide search was conducted for actors to star in their television version.  Over the course of 4 years this search continued because only Ernestine Wade and Amanda Randolph were brought over from the original cast. 

The Amos ‘N’ Andy show was set in Harlem and most of the storylines centered around the antics of George Stevens who was otherwise known as “Kingfish” to his friends.  Kingfish was portrayed as a scheming man who would do anything for a quick buck, even if it meant scheming and deceiving his friends.  This often put him at odds with his wife Sapphire, his lodge brothers and his mother in law who was simply referred to as “Mama.”  Andy was often the sidekick to Kingfish mainly because he was “not the sharpest tool in the shed” so to speak.  Andy could be described as husky and well meaning but often very dense.  Kingfish even referred to him as the “big dummy.”  More times than not, Kingfish would end up getting the both of them in trouble but Andy would keep coming back for more.  Although Amos’ name was in the title of the show, it was ironic that his role was very minimal.  He was mostly just the philosophical cab driver who narrated most of the episodes. Other characters in the show included, Madame Queen who was Andy’s girlfriend, and Lightnin’ the slow moving janitor. 

Although the Amos ‘N’ Andy show was very popular among many in the 1950’s, there were always Civil Right’s Groups who protested the show, saying that it fostered prejudices and stereotypes.  Despite these protests the show continued to air for 2 years.  In 1963, CBS announced that they would be selling the rights to the Amos ‘N’ Andy show to 2 African countries, Kenya and West Nigeria.  This came as a surprise to many mainly because CBS was still referring to the show as one of its most widely watched and circulated television shows.  This was in a sense the turning point for the Amos ‘N’ Andy show.  Even though Kenya agreed to purchase the show from CBS, the country’s leader later decided to ban his country.  Because of this ban, old controversies were brought to light and in 1964 protests were again conducted to end the run of the show.  Finally in the end of 1964, CBS’ audience for the show began to diminish and the show was taken off the air quietly. 

Despite several arguments that the show was racist, the creators and producers never saw this as a problem.  Their justifications for feeling this way was that they had several episodes where blacks were shown in the roles of doctors, lawyers and other upstanding occupations.  Although the intentions of the Amos ‘N’ Andy show seemed to be positive and for comical purposes only, the show nevertheless, focused on mindless and conniving not-to-bright blacks that resided in Harlem.  Even though the show was eventually brought to a close, the Amos ‘N’ Andy show will forever be apart of radio and television history.

 

Other information about the Amos ‘N’ Andy show can be located at:

          www.antique-radio.org/sounds/entertainment/amos

          www.amosandy.com

          www.timestvshowcase.com/amosandy.com

          http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2587/

          http://www.findarticles.com/g1epc/tov/2419100039/p1/article.com