Revolution Televised: Prime Time and the Struggle for Black Power - Softcover

Acham, Christine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816644322 ISBN 13: 9780816644322

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2005

Synopsis

After a decadelong hiatus, African Americans once again began appearing regularly on television in the 1960s. Bill Cosby costarred on I Spy, Sammy Davis Jr. briefly hosted a variety show, and in 1968 Diahann Carroll debuted in the title role of Julia, the first television series to star an African American since the cancellation of Amos ’n’ Andy. Over the next ten years, shows with African American casts became more common; some, like Sanford and Son and Good Times, were hits with both black and white audiences. Yet many within the black community criticize these programs as perpetuating demeaning stereotypes and hampering the political progress made by African Americans. 

In Revolution Televised, Christine Acham offers a more complex reading of this period in African American television history, finding within these programs opposition to dominant white constructions of African American identity. She explores the intersection of popular television and race as witnessed from the documentary coverage of the civil rights and Black Power movements, the personal politics of Flip Wilson and Soul Train’s Don Cornelius, and the ways in which notorious X-rated comic Redd Foxx reinvented himself for prime time. 

Reflecting on both the potential of television to effect social change as well as its limitations, Acham concludes with analyses of Richard Pryor’s politically charged and short-lived sketch comedy show and the success of outspoken comic Chris Rock. Revolution Televised deftly illustrates how black television artists operated within the constraints of the television industry to resist and ultimately shape the mass media’s portrayal of African American life. 

Christine Acham is assistant professor in African American and African studies at the University of California, Davis.

About this title

About the Author

Christine Acham is assistant professor in African American and African studies at the University of California, Davis.

From Publishers Weekly

The late 1960s and early '70s were a time of "hyperblackness" for American television, as networks began airing programs starring African-American actors and addressing, with varying degrees of frankness, the hot-button issues associated with the Civil Rights movement and the rise of Black Power. Acham, a UC-Davis black studies professor, looks at some of the period's programming to examine how the white-run networks tried to define contemporary black life and, more importantly, how black actors and writers sought to use television to communicate their own concerns. Her interest lies with more combative artists like Esther Rolle and Redd Foxx, who, she argues, presented accurate portrayals of the African-American experience. Richard Pryor is the most significant of her heroes, earning a lengthy chapter. The highly politicized nature of Acham's analysis leads to negative assessments of other performers as "token blacks" or perpetuators of "coon images," though she attempts to blunt these criticisms by highlighting subtexts in some shows intended primarily for black audiences. Chapters cover sitcoms, variety shows and news documentaries, then inexplicably skip over two decades to address Chris Rock. The material also suffers from a plodding, overintellectualized tone, which may prevent Acham's take on a significant subject from finding a wider audience. 23 halftone illus.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0816644322
• ISBN 13: 9780816644322
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256