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Amos and andy tv7/23/2023 ![]() Club contributor Gwen Ihnat, who’s an expert on old-time radio and will be joining us for this discussion). Correll and Gosden were white, and they used their facility with doing voices based on popular types from minstrel shows to fill Amos ’N’ Andy with characters that created a kind of aural blackface (in the words of A.V. Much of the controversy surrounding Amos ’N’ Andy actually stems from the radio show. When Amos ’N’ Andy was airing, it was essentially the only place on American television to see black people at all the next popular sitcom with a majority black cast- Sanford And Son-wouldn’t arrive for nearly two decades after this show’s cancellation. (Though his name is in the title of the show, Amos has essentially become a supporting character in the story by this point, reflecting the way that popular newspaper comic strips would eventually be hijacked by former supporting characters who became more and more popular-see also: Barney Google And Snuffy Smith.) The TV series’ Harlem is a place that comes to vibrant life each week, filled with a panoply of characters from all walks of life. In the central roles of Andy and the Kingfish, Spencer Williams and Tim Moore are fine and funny indeed, finding the humor in some very broad material. White characters were an unusual occurrence, and every one of the major regular and recurring characters was played by a black actor. The primary argument in favor of Amos ’N’ Andy is that it depicts a richly textured Harlem community at its center, filled with all manner of black people, filling all manner of occupations and roles. The question of representation is a difficult one to answer.
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