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"I loved the Amos and Andy show as much or more than 'I love Lucy'. "The characters were black but it was just as if they were redheaded people. Just an unimportant fact. Our family was Italian in an Italian neighborhood. Big deal. Just another group of people. Black people, Italian people, red headed people, Catholic People, Protestant people. No big deal. "Anyway, there were all different types of people on the show. Kingfish was a schemer, but he never pulled the wool over anybody's eyes except Andy. Amos was a minor character but always the smart, moral, good person. I had heard it said that if 'Amos and Andy' was insulting to Black people, just think how insulting 'Gomer Pyle' is to white people. Neither was insulting to anyone with any confidence in themselves. "I always felt that the actors really got ripped off by the show being "disappeared". Otherwise they would justifiably be as famous or more famous than the 'I love Lucy' cast. Too bad. They did nothing wrong. They did a great job in the new medium of TV." - Lanny
"I am a black female, born and still living in the south. I watched Amos and Andy reruns and actually raced home to see them. Can you imagine a young black girl in the south able to watch black people on TV - it was not encouraging, not discouraging. "I knew that blacks were not buffoons, shiftless and lazy. I lived in a house and a community with black people that were hard working, educated and law abiding. Even as a child, I knew the pranks on Amos and Andy were just that, pranks on a TV show - for entertainment. "I applaud the NAACP for their efforts in working to remove racial stigmas. However, I wish this generation could see some of the shows. I have some on video cassette and at first my children didn't want to watch. Not because of the content - but because it wasn't in color! We laugh at Calhoun, Andy, Kingfish, Sapphire and her mother!!! It's amazing to see some of the older stars in their younger days (Jester that played on Amen). There was little or no work for blacks actors and to have a black show during the 50s must have been hard on them. "I know the actors received criticism for working on such a show, even then. But, I found it and still find it entertaining. Looking at it from the standpoint of being degrading to blacks, I find it no more degrading than Sanford and Son or All In The Family should have been to whites." - deverett
"Maybe I don't have a right to an opinion, I am not black. But I used to love the "Amos and Andy Show." I was just a child during the 50's and I guess I was oblivious to the controversy about the show. All I knew was that it wasn't on anymore and there was a void. I suppose when I was watching it was in reruns. "This show had great story lines. I know it was a comedy, but it wasn't senseless slapstick. There were great life lessons in the show. I remember seeing a "I Love Lucy" show with an almost exact story line. "In the "Amos and Andy" story, Kingfish and Andrew H. Brown bought a diner that was for sale along a busy highway. They went into the diner and the place was just hopping with buses stopping all day long for breaks, and of course every time the cash register dinged, Kingfish saw dollar signs. In the Lucy show, Lucy, Ethel, Ricky and Fred went in together as partners under the same circumstances. In both shows, just as the new owners opened up for business the busline changed its route and didn't come past the diner anymore. No business. It was hilarious in both shows. I think the script was even the same with small differences to make up for the different number of characters. "But, I think my favorite Amos and Andy (I always thought it should have been Kingfish and Andy) was the show where somehow they strike it rich. One of Kingfish's many get rich schemes appears to have come through. Mama gets this little tiny poodle, and she looked so silly making googoo noises with that little dog. Kingfish hated that dog and visa versa. They flashed their good fortune about and long suffering Saffire finally had a reason to brag about George (Kingfish) and did so to everyone. Of course, the fortune was short lived and they found themselves having to return all their purchased treasures. Otherwise it wouldn't have been funny. They had to face the same people they had put airs on to. In the last scene Mama had to admit that the dog had bit her that morning. It was a great show! "I am sorry there were people who were offended by it. I can't speak from their position, I just wanted to say how much I liked the show when I was watching it and how big my grin was as I watched and listened to the little snippets. They don't make shows like that anymore. Not one word of profanity, no nudity and/or sex, good scripting, real life human types. I don't know what more a person would want from a show." - Karen P
"Reading comments on Amos and Andy and really think it was a shame this show never got it's due reward. I can remember watching it as a child. Maybe I am wrong but vaguely in my mind there was an episode where at the very end, Amos was outside his cab and talking philosophically that things were going to be better someday. "Somehow as a child it was etched in my mind that this was about the great social injustice that Black Americans experience. Kingfish was a conniver and Andy was not the brightest, but I never felt it portrayed blacks as a whole detrimentally. They were surrounded by plenty of normal black people. Wondered if anyone else remembers the episode I'm referring too. Would love to see it again." - KJ
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