The Amos 'n Andy Show

This show ran in syndication briefly on Dayton, Ohio, TV about 1963-64. I can remember my brother and my sisters gathering around the little tube every day at 4 to watch. If you see it today, yes the eye-rolling, mangled English, and Lightnin's utter imbecility will raise hackles. But at the time we didn't notice it. We were so used to cartoons and sitcoms where the adult figures acted like buffoons; these were just buffoons who happened to be black. Besides, the cast of Amos 'n Andy and the situations they got themselves in were FUNNY. Funnier than Lucy. We couldn't understand it when the show stopped running.

One thing I thought odd: by this time in the A&A property Amos, recast as an upright cabbie, was so pushed to the sidelines by the shenanigans of Andy and the Kingfish that he was virtually a minor character.