Amos N' Andy reference

[hiphats]

At the end of one of the Bugs Bunny cartoons (can't remember which one), Bugs inadvertantly blows Marvin The Martian away using a "dummy" of Bugs, then turns the radio dial and says "I wonder if 'Amos N' Andy' is on yet?"

The last line has been deleted from most airings (although I did hear it on one of the Nickelodeon airings). The reason it has been deleted is that to this very day the "Amos N' Andy" series is still under some controversy.

Last night, the TRIO network aired an episode of this legendary series as part of a documentary called "Amos N' Andy: Anatomy Of A Controversy" (followed by the RKO film "Check And Double Check").

Like the legendary "Censored 11" cartoons (which include "Coal Black And The Sebben Dwarfs"), "Amos N' Andy" has pretty much been dragged through the mud by those people who still find it offensive.

I strongly disagree. The series, like the "Censored 11", should be seen as a reminder of entertainment history as it was, free of prejudice and criticism. Leonard Maltin had similar opinions when many of the "objectionable" Disney cartoons turned up uncut on the recent "Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse In Black And White" DVD box set.

I'm sure if WB sees things the way I do, they will release the "Censored 11" on DVD at some point in time as they are now beginning to come out with the Looney Tunes shorts on DVD.

Perhaps if we all followed the example, maybe we wouldn't be so critical of our entertainment history. After all, as Santayana said, "those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it".

P.S. The "Amos N' Andy" special will re-air on TRIO Saturday, June 28 at 11 PM Eastern. I urge you to watch it and judge for yourself.

[rodney]

Amos & Andy is a wonderful show, especially on radio. What I find most interesting, is that most of the hoopla was caused by the TV incarnation, not the radio version where the leads were played by white actors.

I wish I had Trio. I'd love to see this documentary. Could someone tape it for me? A tape of cartoons of your choice if anyone will take me up on it.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

At the end of one of the Bugs Bunny cartoons (can't remember which one), Bugs inadvertantly blows Marvin The Martian away using a "dummy" of Bugs, then turns the radio dial and says "I wonder if 'Amos N' Andy' is on yet?"
It was Yosemite Sam ("of outer space!"), not Marvin the Martian, that Bugs blows up with a dummy rabbit. The cartoon in question is "Lighter Than Hare" (1960), directed by Friz Freleng.

[Bugsmer]

James Baskett, who starred in the Amos and Andy radio program also starred as Uncle Remus in "Song of the South". For a good Amos and Andy website, go to http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2587/.

[Bugsmer]

As a side note, the man who played Lightnin' on the TV series, Nick Stewart, also voiced Brer Bear.

[Bobby B]

James Baskett, who starred in the Amos and Andy radio program also starred as Uncle Remus in "Song of the South".


Baskett also did the voice of Brer Fox, using the same voice as his Amos & Andy character, Gabby Gibson.


I have a tape of the radio show in which Andy, Gabby, and the Delta Rhythm Boys sing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, with some new lyrics made up just for the show:


There's a guy on the radio

Plays Gabby the lawyer and he's on our show

He's always talkin' and runnin' his mouth

So they made him a movie star in Song of the South

Now he can be heard as well as seen

As Uncle Remus on the screen

[Bobby B]

As a side note, the man who played Lightnin' on the TV series, Nick Stewart, also voiced Brer Bear.


And the man who played Calhoun the lawyer, Johnnie Lee, was the voice of Brer Rabbit.



One of the people interviewed on the documentary said that Lillian Randolph (the voice of Mammy Two Shoes) was part of the Amos & Andy cast. Who did she play? Sapphire's mama?

[Bobby B]

Amos & Andy is a wonderful show, especially on radio. What I find most interesting, is that most of the hoopla was caused by the TV incarnation, not the radio version where the leads were played by white actors.

I wish I had Trio. I'd love to see this documentary. Could someone tape it for me? A tape of cartoons of your choice if anyone will take me up on it.


I taped it, but it was taped in EP so I don't know if it can be copied onto another tape.

This isn't a recent documentary. It originally aired sometime in the 1980's, I think on PBS. I watched it back then and could still remember some of Kingfish's lines.

[Steve Carras]

I taped it, but it was taped in EP so I don't know if it can be copied onto another tape.

This isn't a recent documentary. It originally aired sometime in the 1980's, I think on PBS. I watched it back then and could still remember some of Kingfish's lines.

Since we're not at war with Japan, how many teenagers or boomers would identity with some censored cartoons-like Bing Crosby (NOT Sinatra who's still known), these carrttoons besides being jingoistic are associated with Lawrence Welk music, and most references are forgotten.The wartime cartoons are best left forgotten, but the Indian and AMos and ANdy was innconent stuff..BTW it was surprsing ANY radio show could still make it past 1960 given how that medium was declining. Some stuff like "broads" (uttered by Frank Sinatra, still wrongly thought of with Benny Goodman as the TOP star of the war years when Crosby was) shou;d not have been since unlike the words for Japanese there was NO good intentions, and Sinatra was not considered by (a still Jimmy Durante-worhsiping) largely middle American G.I. generation in the forties to be the patrioit Durante and Hope and Crosby.In other words, ironic the Rat Pack menality can be PC but not the wartime one--that said I am a fan opf that stuff, but I canm understand some Censored cartoopns not airing as they wouldn't appeal to today's Cherry Popping Dadies crowd-todfay's jazz fans hear of the Andrews Sisters as being 1940s and they ask "where's Big Bad Voodoo Daddy"?:D (And I think the wartime soldiers were the biggest gentlemen of the era.)

Amos and Andy, a diffewrent story was an innocent non-propaganda,longrunner that should be enjoyed.Heck, even Jesse Jackson (who certainly m,ade many inflammtory comments, the H-bomb town anyone) approved A&A. Amos And Andy and FIbber McGee and Jack Benny lasted past the era..joined by the latter day show hosted by young Stan Freberg.Today Phil Hendrie (the Mel Blanc/Daws Butler/Frank Welker of talk radiop) is as close as it gets..:D

BTW I also hate how Sanford and Son gets trashed by the NAACP..WATCH IT SUCKA!

[Steve Carras]

And the man who played Calhoun the lawyer, Johnnie Lee, was the voice of Brer Rabbit.



One of the people interviewed on the documentary said that Lillian Randolph (the voice of Mammy Two Shoes) was part of the Amos & Andy cast. Who did she play? Sapphire's mama?

Wouldn't be surprsied if she was in COAL BLACK and GOLIDLOCKS AND JIVBNIN BEARS.

[Jason Furness]

I taped it, but it was taped in EP so I don't know if it can be copied onto another tape.

I don't know about your VCR(s), but whenever I copy an EP recording, it's still looks and sounds all right - just not as good as it could've been.

So I say, go ahead and copy it, and see for yourself what happens.. ^^

[rodney]

By 1954, the Amos & Andy sitcom had gone off the air, and was "replaced" by the Amos & Andy Music Hall (which is what ran until 1960). Basically, it was Amos, Andy and the Kingfish spinning pop records and chatting in between songs. It's noble that Gosden and Correll were able to carry on, but it's a sad comparison with what was....especially if you read the plot descriptions of the show when it was a serial.

Dunno about Lillian Randolph being on Amos & Andy (Amanda Randolph, Lillian's sister, was Sapphire) but Lillian did spend at least 13 years as Birdie the maid on The Great Gildersleeve (sounding exactly like Mammy!). She may have continued with the show until it was cancelled in 1957, but no episodes are circulating past 1954. I suspect they exist and just haven't made their way out to collectors.