Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
Imagine my surprise, when I stumbled onto this find! I had gotten a couple of hits from the Blogroll at Quartermains Quarter, and when I hit the link, I found that he had re-posted the episode.
I thought this comedy gold had been banned, like the classic Disney movie, Song of the South, on pain of death!
My omnipresent fear of the KK (Kopyright Kops) has me posting this now, even though it’s a Christmas Show.
Note that the show only sold two-and-a-half minutes of commercials, even though it was very popular, among negroes and whites alike. The producers problems selling ad time was due to the machinations of the NAACP, which eventually got the show canceled.
The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show blipped onto television screens in July, 1951. And that same week, The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) published, in its Bulletin, the following bill of charges against the program:N.S.: Note that the NAACP’s “bill of charges against the program” is actually a list of charges for the program. All of the black stereotypes it promoted were true, which was why the show was the most popular show on radio!
1. It tends to strengthen the conclusion among uninformed and prejudiced people that Negroes are inferior, lazy, dumb and dishonest.
2. Every character in this one and only TV show with an all Negro cast is either a clown or a crook.
3. Negro doctors are shown as quacks and thieves.
4. Negro lawyers are shown as slippery cowards, ignorant of their profession and without ethics.
5. Negro Women are shown as cackling, screaming shrews, in big mouthed close-ups, using street slang, just short of vulgarity.
6. All Negroes are shown as dodging work of any kind.
7. Millions of white Americans see this Amos 'n' Andy picture of Negroes and think the entire race is the same.
The organization made a formal denunciation of the show at its July 1951 convention and filed a suit [!]against CBS, attempting to get an injunction to stop the show from airing. The case was well-publicized nationally, with questions of portrayals of Blacks and appropriate and desirable roles for Black actors bandied about throughout the year.
Amos ‘n’ Andy did well in the ratings in ‘51, but began to slide in ‘52. Its chief sponsor, Blatz Beer, was wilting under the pressure of the protests. In 1953, Blatz withdrew its sponsorship, and as a result, CBS cancelled the show. [Amos ‘n Andy, NAACP Bulletin, undated.]
I think the real reason the NAACP got the show cancelled was because the producers-creators-writers were white men. If blacks had been in control, everything would have been aok in Baltimore.
Amos ‘n Andy 49: “The Christmas Story”
Black Santa don't come and leave the presents. Black Santa comes and takes the presents.
ReplyDeleteBlack sitcoms the token whites are all shown as stupid, inept, buffoons.
ReplyDeleteJeffersons. The Englishman, the doorman, the whitey man married to Roxy Rooker. All stupid, dumb, saying stupid dumb things.
All black sitcom have the similar characters. Whitey the fool.
The comments by the NAACP are as blatant a lie as anything perpetrated by the Left today. One thing that struck me while watching the series is that outside of the central characters (and they are no more stupid or silly than THE HONEYMOONERS or a million other sitcoms), the show depicts Blacks of that time as totally normal members of society, in a wide variety of roles, not AT ALL foolish, incompetent or corrupt. In fact, in the episodes where the characters get mixed up with crooks, the crooks are ALWAYS played by White actors! The series is (or was) commonly available on Ebay and is a total delight. It's supposedly Public Domain, but CBS will never release it nor allow anyone else to "officially" release it. PS- Regarding the 2 and a half minutes of commercial time- that's ALL there was in Prime Time half hours, well into the sixties!
ReplyDeleteAmos 'n Andy was on Nashville TV in the early 60's in syndication before it was totally banned around 1966. I believe the Nashville ABC affiliate showed it on Sunday afternoons. It actually made you like black folks.
ReplyDeleteI saw Song of the South (1946) at a Columbia, Tennessee theater in 1957, age six. It had been re-released. There was a big audience, including many black people. What I remember is the scene where the Bobby Driscoll character gets chased and gored by a bull.
It gave me nightmares for a while.
If there's a white character on TV today that has told a black character he's done something wrong,made a bad decision,told a joke that made the black the butt of it--let alone portrayed the black as RACIST or EVIL,I must have blinked and missed it.
ReplyDeleteThe commercials we have now will always have--in a 2 person ad--one black and one white (utterly ridiculous of course).The white is the dumbass 99.9% of the time.
In ads with a bigger cast,the black or blacks in it,are the knowledgeable character(s), while the multitude of lost whites around him hang on his every word for wisdom and guidance--as in many insurance commercials or DIRECT TV(which depicts whites as having the IQs of Amos and Andy's retarded relatives).
Blacks have been given tremendous power in the news arena,most of which lately,is wasted on revoking "unfair"criminal sentences of black thugs.Lesta Holt showed the results of his non-stop,pro-black activist efforts last night,with the release of a black rapper from the local Philadelphia jail(because of parole violations)on his Negro Nightly News.
Holt personally got involved,traveled to Philly for an interview with the thug and started the pressure cooker on the judge to release him.Does he care as much about whites?Me thinks not,as 95% of his "Inspiring America" segments are about blacks.The rest of his half hour is devoted to white crime and Trump innuendo.The networks are in a furiously paced PR effort to show how great blacks are and how rotten whites act.We know better of course.
I just read Joy Reid will keep her racist show on MSNBC.NBC deemed her anti-gay tweets to be non-firable offenses.She claimed someone hacked her account and yada yada yada,made her look homophobic.Good enough defense these days if you're non-white.
Finally,I'm waiting for Bill Cosby's exoneration,but that rant is for another day.
--GR Anonymous
Reminder: Bill Cosby, despite his guilt, was targeted because he spoke out against the Rap "culture," and because he had a hugely popular TV show depicting middle-class Blacks with a normal family structure. George Takei ADMITTED to drugging and molesting an underage male and is still walking about free and spewing hate on Twitter! And of course, there's the former President with HOW MANY accusation of rape against him, and no prosecution whatsoever...
ReplyDeleteit was a comedy. it was supposed to be funny. the same people who think amos and andy is racist love "I love Lucy" from the 1950's. it made women look like idiots because it was a comedy. Lucille Ball supposedly blazed a trail for women on t.v. she was always screwing up because she was supposed to. the same for amos and andy. it's a shame that real racists have destroyed what was a very funny show.
ReplyDelete