From Television the First Fifty Years by Jeff Greenfield. From the first days of network radio, situation comedy touched a nerve in the audience. In March of 1928, the National Broadcasting Company began broadcasting Amos 'n' Andy, a fifteen-minute show created by Freeman Gosden and Charles Corell. The show dealt with the comic adventures of a pair of South Side Chicago Negros who ran the Fresh Air Taxi Cab Company of America. "Incorpulated," and whose social life revolved around the Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge, presided over by the Kingfish.Most current observers who look back on Amos 'n' Andy see it as a mean-spirited exploitation of racial stereotypes. And, indeed, the mocking approach to black upward mobility , the mangling of the english language ( "I'se re-gusted," "splain dat to me"), and the fact that two white men played the Negro characters were all strong elements of racism. ( The show was moved to television in 1951, with a black cast-- Tim Moore as the Kingfish displayed a brilliant comedic hand--but the growing anger over the black stereotyping drove the show off the air and ultimately out of syndication by 1966.) More significant is the fact that this first broadcasting sit-com hit contained many of the ingredients that remain a part of the form almost fifty years latter.The characters are in a situation which is in essence unchanging. The taxicab company will always be a laughably small enterprise, with a tiny office and a single chair. The grand dreams of Amos will always be laughably impossible to realize. Kingfish will always be the operater, looking for the quick deal, and Andy will always be his victim. The supporting characters--the awesomely stupid Lightnin', the pompous Lawyer Calhoun--will be exactly the same, day in and day out. Even the vocabulary, the phrases used by the characters will remain unvarying. These elements remain intact no matter which situation comedy is examined.
Check and Double Check |
Freeman Gosden as
Amos Jones.... |  |
Charles Correll as
Andrew Hogg Brown (Andy).. |  |
| George "The Kingfish" Stevens |  |
07/15/97
Dave Schutz
schutz19@skypoint.com or
schutz@cliffhanger.com
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