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115-513: Horace Winfred " Nick " Stewart (March 15, 1910 – December 18, 2000), also billed as Nick O'Demus , was an American television and film actor. He was best known for his role as Lightnin' (Willie Jefferson) on TV's The Amos 'n' Andy Show . Nick Stewart was born on March 15, 1910, in Harlem , New York City , to Joseph (1888–1976) and Eva Stewart, who were recent immigrants from Barbados , British West Indies . He began his show business career as

230-561: A 49% interest in the station and assisted in completing its construction in exchange for making channel 11 the network's Los Angeles television outlet. KTTV began operations on January 1, 1949, and was operated initially by KTTV, Incorporated, the Times /CBS-owned holding company. The station's first telecast was the Tournament of Roses Parade , which channel 11 would air every New Year's Day until 1995. In May 1950, Times-Mirror purchased

345-622: A Chicago elevator. Amos 'n' Andy began on March 19, 1928 on WMAQ, and prior to airing each program, Gosden and Correll recorded their show on 78-rpm discs at Marsh Laboratories, operated by electrical recording pioneer Orlando R. Marsh . Early 1930s broadcasts of the show originated from the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs, California . For the program's entire run as a nightly series in its first decade, Gosden and Correll provided over 170 male voice characterizations. With

460-678: A comic strip in the Chicago Daily News . Naïve but honest Amos was hardworking, and, after his marriage to Ruby Taylor in 1935, also a dedicated family man. Andy was a gullible dreamer with overinflated self-confidence who tended to let Amos do most of the work. Their Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge leader, George "Kingfish" Stevens, would often lure them into get-rich-quick schemes or trick them into some kind of trouble. Other characters included John Augustus "Brother" Crawford, an industrious but long-suffering family man; Henry Van Porter,

575-647: A dancer at the Cotton Club and Hoofers Club. Stewart also was a veteran of Broadway shows, having created a comedic character he called "Nicodemus" and playing that role in Swingin' the Dream and Louisiana Purchase , as well as in the film Go West, Young Man . Stewart also performed comedy as a cast member of the Rudy Vallée radio show in 1941. Other acting credits include the 1936 movie Go West Young Man ,

690-878: A duopoly between KTTV and KCOP-TV (channel 13). That fall, channel 11 dropped the Fox Kids weekday block and moved it to KCOP; Fox Kids discontinued its weekday block altogether in January 2002, with the lineup left airing only on Saturday mornings. Since the 4Kids block was replaced by Fox with the infomercial block Weekend Marketplace in December 2008, the station now airs five hours of educational programming , two more than required under FCC guidelines, as Xploration Station replaced Weekend Marketplace , which moved to KCOP, in September 2014. KTTV also airs reruns of I Love Lucy , which had premiered in 1951, months after

805-526: A half-hour 10 a.m. newscast, following Good Day L.A. , as the station's first midday newscast since the mid-1980s; KTTV is currently the only station in Los Angeles to have a local newscast in that timeslot. KTTV and KCOP began producing its local newscasts in high definition on October 15, 2008. On December 1, 2008, KTTV fully took over production of KCOP's 11 p.m. newscast, which was reduced from an hour to 30 minutes and retitled Fox News at 11 , marking

920-474: A lesser extent. In 1973, as part of an agreement signed with four citizen groups and filed with the station's renewal application, KTTV began banning 42 violent animated series, most notably Popeye , Superman , Batman and Aquaman , while applying a "caution to parents" warning to 81 violent live-action series which are shown before 8:30 p.m., most notably The Outer Limits . In 1986, Australian newspaper publisher Rupert Murdoch and his company,

1035-525: A national phenomenon. Many of the program's plotlines in this period leaned far more to straight drama than comedy, including the near-death of Amos's fiancée Ruby from pneumonia in the spring of 1931 and Amos's brutal interrogation by police following the murder of cheap hoodlum Jack Dixon that December. Following official protests by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, Correll and Gosden were forced to abandon that storyline, turning

1150-515: A nightly disc-jockey program (1954–60). A television adaptation ran on CBS (1951–53) and continued in syndicated reruns (1954–66). It was not shown to a nationwide audience again until 2012. Gosden and Correll were white actors familiar with minstrel traditions. They met in Durham, North Carolina in 1920. Both men had some scattered experience in radio, but it was not until 1925 that the two appeared on Chicago's WQJ. Their appearances soon led to

1265-557: A one-hour documentary film titled Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy aired in television syndication (and in later years, on PBS and on the Internet). It told a brief history of the franchise from its radio days to the CBS series, and featured interviews with surviving cast members as well as popular black television stars such as Redd Foxx and Marla Gibbs , who reflected on the show's impact on their careers. Foxx and Gibbs emphasized

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1380-690: A recap program airing at 12:30 p.m. weekdays that featured select segments featured on that day's edition of Good Day L.A. ; that show has since been replaced by TMZ on TV . On April 12, 2010, the station expanded its weekday morning newscast by a half-hour to 4:30 a.m. Until September 12, 2011, KTTV was one of only two Fox owned-and-operated stations (the other being Chicago 's WFLD ) that did not have an early evening newscast on weeknights and/or weekends; this changed when KTTV launched an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast on that date called Studio 11 L.A. On June 30, 2014, KTTV expanded its noon newscast from 30 minutes to 1 hour. On April 28, 2016, KTTV changed

1495-466: A recording contract. Since the Tribune syndicated Sidney Smith 's popular comic strip The Gumps , which had successfully introduced the concept of daily continuity, WGN executive Ben McCanna thought a serialized version would work on radio. He suggested that Gosden and Correll adapt The Gumps for radio. The idea seemed to involve more risk than either Gosden or Correll was willing to take; neither

1610-582: A recurring role as Louise the housekeeper on CBS's The Danny Thomas Show and appeared in the show's 1967 reunion program, which aired shortly after her death. Nick Stewart (Lightnin') had a memorable cameo in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) as a hapless driver run off the highway. Stewart and Johnny Lee (Calhoun) both provided voices in the Walt Disney film Song of the South in 1946. Johnny did

1725-511: A regular schedule on another Chicago radio station, WEBH, where their only compensation was a free meal. The pair hoped that the radio exposure would lead to stage work; they were able to sell some of their scripts to local bandleader Paul Ash , which led to jobs at the Chicago Tribune 's station WGN in 1925. This lucrative offer enabled them to become full-time broadcasters. The Victor Talking Machine Company also offered them

1840-549: A sequel. Gosden and Correll did lend their voices to a pair of Amos 'n' Andy cartoon shorts produced by the Van Beuren Studios in 1934, The Rasslin' Match and The Lion Tamer . These were also not successful. Years later, Gosden was quoted as calling Check and Double Check "just about the worst movie ever." Gosden and Correll also posed for publicity pictures in blackface. They were also stars of The Big Broadcast of 1936 as Amos and Andy. Hoping to bring

1955-487: A series about "a couple of colored characters" that borrowed certain elements from The Gumps . Their new show, Sam 'n' Henry , began on January 12, 1926 and fascinated radio listeners throughout the Midwestern United States . It became so popular that in 1927 Gosden and Correll requested that it be distributed to other stations on phonograph records in a "chainless chain" concept that would have been

2070-558: A social-climbing real estate and insurance salesman; Frederick Montgomery Gwindell, a hard-charging newspaperman; Algonquin J. Calhoun, a somewhat crooked lawyer added to the series in 1949, six years after its conversion to a half-hour situation comedy; William Lewis Taylor, Ruby's well-spoken, college-educated father; and Willie "Lightning" Jefferson, a slow-moving Stepin Fetchit –type character. There were three central characters: Correll voiced Andy Brown while Gosden voiced both Amos and

2185-456: A venue for numerous performers of all races, including Al Freeman Jr. , Yuki Shimoda , William Schallert , Tom Ewell , John Amos , Nichelle Nichols , Isabel Sanford , B. B. King , Phil Collins , Eartha Kitt , Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan . Founded in 1950, and first located on Washington Boulevard and Western Avenue, then on Crenshaw Boulevard, afterward on Adams Boulevard and later on Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles, Stewart filled

2300-404: Is "either a clown or a crook"; "Negro doctors are shown as quacks and thieves"; "Negro lawyers are shown as slippery cowards"; "Negro women are shown as cackling, screaming shrews"; "All Negroes are shown as dodging work of any kind"; and "Millions of white Americans see this Amos 'n' Andy picture of Negroes and think the entire race is the same." That pressure was considered a primary factor in

2415-460: Is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KTTV's Saturday and Sunday 5 p.m. newscasts are subject to delay or preemption due to network sports coverage. KTTV operates a Bell 407 , branded on-air as "SkyFox", to provide aerial coverage of breaking news stories. KTTV previously operated two helicopters; one of them (known as "Sky Fox 2") was destroyed after it crashed at Van Nuys Airport in 2000. Throughout its history,

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2530-583: The Amos 'n' Andy title.) The additional episodes first aired on January 4, 1955. Plans were made for a vaudeville act based on the television program in August 1953, with Tim Moore, Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams playing the same roles. It is not known whether there were any performances. Still eager for television success, Gosden, Correll and CBS made initial efforts to give the series another try. The plan

2645-561: The NTA Film Network . In 1958, channel 11 scored an advantage against its rivals when it became the television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, which had relocated from Brooklyn, New York , that year. For the first 11 years and at the request of the team, KTTV's Dodger telecasts were limited to road games against the archrival San Francisco Giants . Eventually, the number of Dodger games broadcast on

2760-691: The Nassour Studios – a large motion picture facility on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood , and centralized KTTV's operations there. CBS did not join Times-Mirror in the purchase; at the time its West Coast production facilities were based at Columbia Square , with its CBS Television City facility in the planning stages. KTTV converted the Nassour Studios into a major production house for television, producing programs locally and for

2875-533: The News Corporation (which had acquired a controlling ownership interest in the 20th Century Fox film studio the year before), purchased KTTV and the other Metromedia television stations. The Metromedia stations ended up becoming part of a new holding company formed by News Corporation called Fox Television Stations ; those stations formed the basis for the new Fox Broadcasting Company television network, which made its debut on October 9, 1986. Following

2990-542: The Pittsburgh Courier campaigned against the program, "the Chicago Defender lauded the show's wholesome themes and good-natured humor," going "so far as to feature Gosden and Correll at its annual community parade and picnic in 1931." In 1930, RKO Radio Pictures brought Gosden and Correll to Hollywood to appear in an Amos 'n' Andy feature film, Check and Double Check (a catchphrase from

3105-442: The 11 p.m. newscast reverted to its previous 10 p.m. slot shortly after News Corporation took over Metromedia in the fall of 1987. During this time period, the station also experimented with newscasts at midday and midnight. In June 1993, the station launched a new morning news program called Good Day L.A. , a program that was inspired by sister station WNYW's Good Day New York , which debuted in 1988. On July 14, 2008, KTTV launched

3220-531: The 1956 tour to an end, Moore, Childress, Williams and Lee were able to perform in character for at least one night in 1957 in Windsor, Ontario . In the summer of 1968, the premiere episode of the CBS News documentary series Of Black America , narrated by Bill Cosby , showed brief film clips of Amos 'n' Andy in a segment on racial stereotypes in vintage motion pictures and television programing. In 1983,

3335-527: The 1960s, he would have small roles on Mister Ed and in the classic comedy film, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) as the Migrant Truck Driver who is forced off of the road. In 1987, Doris McMillon devoted an entire week of her nightly talk show, On the Line with , to a discussion of the documentary Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy , and the issues surrounding the shows. Stewart

3450-548: The 20th Century Fox studio lot). Several television series were filmed at the historic Metromedia Square television studio (which was once home to Norman Lear 's Tandem Productions and TAT Communications Company ) such as The Jeffersons , Mama's Family , Diff'rent Strokes , One Day at a Time , Soul Train , Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman , Fernwood 2 Night and the groundbreaking sketch comedy In Living Color . Many of those programs, either in first-run or off-network syndication, aired on KTTV. The Metromedia complex

3565-522: The 78 known TV episodes. When the show was canceled, 65 episodes had been produced. The last 13 of these episodes were intended to be shown on CBS during the 1953–54 season but were released with the syndicated reruns instead. An additional 13 episodes were produced for 1954–55 to be added to the syndicated rerun package. These episodes were focused on Kingfish, with little participation from Amos or Andy, because these episodes were to be titled The Adventures of Kingfish (though they ultimately premiered under

Nick Stewart - Misplaced Pages Continue

3680-601: The Blue Network not heard on stations in the Western United States , many listeners complained to NBC that they wanted to hear the show but could not. Under a special arrangement, Amos 'n' Andy debuted coast-to-coast November 28, 1929, on NBC's Pacific Orange Network and continued on the Blue. WMAQ was then an affiliate of CBS and its general manager tried, to no avail, to interest that network in picking up

3795-525: The Ebony Showcase theatre. During his years in vaudeville , Stewart and Milton Berle often worked together; Berle was a frequent visitor to the Ebony Showcase. Although the Stewarts lost title to the theatre complex in 1992, they were allowed to stay there and operate the theater. and the buildings were later demolished. The couple used two homes they owned as collateral for a loan meant to save

3910-874: The Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles ; KTTV's transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson . KTTV's origins can be traced to 1947, when the station's license and construction permit was secured by the Times Mirror Company , publishers of the Los Angeles Times . It was one of five licenses that were granted simultaneously by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to parties interested in expanding commercial television in Los Angeles. In 1948, CBS , which owned KNX radio , purchased

4025-532: The Kingfish (and adapting several of the original Amos 'n' Andy radio scripts). This effort at reviving the series in a way that was intended to be less racially offensive ended after one season on ABC , although it remained quite popular in syndicated reruns in Australia for several years. Connelly and Mosher returned to produce the series and also wrote several episodes. In 1988, the Amos 'n' Andy program

4140-403: The Kingfish. The majority of the scenes were dialogues between either Andy and Amos or Andy and Kingfish. Amos and Kingfish rarely appeared together. Since Correll and Gosden voiced virtually all of the parts, the female characters, such as Ruby Taylor, Kingfish's wife Sapphire, and Andy's various girlfriends, did not initially appear as voiced characters, but entered plots through discussions among

4255-542: The NAACP and the growing civil rights movement and withdrew the program. It was pulled from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 's television network , which had been broadcasting it for almost a decade. The series would not be seen on American television regularly for 46 more years. The television show has been available in bootleg VHS and DVD sets, which generally include up to 71 of

4370-675: The News Corporation purchase, KTTV added more first-run syndicated talk, court and reality shows. By the early 1990s, it began to run afternoon cartoons from the network's Fox Kids block (which debuted in 1990), as well as top-rated off-network sitcoms during the evening hours. KTTV removed cartoons on weekday mornings in June 1993, due to the launch of the morning newscast Good Day L.A. In 2001, Fox Television Stations acquired several UPN affiliates owned by Chris-Craft Industries through its BHC Communications station group, creating

4485-749: The Raiders during their last season in Los Angeles). During the NFL regular season, Rams games are rotated with KNBC (through NBC Sunday Night Football ), KABC-TV (through Monday Night Football simulcasts from ESPN as well as national ABC broadcasts) and most especially KCBS-TV (through the NFL on CBS ). Since 2017, it has also broadcast Los Angeles Chargers games featuring a visiting NFC team, or games that are cross-flexed from CBS, with some select games from either team carried by KCOP if both teams are playing at

4600-593: The TV show Amen ), at the beginning of the episode. Wade played Augusta and Randolph played Mrs. Birdie. Jester Hairston (who played Henry Van Porter and Leroy Smith) was a regular on both That's My Mama as "Wildcat" and on Amen as "Rolly Forbes." He was also quite prominent in a brief role as a butler in the racially charged film In the Heat of the Night (1967). Amanda Randolph (Sapphire's mother, Ramona Smith) had

4715-479: The TV version were advanced for the time, depicting blacks in a variety of roles, including those of successful business owners and managers, professionals and public officials, in addition to the comic characters at the show's core. It anticipated and informed many later comedies featuring working-class characters (both black and white), including The Honeymooners , All in the Family and Sanford and Son . By

Nick Stewart - Misplaced Pages Continue

4830-438: The broad manner of stage actors – a technique requiring careful voice modulation, especially in the portrayal of multiple characters. The performers pioneered the technique for varying both the distance from, and the angle of their approach to, the microphone to create the illusion of a group of characters. Listeners could easily imagine that they were in the taxicab office, listening to the conversation of close friends. The result

4945-464: The cast. Many of the half-hour programs were written by Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher , later the writing team behind Leave It to Beaver and The Munsters . In the new version, the Amos character became peripheral to the duo of Andy and Kingfish, although Amos was still featured in the traditional Christmas show, which also became a part of the later television series. The later radio program and

5060-495: The characterizations were refined, Amos 'n' Andy achieved an emotional depth rivaled by few other radio programs of the 1930s. Above all, Gosden and Correll were gifted dramatists. Their plots flowed gradually from one to the other, with minor subplots building in importance until they overtook the narrative, before receding to give way to the next major sequence; in this manner, seeds for storylines were often planted months in advance. This complex method of story construction kept

5175-402: The emerging syndication market. Prior to the move, KTTV operated out of several different facilities, including the former headquarters of Capitol Records (which was later the longtime home of KHJ radio and what is now KCAL-TV ) on Melrose Avenue . Later in 1950, CBS chose to acquire its own station in Los Angeles – pioneer station KTSL (channel 2, renamed KNXT and now KCBS-TV ) – which

5290-459: The end of a KCOP-produced and branded newscast. The newscast on channel 13 then became anchored by KTTV's 10 p.m. anchors Carlos Amezcua and Christine Devine, as it was considered an extension of the earlier newscast (in the case of KCOP, all of its newscasts on that station were eliminated on September 22, 2013). On December 8, 2008, KTTV debuted a half-hour midday newscast at noon on weekdays. On April 27, 2009, KTTV introduced Good Day L.A. Today ,

5405-582: The end of that year (the "MyFox" branded websites were operated by former News Corporation subsidiary EndPlay until 2012, when the sites were migrated to the WorldNow platform ). KTTV launched the Light TV network on a subchannel starting December 22, 2016, with another Fox TV station, WNYW . On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company , owner of ABC and KABC-TV , announced its intent to buy KTTV's parent company, 21st Century Fox , for $ 52.4 billion;

5520-490: The entire sequence into a bad dream, from which Amos gratefully awoke on Christmas Eve. The innovations introduced by Gosden and Correll made their creation a turning point for radio drama, as noted by broadcast historian Elizabeth McLeod : As a result of its extraordinary popularity, Amos 'n' Andy profoundly influenced the development of dramatic radio. Working alone in a small studio, Correll and Gosden created an intimate, understated acting style that differed sharply from

5635-462: The episodic drama and suspense heightened by cliffhanger endings, Amos 'n' Andy reached an ever-expanding radio audience. It was the first radio program to be distributed by syndication in the United States, and by the end of the syndicated run in August 1929, at least 70 other stations carried recorded episodes. Amos Jones and Andy Brown worked on a farm near Atlanta, Georgia , and during

5750-489: The evolution of cable television, KTTV became a regional superstation . Thanks to its Dodgers broadcasts and round-the-clock programming, KTTV was seen on various cable systems across the Western United States during the 1970s and into the 1980s, as far east as El Paso, Texas . KTLA, with its Angels broadcasts, also became a superstation. KTTV and KTLA were seen on most Southern and Central California cable systems, with KHJ-TV and KCOP also getting carried outside Los Angeles to

5865-444: The fall of 1948, the show was airing on CBS again. In that same year, Correll and Gosden sold all rights to Amos 'n' Andy to CBS for a reported $ 2.5 million. The theme song for both the radio and TV versions is "The Perfect Song" by Joseph Carl Breil , who had written the score from which the song is taken for the silent film The Birth of a Nation (1915). Advertising pioneer Albert Lasker often took credit for having created

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5980-524: The first radio syndication . When WGN rejected the proposal, Gosden and Correll quit the show and the station; their last musical program for WGN was announced in the Chicago Daily Tribune on January 29, 1928. Episodes of Sam 'n' Henry continued to air until July 14, 1928. Correll's and Gosden's characters contractually belonged to WGN, so the pair was unable to use the characters' names when performing in personal appearances after leaving

6095-459: The first radio comedy series and originated from station WMAQ in Chicago . After the first broadcast in 1928, the show became a hugely popular series, first on NBC Radio and later on CBS Radio and Television. Later episodes were broadcast from the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs, California . The show ran as a nightly radio serial (1928–43), as a weekly situation comedy (1943–55) and as

6210-481: The first week's episodes, they made plans to find a better life in Chicago , despite warnings from a friend. With four ham-and-cheese sandwiches and $ 24, they bought train tickets and headed for Chicago, where they lived in a rooming house on State Street and experienced some rough times before launching their own business, the Fresh Air Taxi Company. (The first car they acquired had no windshield;

6325-508: The groundbreaking ceremonies for the Performing Arts Center named for Los Angeles politician Nate Holden which was built on the site where the Ebony Showcase stood. The Ebony Showcase transformed, adapted, and did not close. Instead, the Ebony Showcase continues to provide entertainment, resources, and charitable services on the internet and in the community. Amos and Andy#Television Amos 'n' Andy began as one of

6440-548: The importance of the show featuring black actors in lead roles and expressed disagreement with the NAACP's objections that had contributed to the program's downfall. The film also contained highlights of a select episode of the classic TV series ("Kingfish Buys a Lot") that had not been seen since it was pulled from the air in 1966. In Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. 's 2012 American Heritage article Growing Up Colored , he wrote: "And everybody loved Amos 'n Andy – I don't care what people say today....Nobody

6555-498: The late 1970s with the home games on the subscription/pay-per-view service Dodgervision; these road games aired on the station until 1992, when KTLA began airing the road games beginning with the 1993 season. Currently, select Dodger games are broadcast nationally through the network's sports division via its MLB package since 1996. KTTV has also aired the Dodgers' 2017 , 2018 , 2020 , and 2024 World Series appearances, including

6670-422: The late 1990s. However, the unlicensed sets continue to be sold. No official, licensed DVD or Blu-ray compilations have been released. In 1955, the format of the radio show was changed from a weekly to a daily early evening half-hour to include playing recorded music between sketches (with occasional guests appearing), and the series was renamed The Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall . The final Amos 'n' Andy radio show

6785-476: The main roles, although the actors were instructed to keep their voices and speech patterns close to those of Gosden and Correll, and was produced at the Hal Roach Studios for CBS . The series' theme song was based on the radio show's "The Perfect Song" but became Gaetano Braga 's "Angel's Serenade", performed by The Jeff Alexander Chorus. The program debuted on June 28, 1951. The main roles in

6900-440: The male characters. Prior to 1931, when Madame Queen (then voiced by Gosden) took the witness stand in her breach-of-promise lawsuit against Andy, a feminine voice was heard only once. Beginning in 1935, actresses began voicing the female characters, and after the program converted to a weekly situation comedy in 1943, other actors were recruited for some of the supporting male roles. However, Correll and Gosden continued to voice

7015-627: The name of its 5 p.m. newscast to Fox 11 5:00 News using the same anchors from Studio 11 L.A. Weekend early evening newscasts became known as Fox 11 Weekend News. In September 2018, KTTV canceled its half-hour 10 a.m. newscast. On December 10, 2018, Fox 11 Morning News adopted the Good Day L.A. branding, expanding the newscast from 7 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. On April 1, 2019, Good Day L.A. expanded from 4:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. In September 2022, Good Day L.A. expanded to 10 a.m., running until 11 a.m. KTTV also cancelled its mid-day newscast in

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7130-494: The network moved its programming to KTSL. A few months later, channel 11 agreed to become the new Los Angeles outlet of the DuMont Television Network , which had been affiliated with KTSL, and before that KTLA (channel 5). In 1954, DuMont moved its programming to KHJ-TV (channel 9, now KCAL-TV), and KTTV became an independent station . During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with

7245-447: The old radio show, are in the public domain. The television series has never been officially released in home-video format, but many unlicensed bootleg compilations have been sold. In 1998, CBS initiated copyright infringement suits against three companies selling the videos and issued a cease-and-desist order to a national mail-order outfit that had offered episodes on videocassettes and advertised them in late-night television ads during

7360-432: The pair turned it into a selling point.) By 1930, the noted toy maker Louis Marx and Company was offering a tin wind-up version of the auto, with Amos and Andy inside. The toy company produced a special autographed version of the toy as gifts for American leaders, including Herbert Hoover . There was also a book, All About Amos 'n' Andy and Their Creators , in 1929 by Correll and Gosden (reprinted in 2007 and 2008), and

7475-486: The program fresh and enabled Correll and Gosden to keep their audiences in constant suspense. The technique that they developed for radio from that of the narrative comic strip endures as the standard method of storytelling in serial drama. Only a few dozen episodes of the original series have survived in recorded form. However, numerous scripts from the original episodes have been discovered and were used by McLeod when preparing her previously cited 2005 book. Amos 'n' Andy

7590-553: The program in a one-hour block), but KTTV continues to air the landmark sitcom on weekends during the late afternoon hours. In 1996, KTTV relocated its longtime studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, known as " Metromedia Square " (and later renamed the "Fox Television Center") to a new studio facility a few miles away on South Bundy Drive in West Los Angeles , near the Fox network headquarters (the network's headquarters are located on

7705-501: The radio show). The cast included a mix of white and black performers (the latter including Duke Ellington and his orchestra) with Gosden and Correll playing Amos 'n' Andy in blackface. The film pleased neither critics nor Gosden and Correll, but briefly became RKO's biggest box-office hit before King Kong (1933). Audiences were curious to see what their radio favorites looked like and were expecting to see African Americans instead of white men in blackface. RKO ruled out any plans for

7820-441: The report also mentioned "raids" on Habbo , a "national campaign to spoil the new Harry Potter book ending", and threats to "bomb sports stadiums". The station's signal is multiplexed : KTTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 65, which

7935-564: The sale excluded the Fox Television Stations unit (including KTTV and KCOP), the Fox network, Fox News , Fox Sports 1 and the MyNetworkTV programming service, which were transferred to a separate company . Since the team's move to Los Angeles in 1958 (with exception of a brief pause from 1993 to 1995), KTTV has carried Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games from varying sources; the station aired road games beginning in

8050-469: The same month. On July 26, 2007, KTTV aired a report on the hacktivist group Anonymous , calling them a group of " hackers on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and collectively an " Internet hate machine". The report, which became the source for numerous internet memes , featured an unnamed former "hacker" who had fallen out with Anonymous and explained his view of the Anonymous culture. In addition,

8165-536: The same time. Beginning in the 2018 season, the station began airing Thursday Night Football which is simulcast on NFL Network and if either one of the two LA teams are playing it serves as the local area station for gameday telecasts, even if it is exclusive to NFL Network. This practice has generally continued even after Amazon Prime Video began airing games in 2022. KTTV presently broadcasts 52 hours of local newscasts each week (with 10 hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); this gives KTTV

8280-523: The seats with quality productions. The couple did all remodeling of the building themselves, with the help of salvaged lumber from the CBS Television City construction site. Stewart hosted a variety show called Ebony Showcase Presents on KTTV from the theatre in 1953. Because CBS believed Nick Stewart's work with his theater was impairing his ability to perform on Amos 'n' Andy , he was notified that his contract would not be renewed; this

8395-564: The second-largest local news output of any television station in the Los Angeles market, behind CW owned-and-operated station KTLA's 94 hours, 20 minutes of weekly newscasts. The station also produces The Issue Is: , a political discussion program hosted by Elex Michaelson which airs Friday nights at 10:30 p.m. and is also syndicated to other Fox stations across California, including KICU-TV in San Jose and KSWB-TV in San Diego . As

8510-547: The series switched to that network on April 3, 1939. In 1943, after 4,091 episodes, the radio program transformed from a 15-minute CBS weekday dramatic serial to an NBC half-hour weekly comedy. While the five-a-week show often had a quiet, easygoing feeling, the new version was a full-fledged sitcom in the Hollywood sense, with a regular studio audience (for the first time in the show's history) and an orchestra. More outside actors, including many black comedy professionals, such as Eddie Green and James Baskett , were recruited for

8625-546: The show as a promotional vehicle. After the associations with Pepsodent toothpaste (1929–37) and Campbell's Soup (1937–43), primary sponsors included Lever Brothers 's Rinso detergent (1943–50); the Rexall drugstore chain (1950–54); and CBS's own Columbia brand of television sets (1954–55). President Calvin Coolidge was said to be among the show's most devoted listeners. Huey P. Long took his nickname, "Kingfish", from

8740-409: The show to television as early as 1946, Gosden and Correll searched for cast members for four years before filming began. CBS hired the duo as producers of the new television show. According to a 1950 newspaper story, Gosden and Correll had initial aspirations to voice the characters Amos, Andy and Kingfish for television while the actors hired for these roles performed and apparently were to lip-sync

8855-400: The show weeknights on a regular, nationwide basis for the first time since CBS pulled the series from distribution in 1966. Six years later, Rejoice TV folded, and the series was again pulled from widespread distribution. There are no current official plans to rerelease the series to nationwide television. Although the characters of Amos and Andy themselves are in the public domain, as well as

8970-530: The show's cancellation, even though it finished at #13 in the 1951–1952 Nielsen ratings and at #25 in 1952–1953 Blatz was targeted as well, finally discontinuing its advertising support in June 1953. It has been suggested that CBS erred in premiering the show at the same time as the 1951 NAACP national convention, perhaps increasing the objections to it. The show was widely repeated in syndicated reruns until 1966 when, in an unprecedented action for network television at that time, CBS finally gave in to pressure from

9085-505: The show's trademarks, title, format, basic premise and all materials created prior to 1948 ( Silverman vs CBS , 870 F.2d 40), the television series itself is protected by copyright. CBS bought out Gosden & Correll's ownership of the program and characters in 1948 and the courts decided in the Silverman ruling that all post-1948 Amos 'n' Andy material was protected. All Amos 'n' Andy material created prior to 1948, such as episodes of

9200-598: The show. At the same time, the serial's central characters – Amos, Andy and Kingfish – relocated from Chicago to Harlem. The program was so popular by 1930 that NBC's orders were to only interrupt the broadcast for matters of national importance and SOS calls. Correll and Gosden were earning a combined salary of $ 100,000, which they split three ways to include announcer Bill Hay, who had been with them when they began in radio. The story arc of Andy's romance (and subsequent problems) with Harlem beautician Madame Queen entranced some 40 million listeners during 1930 and 1931, becoming

9315-410: The show. At the peak of its popularity, many movie theaters stopped their featured films for the 15 minutes of the Amos 'n' Andy show, playing the program through the theater's sound system or from a radio on the stage before resuming their film. When some theaters began advertising this practice, NBC charged the theaters with copyright infringement, claiming that charging admission for a free broadcast

9430-759: The station also carried games involving the Los Angeles Sharks of the WHA . With the return of the Rams franchise to Los Angeles, since 2016, KTTV has been the 'unofficial home' for the Los Angeles Rams through the network's primary rights of the National Football Conference . It had held this role for one season in 1994 prior to their move to St. Louis (that same year, Channel 11 aired two home interconference contests featuring

9545-485: The station has always operated a news department, partly owing to its former ties to the Los Angeles Times . KTTV aired an 8 p.m. newscast from 1984 to 1987; it also briefly moved its 10 p.m. newscast to 11 p.m. in 1986, in order to compete with existing local newscasts in that same timeslot on KABC-TV, KNBC and KCBS-TV; the newscast's format initially was unchanged, but the 8 p.m. edition was later dropped while

9660-505: The station increased and the home game blackout was lifted; the relationship between KTTV and the Dodgers would last until the end of the 1992 season . The show Confidential File on KTTV covered the 1962 convention of the Daughters of Bilitis and aired after Confidential File became syndicated nationally; this was probably the first American national broadcast that specifically covered lesbianism . The Times-Mirror Company sold

9775-411: The station lost its CBS affiliation. Reruns of the sitcom are still popular among Southern California viewers and have continued to air in the Los Angeles market perpetually since the series ended its run in 1957, thus making KTTV only the second station in the market (the other being KCBS-TV) to continue airing the sitcom since it ended. Weekday airings of I Love Lucy have since moved to KCOP (which airs

9890-510: The station to Metromedia in 1963. Later that year, Metromedia purchased KLAC (570 AM) and the original KLAC-FM (102.7 FM, now KIIS-FM ), giving channel 11 sister stations on the radio dial. Metromedia would later engineer a trade of FM frequencies, resulting in KLAC-FM moving to 94.7 FM (later to become KMET , now KTWV ) in 1965. By the 1970s, KTTV offered a traditional general entertainment schedule common among independent stations at

10005-410: The station. WMAQ, the Chicago Daily News station, hired Gosden and Correll and their former WGN announcer Bill Hay to create a series similar to Sam 'n' Henry . It offered higher salaries than WGN as well as the right to pursue the syndication idea. The creators later said that they named the characters Amos and Andy after hearing two elderly African-Americans greet each other by those names in

10120-458: The story lines. A year later, both spoke about how they realized they were visually unsuited to play the television roles, citing difficulties with making the Check and Double Check film. No further mention was made about Gosden and Correll continuing to voice the key male roles in the television series. Correll and Gosden did record the lines of the main male characters to serve as a guideline for

10235-422: The team's championship victories in 2020 (their first title in 32 years ) and 2024. All other Dodger games are currently broadcast locally through SportsNet LA . KTTV also airs any Angels games that are aired through Fox's MLB contract, including the team's World Series victory in 2002 . Since 2024 , KTTV broadcasts select Anaheim Ducks games through an agreement with sister station KCOP. From 1972 to 1974,

10350-669: The television series were played by the following black actors: This time, the NAACP mounted a formal protest almost as soon as the television version began, describing the show as "a gross libel of the Negro and distortion of the truth". In 1951 it released a bulletin on "Why the Amos 'n' Andy TV Show Should Be Taken Off the Air." It stated that the show "tends to strengthen the conclusion among uninformed and prejudiced people that Negroes are inferior, lazy, dumb, and dishonest, ... Every character"

10465-484: The television show dialogue at one point. In 1951, the men targeted 1953 for their retirement from broadcasting; there was speculation that their radio roles might be turned over to black actors at that time. Adapted to television, The Amos 'n Andy Show was produced from June 1951 to April 1953 with 52 filmed episodes, sponsored by the Blatz Brewing Company . The television series used black actors in

10580-500: The theatre; both were lost. One of the issues which led to the theatre's financial problems was a Los Angeles law requiring all older brick buildings to meet current earthquake standards. The entire complex that had housed the Ebony Showcase organization, including a house not shown in the picture, was taken in eminent domain by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. The theater edifice

10695-498: The three central characters on radio until the series ended in 1960. Two black actresses continued their radio roles on the television series: Ernestine Wade, who played Sapphire, Kingfish's wife, and Amanda Randolph, who played her mother. With the listening audience increasing in spring and summer 1928, the show's success prompted sponsor Pepsodent Company to bring it to the NBC Blue Network on August 19, 1929. With

10810-579: The time, and publisher Robert L. Vann expanded Walls' criticism into a full-fledged protest during a six-month period in 1931. As part of Vann's campaign, more than 700,000 African-Americans petitioned the Federal Radio Commission to complain about the racist stereotyping on the show. Historian James N. Gregory writes that the program "became the subject of heated conflict within African American communities" and that, while

10925-496: The time, consisting of children's programs, off-network reruns, sports programming and old movies, along with a 10 p.m. newscast. Some of the staff members in the earlier 1970s were John Jones, Sales Manager; George Putnam, news anchorman; Putnam's co-anchor Hal Fishman; Ken Jones, first black on-air TV newsman in L.A.; Tom Kelly, TV sports reporter; Terry Mayo, noontime news; and Rona Barrett , who taped her syndicated gossip report at KTTV, written by assistant Barbara Sternig. With

11040-739: The voice of Br'er Rabbit and Nick was heard as Br'er Bear. The film also starred black actor James Baskett , who had voiced the Gabby Gibson character in the radio series. KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California , United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet KCOP-TV (channel 13). The two stations share studios at

11155-585: The voice of the blackface crows in the 1941 animated film production, Walt Disney Productions Dumbo , the voice of Br'er Bear in the 1946 Disney movie Song of the South and Willy-Willy on the television series Ramar of the Jungle . Also in 1954, Stewart had an important role in The Reign of Amelika Joe presented by Fireside Theatre . He also won a comedy role in White Christmas (1954). He

11270-613: Was a guest on television on shows such as Jack Paar's Tonight Show and the Paul Coates Show. In 1958, he headlined a standup comedy act at the Mocambo Night Club in Hollywood. Ernestine Wade (Sapphire) and Lillian Randolph (Madame Queen) appeared together on an episode of That's My Mama called "Clifton's Sugar Mama" on October 2, 1974. They were friends of "Mama," played by Theresa Merritt , who wanted to see Clifton, played by Clifton Davis (later of

11385-434: Was a uniquely absorbing experience for listeners, who, in radio's short history, had never heard anything quite like Amos 'n' Andy . While minstrel-styled wordplay humor was common in the formative years of the program, it was used less often as the series developed, giving way to a more sophisticated approach to characterization. Correll and Gosden were fascinated by human nature, and their approach to both comedy and drama

11500-411: Was adept at imitating female voices, which would have been necessary for The Gumps . They were also conscious of having made names for themselves with their previous act. By playing the roles of characters using minstrel dialect, they would be able to conceal their identities enough to be able to return to their old pattern of entertaining if the radio show proved to be a failure. Instead, they proposed

11615-528: Was asked about whether or not his role of Br'er Bear was degrading. He replied, "Disney treated us like Kings." He went on to say that the money he earned from Song of the South was donated to a theatre for African-American actors to play roles other than maids and butlers and was doing the same with the money from reprising his role for the Disneyland attraction. He and his wife, Edna Stewart, also founded Los Angeles's Ebony Showcase Theatre, which provided

11730-605: Was being spun off by the Don Lee Broadcasting System as a result of its sale to General Tire and Rubber . The KTSL purchase forced CBS to divest its interest in KTTV due to FCC rules in effect at the time that barred the common ownership of two television stations in the same media market; the Los Angeles Times would regain full ownership of channel 11 when the sales were finalized on January 1, 1951. KTTV's relationship with CBS ended after exactly two years as

11845-559: Was broadcast on November 25, 1960. Although by the 1950s the popularity of the show was well below its peak of the 1930s, Gosden and Correll had managed to outlast most of the radio shows that came in their wake. In 1961, Gosden and Correll attempted one last televised effort, albeit in a "disguised" version. They were the voices in a prime-time animated cartoon , Calvin and the Colonel , featuring anthropomorphic animals whose voices and situations were almost exactly those of Andy and

11960-636: Was demolished in 1998, the rest of the complex was demolished, building-by-building. Stewart was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP. He also received the Living Legend award from the National Black Theatre Festival in 1995. Stewart died of natural causes at his son's home in Los Angeles, California , on December 18, 2000, at age 90, a week after attending

12075-617: Was demolished in 2003 to make way for the construction of Helen Bernstein High School (which is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District ). On May 16, 2006, KTTV launched a new website based on Fox Television Stations' MyFox interface; this format became standard on the websites of each of the Fox-owned stations – and was even adopted by some of Fox's affiliates not owned by the network – by

12190-412: Was drawn from their observations of the traits and motivations that drive the actions of all people. While their characters often overlapped popular African-American stereotypes, there was also a universality to their characters which transcended race; beneath the dialect and racial imagery, the series celebrated the virtues of friendship, persistence, hard work, and common sense, and as the years passed and

12305-522: Was illegal. The first sustained protest against the program found its inspiration in the December 1930 issue of Abbott's Monthly , when Bishop W. J. Walls of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church wrote an article sharply denouncing Amos 'n' Andy for its lower-class characterizations and "crude, repetitious, and moronic" dialogue. The Pittsburgh Courier was the second largest African-American newspaper at

12420-535: Was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame . A pair of parallel, one-block streets in west Dallas, Texas are named Amos Street and Andy Street in honor of the characters. The short-lived 1996 HBO sitcom The High Life was intended in part as an homage to Amos 'n' Andy , but with white characters. Blues guitarist Christone "Kingfish" Ingram was given the nickname "Kingfish" after the sitcom by one of his guitar teachers, Bill "Howl -N- Mad" Perry. The show

12535-548: Was likely to confuse them with the colored people we knew..." In 2004, the now-defunct Trio network returned Amos 'n' Andy to television for one night in an effort to reintroduce the series to 21st century audiences. Its festival featured the Anatomy of a Controversy documentary followed by the 1930 Check and Double Check film. In 2012, Rejoice TV, an independent television and Internet network in Houston, started airing

12650-573: Was officially transferred by NBC from the Blue Network to the Red Network in 1935, although the vast majority of stations carrying the show remained the same. Several months later, Gosden and Correll moved production of the show from NBC's Merchandise Mart studios in Chicago to Hollywood . After a long and successful run with Pepsodent, the program changed sponsors in 1938 to Campbell's Soup ; because of Campbell's closer relationship with CBS ,

12765-455: Was one of the participants, discussing the show and his role in it. He also had a role in the movie Carmen Jones. Stewart's final acting role would be returning to Disney to reprise the voice role Br'er Bear for the theme park attraction Splash Mountain , which is based on the animated segments of Song of the South . He was the only actor to return and voice his character from the aforementioned movie. In an interview with author Jim Korkis, he

12880-461: Was originally offered the role of Calhoun the lawyer, which he turned down. (After his refusal, it went to Johnny Lee , who had the role on radio since 1949.) Soon Gosden and Correll were back on the telephone, this time offering Stewart the role of Lightnin' on the television show. Stewart accepted the role with one idea in mind: to make enough money to be able to open his own theater where African Americans would not be typecast as maids and porters. In

12995-582: Was referenced by The Simpsons in " Duffless ", the sixteenth episode of the fourth season, which premiered on February 18, 1993. While Homer is on a tour at the Duff brewery, an old ad for the brand is played, showing that Duff was a "proud sponsor" of Amos 'n' Andy back in the 50s. In the 1994 film Pulp Fiction , Mia Wallace ( Uma Thurman ) and Vincent Vega ( John Travolta ) visit a '50s-themed diner that offers on its menu an "Amos 'n' Andy" milkshake. Comedian Tim Moore made numerous public appearances and

13110-552: Was shortly before the decision to take the show off the air. By 1964, the Ebony Showcase had grown and moved again, this time to the Metro Theater near Washington and La Brea. Around this time, Nick Stewart wrote his own musical called Carnival Island . In 1973, Nick and Edna Stewart were honored by Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and the California Museum of Science and Industry's advisory board for their work with

13225-430: Was to begin televising Amos 'n' Andy in the fall of 1956, with both of its creators appearing on television in a split screen with the proposed black cast. A group of cast members began a "TV Stars of Amos 'n' Andy " cross-country tour in 1956, which was halted by CBS ; the network considered it an infringement of their exclusive rights to the show and its characters. Following the threatened legal action that brought

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