Over on Cartoon Brew, my pal Jerry Beck announces a Los Angeles screening of episodes of Calvin and the Colonel, a prime-time cartoon series that was on from 1961 to 1962 and has rarely been seen since. The series was created and the leads were voiced by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, the two white guys who played Amos and Andy (and other recurring characters) on the radio show of the same name. When Amos and Andy went to television, it was wonderfully recast with black actors. I used to love the TV show — especially Tim Moore as George "Kingfish" Stevens. Sadly, when they compile those silly lists of the all-time great TV characterizations, they never seem to rank Kingfish up there with Bilko and Bunker and Louie DePalma, which is where I think he belongs.
I never cared as much for the old radio programs when I tried listening to them, in part because that Kingfish didn't have the energy and wonderful timing that Tim Moore later brought to the role. And by the way, in case anyone's puzzled here: Amos and Andy started out being about Amos and Andy but at some point, Amos faded into supporting status and the show could have been called Kingfish and Andy. Correll voiced Andy, while Gosden was both Amos and the Kingfish. When the show went to television, the two men relinquished their roles and served as producers, and the show was quite successful, both first-run and in endless repeats. In the early sixties though, the endless repeats ended because the depiction of minorities made some — sponsors, especially — uncomfortable. I thought that was an overreaction, but that's another topic for another time. It was shortly after those shows disappeared from the screen that Gosden and Correll figured out a new, less-racial way to package their old act. They turned the Kingfish into a fox and Andy into a bear, and called it Calvin and the Colonel.
Jerry says the cartoon program was banned from distribution for years due to the participation of Gosden and Correll. That may be overstating the case a bit. A one season show needs to generate some interest to have an afterlife of any kind, and Calvin and the Colonel didn't manage that in its year of life. I liked it but much of the time, I opted to watch The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which was opposite it on CBS. A cartoon show that couldn't hold my loyalty when I was ten was almost destined to fail. It's like if I wouldn't watch it every week, who would? I seem to recall a brief attempt to rerun the shows on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon which ended after a few weeks. Overall, I suspect its scarcity is due as much to it never attracting much of an audience as it is to any racial subtext. Or to put it another way: The fact that it was Amos and Andy in animal drag might not have mattered if the show had ever developed any real following.
Oddly enough, I watched two episodes just the other day — the first I'd seen in twenty or thirty years. There was a lot of funny stuff in them, especially as performed by voice whiz Paul Frees in an array of supporting roles. But the pace is sometimes very lethargic, and the shows have the fakest-possible canned laughter on them. It's not just bad because you can't imagine a live audience sitting there watching cartoon characters perform. It's bad the way clumsy sweetening can ruin a live-action sitcom. I enjoyed seeing them again, and I may even make it up to the screening later this month to hear the guests talk about the making of the show. But there are an awful lot of "lost" TV programs I'd rather watch…including the Amos and Andy shows with Tim Moore.