While it forwarded black stereotypes, it was well-liked for the comedy situations and its characters. “Amos ’n’ Andy” was a comedy based around the taxicab business of Amos Jones, his friend, Andrew Hogg Brown, and George “Kingfish” Stevens, president of the Mystic Knights of the Sea Lodge. Two years later, the name was changed to “Amos ’n’ Andy,” and it became one of the most popular broadcast programs on air, lasting until 1955-and another five years under a music hall format. During that same period, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll went on the air over Chicago’s WGN radio with “Sam ’n’ Henry” on Jan. The Blatz beer legacy includes being our town’s first brewery to have a bottling department in 1875 and to shipping nationally-a mere decade after the War Between the States.īlatz survived prohibition by creating items such as malt soap and non-alcoholic beverages. It’s now produced by the Miller Brewing Company under the aegis of the Pabst Brewing Company, which re-acquired the labeling rights. Thank you for visiting our Amos and Andy TV Show page!Ĭopyright © 1997-Present CrazyAboutTV.History seems to die hard, and in a city known for beer, one of the major players in the Milwaukee beer industry was The Valentin Blatz Brewing Company, operating from 1851-1959. Amanda and Lillian Randolph were sisters in real life! You may have noticed that the actresses who played the roles of Mama Smith and Madame Queen both have the same last name. It was one of the longest-running shows ever on radio! The voice actors who played the roles of Amos and Andy on the radio were actually white men who had created the show! When the show moved to television there was a huge effort was undertaken for four years in order to find black actors to replace them! Tim Moore who played Kingfish and Spencer Williams who played Andy were actually talked into coming out of retirement to play their roles!Īmanda Randolph and Ernestine Wade were the only two actors who made the move from radio to television. The Amos and Andy TV show was preceded by an Amos and Andy radio show that had aired on NBC radio.
The series' theme song was titled, "Angels' Serenade" and was composed by Gaetano Braga. After that, CBS found that no TV stations would buy rerun rights and the episodes have not been broadcast since then.
Those renewed protests were fueled by the fact that CBS had sold rerun rights to Kenya but the Kenyan government banned the broadcast of the series. In 1966, reruns of Amos and Andy were discontinued after more such protests from the black community. Even though the show had good ratings, CBS canceled it when the NAACP complained about how black people were portrayed. Of course, those instances did not have the history of slavery as a background so it's understandable why the stereotyping seen on Amos and Andy might be more objectionable to black people than the stereotyping of redheads or misers.
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We should also be aware that other series of the day portrayed white comedic characters as dim witted (Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo) (Jerry Lewis) and cheap and sneaky (Jack Benny). To be fair, however, the show also was the first time that black characters were shown as businessmen, policemen, judges, lawyers and other prominent members of society. The series did typically portray black people as dim witted and unscrupulous. It's unlikely that the Amos and Andy TV show will ever be publicly broadcast again due to controversy over racial stereotyping. During that same one-hour time slot, ABC aired "Stop the Music" and NBC aired " You Bet Your Life" and "Treasury Men in Action".Īmos and Andy was nominated for an Emmy in 1953 for "Best Situation Comedy" but it lost the award to " I Love Lucy". Henry Van Porter / Leroy Smithĭuring its first season, Amos and Andy came on right after the George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. The stories were told from the point of view of philosopher and cab driver, Amos Jones. Andy Brown was one of Kingfish's most gullible suckers and came back for one failed scheme after another. The Amos and Andy TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on CBS about a the leader of the Mystic Kinghts of the Sea Lodge nicknamed "Kingfish" who was constantly trying to talk his lodge brothers into getting involved in get rich quick schemes that always went sour.
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