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