1950s popular and long running shows which have disappered from the air

That made me chuckle.

 

I would tend to agree with that assessment.

 

My understanding is back in the 1930s the NAACP was supportive of the radio show but critical of the 1950s tv show. Apparently the radio show was so popular that movie theaters would pipe the radio broadcast so customers would come to the theater.

FWIW the white actors in the radio show (as well as the one movie they made) were the two men who created it.

 

Weird off shoot was a cartoon,Calvin & the Colonel,basically Amos & The Kingfish,with Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll creators and lead voices. Produced by Bob Connelly & Bob Mosher,longtime writers on the Amos & Andy radio show,with other credits including Leave It To Beaver & The Munsters. Connelly & Mosher are credited for writing some episodes and,though I don't have a lot of knowledge of the A&A radio show,recycled some of the radio shows for the cartoon. The theme song was a jaunty march,with hat tips to Dixie,along with a cheesy roller rink style organ. So the original radio voices by white guys portraying black guys had a strange Confederate Colonel transformation as a fox & a bear. You tube clips are all black & white. Were these ever made in color? Broadcast on ABC in B&W as the network was late in the game of large scale color transmission.

 

Yes, they were produced in color. Most of the prints that I came across were in black and white but I know I have at least one color episode which ran on a nostalgia fewtival (remember those) in Kentucky in the mid-80s.

 

The problem with the TV show was that there were no other black shows on TV at the time,other than Beulah, to balance out some of the buffoonish characters on A&A. The Honeymooners had 2 dopes in Kramden and Norton but there were other shows which portrayed white people who weren't idiots whereas there were no other shows on TV with black characters, other than the Steppin Fetchit like Willie on My Little Margie. Later black shows had characters which were as offensive if not more so but by that time, there were far more black characters seen on TV. That's my understanding of it.

By the way, there was a small digital subchannel in Houston a few years ago run by 2 black sisters and they were airing the show 7 days a week (I'm sure unbeknowst to CBS). 'Amos and Andy' re-emerges on the air in Houston, 40 years after the TV show was pulled off the air due to racist stereotypes | ABC13 Houston | abc13.com