Amos 'n' Andy
 1 9 5 1 - 1 9 5 3 (USA)
78 x 30 minute episodes
Amos 'n Andy had been one of radio's biggest hits, but its
creators and stars (Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll) were
whites who portrayed blacks, which worked perfectly well on radio,
but was simply not going to cut-it on television!
And so the
casting call went out . . . and one of the finest ensemble comedy
casts of any colour was assembled.
Alvin Childress played Amos Jones, level-headed cab driver and
modest ballast of the cast, and Spenser William Jr played Andy
Brown ("the big dummy"), oafish suitor of countless girlfriends and gullible foil of
scams.
The centrepiece of the show, however, was George 'Kingfish'
Stevens, played to great comic effect by Tim Moore.
As head of the
Mystic Knights of the Sea, a bankrupt lodge, he perpetually conned
Andy into joining schemes and attempted to evade the wrath of his
domineering wife, Sapphire.
 Other
regular characters included Sapphire's Mama, Andy's girlfriend
Madame Queen and Lightnin', the slow-moving Lodge janitor.
These were situations of the most
confounding order, and exaggerated performances resulted in a
memorable classic.
The series lasted for two years and featured the first
all-black TV cast.
Protests, however, from civil rights groups -
and accusations that the show presented caricatured portrayals
that offended many blacks - led to the series' cancellation, and,
in 1966, to its withdrawal from syndication.
Amos drove for the Fresh Air Taxi Cab Company and doubled as
the narrator for the series. Amos 'N' Andy was the first
television comedy series to be broadcast with a canned-laughter
soundtrack.
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