Amos 'n' Andy (was: PC and Dialects in fiction)

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 14, 2004, at 10:23 PM, Duane Campbell wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Duane Campbell <dcamp911 at JUNO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Amos 'n' Andy (was: PC and Dialects in fiction)
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> On Sat, 14 Aug 2004 20:07:30 EDT "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> writes:
>
>> "This was the show that became an American fixation in the dear,
>> departed
>> days of radio.  In the television version, which first appeared in
>> 1951, Alvin
>> Childress was Amos, Tim Moore was the Kingfish, and Spencer Williams
>> was Andy.
>> In 1966 CBS withdrew the programf rom syndication and overseas sale
>> after
>> several civil-rights groups protested that it was a distorted
>> portayal of Negro
>> life in the United States."
>
> Of course it was distorted. Was Ozzie and Harriet a realistic view of
> suburban life in the 1950s? Or I Love Lucy typical of life in the city?
> Phil Silvers an accurate portrayal of Army life? In fact, can anyone
> think of any sitcom that was not a distortion of its time and place? I
> think that Mr. Gray will agree that Sergeant Bilko was not
> representative
> of the accent or diction or behavior we saw in our sergeants at that
> time.

You're right about that. I don't recall that Bilko spoke any unusual
dialect, but that could be merely an artifact of my having seen only
one or two episodes of the show. Anybody who'd been in the military,
even in "peacetime," as I was, would have a hard time suspending
disbelief to the extent necessary to go for that show. Nothing like
that could happen in the real Army. They didn't even bother to get the
uniforms right. Besides, for me, the only *real* Bilko was, and still
is, Steve Bilko, who played for the Saint Louis Cardinals of my youth.

And you're also right that no one would - or, at least, should - be so
naive as to mistake a sitcom for reality. But, of course, in those
days, it was a not-ready-for-Richard-Pryor world on both sides of the
racial divide. Even Redd Foxx was considered to be risque, solely
because he did a bit involving two brands of household detergent,
"Fuggit" and "Suggit," with the punch line, "If you can't Fuggit, then
Suggit!"

-Wilson Gray



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> I am Duane Campbell and I approve this message
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