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Revolution Televised: Prime Time and the Struggle for Black Power.


Revolution Televised: Prime Time and the Struggle for Black Power

by Christine Acham University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. External link
  • University of Minnesota Press
, October 2004 $24.95, ISBN ISBN
abbr.
International Standard Book Number


ISBN International Standard Book Number

ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 
 0-8166-4431-4

This book explains how Good Times and Sanford and Son Sanford and Son is an American sitcom that premiered on the NBC television network on January 14, 1972 and was broadcast for six seasons. The final original episode aired on March 25, 1977. Reruns were aired on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976 to July 21, 1978.  can be, alternately, stereotypical African American images and powerful, culturally authentic statements. Acham goes beyond the usual, and all too easy, black-images-in-television narrative. She details how black artists such as Redd Foxx and Esther Rolle fought on and off the soundstage to preserve their cultural integrity while presenting black humor and drama as best they could within network television's confines. Acham, a cultural critic, tells this 1970s story well for an academic and popular audience. Presenting forgotten detail in new ways, she gives a nuanced, detailed discussion of an oft-summarized history.

The behind-the-scenes peek the author provides of these black artists is revelatory. Diahann Carroll publicly calls her character Julia a sellout and describes her show as a white conception of black reality. The late Flip Wilson--one of the most visible (and blatantly nonpolitical) celebrities at the Movement's height--is revealed to be a closet revolutionary of sorts; Wilson owned his own self-titled show and left the spotlight on his terms. Great space is given as to how stand-up genius (and Sanford and Son occasional scriptwriter script·writ·er  
n.
One who writes copy to be used by an announcer, performer, or director in a film or broadcast.



script
) Richard Pryor, through his network appearances and short-lived variety program, all on NBC NBC
 in full National Broadcasting Co.

Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network.
, paved the way for Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle to have their way on cable. The book uses Rock to bring its thesis into the 21st century.

The only thing that mars Acham's study is the all-too-brief reference to Soul!, a groundbreaking and little-remembered PBS PBS
 in full Public Broadcasting Service

Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural,
 music/arts program that ran from 1968 to 1973. (Its better-remembered "sister" show, PBS's Black Journal, now Tony Brown's Journal, is well represented, however.)

Nevertheless, this work is vitally important to understanding how the Black Power and Arts Movements, the Chitlin' Circuit and television history converged in the 1970s with mixed results.

Media scholar Todd Steven Burroughs is a BIBR BIBR Bay Islands Beach Resort (Roatan, Honduras)
BIBR Backward Indicator Bit Received
 contributor based in Hyattsville, Maryland.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Cox, Matthews & Associates
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2005, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Author:Burroughs, Todd Steven
Publication:Black Issues Book Review
Article Type:Book Review
Date:Mar 1, 2005
Words:331
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