As a young man still in my 20s, I didn't grow up watching or listening to Amos n' Andy when it first aired. However, when I was in the 10th grade and spent a year with my grandparents in Mississippi in the early 1990s, I discovered this show for the first time. I heard some radio episodes first, and then saw several of the videos. I still think that this show has some of the funniest (and cleanest) comedy I've ever encountered.
One person commented that the black stars of the television series deserved equal recognition as the white creators of the radio series, including stars on the Walk of Fame. While I wholeheartedly agree that they should receive special recognition as the pioneers of black actors on television (and I won't deny that they should get stars on the Walk of Fame), I don't think it is accurate to say that the popularity of the series rests more on them than on Gosden and Correll. Perhaps you think that the radio series was fairly new when the television series began in 1951. On the contrary, Gosden and Correll had been playing Amos n' Andy on radio (and Sam n' Henry before that) since the late 1920s, and even played the characters in a 1930 movie, Check and Doublecheck. There was a time when movie theaters, in order to keep from losing customers, would actually stop the movie for 15 minutes each evening to play the Amos n' Andy radio show (what theater would stop a movie today for anything?). During that 15 minute period each evening, everything in the country went to a standstill, including water usage. Cops could walk down the streets and catch the entire show because they could hear it coming out of every single window. For many years, not only were Gosden and Correll the only writers (pumping out a fresh script every single day), but they also played every single character. It wasn't until 1943 that the series was was re-formatted to a 30 minute radio sitcom with a live audience, at least 15 years after the series began. So, as much as I love the cast from the TV series (many of whom had been on the radio series) and think they deserve proper recognition, the real credit still goes to Gosden and Correll, two white men who personally loved the black people and hated racism themselves.
One person commented that the black stars of the television series deserved equal recognition as the white creators of the radio series, including stars on the Walk of Fame. While I wholeheartedly agree that they should receive special recognition as the pioneers of black actors on television (and I won't deny that they should get stars on the Walk of Fame), I don't think it is accurate to say that the popularity of the series rests more on them than on Gosden and Correll. Perhaps you think that the radio series was fairly new when the television series began in 1951. On the contrary, Gosden and Correll had been playing Amos n' Andy on radio (and Sam n' Henry before that) since the late 1920s, and even played the characters in a 1930 movie, Check and Doublecheck. There was a time when movie theaters, in order to keep from losing customers, would actually stop the movie for 15 minutes each evening to play the Amos n' Andy radio show (what theater would stop a movie today for anything?). During that 15 minute period each evening, everything in the country went to a standstill, including water usage. Cops could walk down the streets and catch the entire show because they could hear it coming out of every single window. For many years, not only were Gosden and Correll the only writers (pumping out a fresh script every single day), but they also played every single character. It wasn't until 1943 that the series was was re-formatted to a 30 minute radio sitcom with a live audience, at least 15 years after the series began. So, as much as I love the cast from the TV series (many of whom had been on the radio series) and think they deserve proper recognition, the real credit still goes to Gosden and Correll, two white men who personally loved the black people and hated racism themselves.