Comedy · NBC / CBS
Amos 'n' Andy
March 19, 1928 – July 22, 1955 · 486 broadcasts
Amos 'n' Andy was one of the most popular -- and most contested -- programs in American radio history. Created and performed by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who had earlier done Sam 'n' Henry, it began in 1928 as a nightly fifteen-minute serial and followed Amos Jones and Andy Brown, two friends who leave the rural South for Chicago and later Harlem, along with the endless schemes of their lodge brother George "Kingfish" Stevens. In 1943 it moved to a weekly half-hour situation comedy performed before a studio audience. Gosden and Correll were two white performers voicing the Black lead characters, and the show's racial stereotypes drew sustained protest -- the Pittsburgh Courier's 1931 campaign led by Bishop W. J. Walls at the height of the program's fame, and the NAACP's objections later, most prominently against the 1951 television version -- a controversy inseparable from its huge popularity and its place in broadcasting history. `[wiki]`
Collection status:
333 of 486 held (69% complete)
◆ ◆ ◆
Episode Spine
Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.
- 1928 (1 episodes)
- 1929 (39 episodes)
- 1930 (1 episodes)
- 1932 (1 episodes)
- 1933 (2 episodes)
- 1936 (2 episodes)
- 1939 (3 episodes)
- 1941 (1 episodes)
- 1942 (1 episodes)
- 1943 (13 episodes)
- 1944 (39 episodes)
- 1945 (34 episodes)
- 1946 (36 episodes)
- 1947 (40 episodes)
- 1948 (32 episodes)
- 1949 (35 episodes)
- 1950 (35 episodes)
- 1951 (37 episodes)
- 1952 (36 episodes)
- 1953 (35 episodes)
- 1954 (38 episodes)
- 1955 (23 episodes)
- 2003 (2 episodes)
1928
1929
April 22, 1929
#337 Amos Seen Talking to Tootsie (aka Amos Seen Talking to Tootsie by Ruby's Father
Listen
May 19, 1929
#360 Missing Lodge Money (aka The New Lodge by Laws) (aka Suspect Kingfish Embezzling
Listen
May 20, 1929
#361 Opening Easy Riding Taxicab (aka (aka Taxi Company Gets Competition From Earl Dixon
Listen
May 23, 1929
#363 Earl Dixon Has Bought Kingfish (aka Kingfish Helps Earl Compete for Taxi Business
Listen
May 29, 1929
Prove and Approve
June 16, 1929
#384 Amos & Ruby Taylor (aka Earl Dixon Confronts Amos) (aka Andy Helps Ruby Make Amos Jealous
Listen
June 21, 1929
#388 Andy's Chart (aka Andy's Chart) (aka Andy's Higher Math) (aka Andy Prepares A Budget For The Cab Company) 1
Listen
June 25, 1929
#392 Money For The Lawyer (aka Andy Needs a Lawyer for Amos) (aka Andy Kingfish & Earl Dixon Talk About Amos
Listen
June 28, 1929
#394 Amos Out On Bail (aka Money For The Lawyer (aka Amos Meets his Lawyer) (aka Amos Tells his Story
Listen
July 5, 1929
#400 Amos Worried About Court (aka Crooked Plans) (aka Real Criminals Talk About Framing Amos
Listen
September 1, 1929
[no title in log]
September 2, 1929
[no title in log]
September 3, 1929
[no title in log]
September 5, 1929
[no title in log]
September 6, 1929
[no title in log]
September 7, 1929
[no title in log]
1930
1932
1933
1936
August 19, 1936
#000 (Walter Houston) Out of Gas (aka start of A&As 8th Anniv. on NBC Radio's 10th Anniv.) (2,395th broadcast
Listen
1939
April 3, 1939
#000 The Marriage of Andrew Brown (Re runs in full at as #370 Andy's Wedding) (aka Bill Hay) (aka Andy is Shot in the Arm) (aka Reruns at Where There's A Will
Listen
The church is decorated and the guests assembled for Andy's wedding to Valetta Green, with the Kingfish set to give away the bride and Amos serving as best man.
1941
1942
Tidying his office, Andy turns up a book of poems he borrowed from a friend two years ago and never returned, and settles in to read one aloud to Amos.
1943
In the first half-hour show and the first before a live audience, a wire warns Andy that Uncle Edgar arrives tomorrow -- and Andy has some old fibs to smooth over first.
Fresh from a correspondence course, Andy opens a piano school with the Kingfish, undeterred by never once having touched a keyboard.
The Kingfish, who can usually talk his way clear of anything, lands in a legal tangle that looks like far more trouble than even he can handle.
October 29, 1943
#004 (Franklin Pangorn) Chair (2nd ∏ of show Only) (aka The Chippendale Chair Pt 2
Listen
Dodging honest work as usual, Andy comes home from an auction with a locked trunk he bought for five dollars and no idea what is inside.
Andy can hardly wait: his nephew Jimmy, home on military leave, is coming to New York to spend it with his Uncle Andy.
Three small-time counterfeiters, badly in need of a hideout for their racket, comb the classified ads of the New York papers for a place to operate.
The evening opens not in Harlem but at Pritchard's department store downtown, where society's Mrs. Van Porter approaches the gift counter and a salesgirl named Ginger Rogers.
Facing a domestic problem, the Kingfish drags Andy along to consult the celebrated authority on marriage, author Robert Benchley.
1944
Cupid strikes again: Andy is head over heels for the well-to-do Sabina Emerson, and is at her house working up the nerve to propose.
On a train down from Albany, two wealthy men in the club car trade stories about a strange experience one of them had two weeks earlier on this very run.
Amos's dearest wish is to see Andy hold down a steady job, and he thinks he has hit on the very scheme to make it happen.
Having skipped the lodge's monthly meeting, Andy hears from the Kingfish and Amos just how much he missed by not turning up.
A date on Andy's office calendar is circled every month, and even Lightnin' can't quite work out why Andy is so anxious to remember this particular one.
Some things never change in old New York -- the hansom cabs still roll down the avenue, and there on the corner stands an old-fashioned organ grinder.
For three weeks Andy has hunted for Madame Queen -- not out of love, but because he needs her signature to draw six hundred dollars from a joint account.
Sure no woman can resist him, Andy is more convinced than ever after an incident that afternoon, which he is bursting to recount to Amos and the Kingfish.
Reading the paper over a late breakfast, Andy's eye falls on an advertisement aimed squarely at lonely men -- always a subject close to his heart.
Andy has grown mysterious of late, skipping his usual haunts; alone in his room, he reads over the latest entry in his diary.
Andy finally admits his office -- birthplace of ventures that fold the day they open -- is unnecessary, and talks it over with his friend Amos.
April 28, 1944
#030 The Brother in Law (aka $345 needed for Sapphire's Brother Leroy's New Business
Listen
At the Lodge Hall a celebration honors Andy for long service, one of the few early members still active, as the Kingfish delivers a tribute from the platform.
The lodge's most anticipated night of the year, the annual masquerade, is tonight -- and Amos, Andy and the Kingfish are still wrestling with their costumes.
Andy is walking on air over a beautiful new girl, Mabel Green, running through every familiar symptom of falling in love as he tells Lightnin' the details.
With the Women's Auxiliary meeting the night before, the married men slipped off to a movie marathon, and the boys are now rehashing the show in Andy's office.
Things are normal this week, which means Andy is in trouble again -- this time over a stack of bills he has let go unpaid.
Bitten by the acting bug, Andy takes a course and is in his office rehearsing a dramatic turn as a French foreign legionnaire, with Lightnin' assisting.
Andy has taken a keen interest in young Gertrude Thompson, and after dancing and the theatre she has him up for a quiet dinner that finds him at the sink drying dishes.
A pen company will hand its Harlem sales agency to whoever sells the most by Wednesday, so Andy and the Kingfish team up and boast to Amos of certain victory.
December 8, 1944
#049 (Frank Morgan) Kingfish & the Brazilian Brass Mine (aka House of Frank Morgan
Listen
December 22, 1944
#051 (Paul Taylor Chorus) Annual Christmas Show (aka Xmas Andy Santa Talking Doll
Listen
The program's cherished annual Christmas broadcast, as warm on this hearing as it is on every other.
December 29, 1944
#052 Jackson's New Yrs Eve (Harlow Wilcox ''..used rinso in , come ...'') (aka Not Invited to the Party
Listen
With Harlem's exclusive New Year's Eve party approaching, Andy assures his secretary Miss Blue that he alone among his friends is certain to be invited.
1945
Andy has fallen for lovely Yvonne Jefferson and heads to the Honesty Insurance office where she works to surprise her -- but the surprise turns out to be on him.
After the finance company repossessed his lodge desk, the Kingfish shops for a cheap replacement and is being talked into believing a rickety old one is a genuine antique.
A run of failed business deals leaves Andy suddenly fretting about his future security, and the Kingfish, sitting with him, can only agree.
Andy writes a newspaper lovelorn column while dodging a process server over Viola Johnson's suit, as he and the Kingfish squirm at Amos's honest opinion of them.
Pencil in hand and figures before him, Andy tallies the damage: he gave out twenty valentines and got back only eight, by his reckoning far more love than he received.
After years of marriage the Kingfish has turned jealous husband, and Sapphire, reading his mood at home, senses at once that something is wrong.
March 2, 1945
#061 Income Tax (aka Income Tax Woes Pt 1) (aka Andy Inflates Tax Rtrn To Impress Girl
Listen
April 20, 1945
#067 Second Hand Car ( ''I Get A Kick Out Of You'' (aka Andy & Kingfish Take a Ride
Listen
April 27, 1945
#068 Marriage Vows (aka #059 Sapphire Kicks Kingfish Out (aka (aka ''Let Me Call Me Sweetheart'') (aka Jealous Boyfriend
Listen
It is Andy's birthday and he is low in spirits, not having received so much as a card from his two best friends.
Harlem's number-one Casanova has struck out two weeks running -- the young ladies now refuse a man who is forever broke -- so Andy works his little black book alphabetically.
October 2, 1945
Banking Troubles
October 9, 1945
A Visit from the Mother-in-law
October 16, 1945
The Body Beautiful
October 23, 1945
The Dream
October 30, 1945
The Lost Son
November 6, 1945
The Accident
November 13, 1945
The Happy Snappies
November 20, 1945
Thanksgiving Dinner
November 27, 1945
Picture in the Paper
December 4, 1945
The Baby
December 11, 1945
Going on a Diet
December 18, 1945
The Psychoanalyst
December 25, 1945
Annual Christmas Show
1946
January 1, 1946
Best Show of 1945
January 8, 1946
The Interior Decorator
January 15, 1946
Princess Cosmetics
January 22, 1946
A Case of Bigamy Part 1
January 29, 1946
A Case of Bigamy Part 2
February 12, 1946
New Shoes
February 19, 1946
Andy's Diary
February 26, 1946
The Toastmaster
March 19, 1946
A Case of Nerves
March 26, 1946
Baldness Cure
April 2, 1946
Kingfish, the Model Husband
April 9, 1946
Andy, the Best Dressed Man
April 16, 1946
The Travel Bureau
April 23, 1946
Looking Back
April 30, 1946
New Glasses
May 7, 1946
Heliotrope's Fur Coat
May 14, 1946
Finding a Room for Leroy
May 21, 1946
Andy's Girlfriend and the Dentist
May 28, 1946
Andy's and the Kingfish Babysit
October 8, 1946
The Kingfish Remembers How He and Shaphire Met
October 22, 1946
The Stevenses Are Evicted
October 29, 1946
The G.i.
November 5, 1946
The Mystery Novel
November 19, 1946
The Court of Maritial Relations
November 26, 1946
Thanksgiving
December 3, 1946
People Are Humorous
December 31, 1946
Best Show of 1946
1947
January 14, 1947
Happily-married Couple Contest
February 11, 1947
Floyd's of Florida
February 25, 1947
Kingfish Gets a Summons
March 11, 1947
#132 Adopting A Baby (aka Kingfish Adopts Andy) (aka #132 Adopting Andy) ( #148
Listen
March 18, 1947
#133 Hospitalization Plan ( #133 Kingfish Sells Insurance) (aka ( #148 Kingfish Adopts Andy
Listen
April 22, 1947
#138 Kingfish's Travel Bureau (aka Business In Brazil) (aka Andy the Gentleman Farmer
Listen
Sapphire has decided that Andy Brown is the reason her husband is such a loafer, and she is letting the Kingfish hear all about it.
Worn out after a long winter, Sapphire tells the Kingfish in no uncertain terms that she is in desperate need of a vacation.
May 6, 1947
#140 A Visit to Restful Pines (aka #146) (aka Kingfish Sued For Libel) (aka Repeat of
Listen
October 7, 1947
Suing the Landlord
October 14, 1947
#146 A Visit to Restful Pines (aka The Burial Insurance Salesman) (aka Kingfish's Marital Woes
Listen
October 21, 1947
The Marriage License
November 18, 1947
School for Banking
December 2, 1947
Arabia
December 9, 1947
Kingfish's Christmas Club
December 16, 1947
Andy Dating Brenda Carter
December 30, 1947
Best Show of 1947
1948
January 6, 1948
#158 The French Car (aka French Car) (aka Sapphire's Sister Gets Married) (aka Rattletrap Automobile
Listen
January 20, 1948
Andy's Inheritance
January 27, 1948
The Kingfish's Phony Insurance Claim
February 3, 1948
The Diamond Bracelet
February 10, 1948
The Anonymous Valentine
February 17, 1948
Sapphire's Rich Uncle Hubert
February 24, 1948
Getting Rid of Mama
March 2, 1948
Is Saphire Cheating?
March 9, 1948
Leroy's Suits
March 16, 1948
Kingfish the Impresario
March 23, 1948
Andy's Rich Girlfriend
March 30, 1948
Half-interest in Kingfish's Car
April 6, 1948
The Vacant Apartment
April 27, 1948
Andy and the Wealthy Widow
October 10, 1948
#178 Kingfish the Marriage Broker (aka First of the Season (Slight Warble & Hissing
Listen
The impossible has happened -- the Kingfish has a job, a week selling real estate -- and on his first payday he comes home to Sapphire.
November 14, 1948
#183 Tourist Sightseeing Agency (aka NY Sightseeing Agency) (aka Andy the FBI Agent) (Good Sound
Listen
November 21, 1948
Cross Wires Stock
November 28, 1948
Georgia Bank Reorganization
December 5, 1948
Renting a Car
December 12, 1948
Christmas Candlestick Show
December 19, 1948
Christmas Show
1949
February 27, 1949
The Secret Boyfriend
March 6, 1949
#199 Photo of Jewellery Store Robbery (Re Written for #280 Ep) (aka $1,000 Reward for Jewellery Store Robbery
Listen
March 13, 1949
#200 Andy's Heiress Waitress (aka Andy Romances Dorothy Richards (aka Andy to Marry Deloris Richards
Listen
May 29, 1949
The Coward
October 2, 1949
Social Security
November 6, 1949
#217 Andy & Kingfish Loan $400 to Rochester (aka In The Loan Business w Benny & Rochester
Listen
December 4, 1949
A Letter By Mistake
December 25, 1949
Christmas Show
1950
January 8, 1950
Andy Married Part 3
January 22, 1950
Andy's Verdict
February 19, 1950
Sapphire Goes to Flordia
February 26, 1950
Sapphire Goes to Florida
March 5, 1950
Leroy's Lottery Ticket
March 26, 1950
#237 Imitating the Happy Harringtons (aka The Happy Harringtons) (aka The Happy Stevenses
Listen
With the first of the month upon them, the Kingfish and Sapphire face the age-old couple's problem of the monthly bills.
The second chapter of the uproarious serial built around Andy's inheritance, as the battle over it heats up.
The third chapter of the Andy's-inheritance serial, in which the taxman takes a keen interest.
Uptown lives a second, much younger George Stevens -- and a conversation at the draft board hints the Kingfish is about to inherit a serious case of mistaken identity.
Having enlisted for a four-year artillery hitch to get ahead of what he thought was his draft notice, the Kingfish learns the notice was a mistake all along.
October 15, 1950
The Vacation Girl Friend
October 22, 1950
A Friend from Back Home
October 29, 1950
The Kingfish Finds a Wallet
November 5, 1950
The Counterfeiters
November 12, 1950
The Televisoin Boyfriend
November 26, 1950
Andy's Actress Girlfriend
After twenty-two years of marriage Sapphire has made up her mind for good, packs her bags and heads off to stay with her mother in Brooklyn.
Four weeks after leaving for Miami with her mother -- nothing new in this marriage -- Sapphire is still keeping her distance from the Kingfish.
1951
The Kingfish gets the shock of his life on finding Sapphire has bought a layette, and at last grasps the real reason she left: a baby is on the way.
The unflappable Kingfish is thrown badly off balance when he comes home to a piece of news from Sapphire he never saw coming.
January 28, 1951
Mama and Hubert Smithers Part 2
No sooner has the Kingfish rid himself of his mother-in-law than he comes home to find fate has dealt him yet another cruel blow.
February 11, 1951
Making Restitution
With spring a month off, Sapphire decides to pitch into a thorough round of spring housecleaning.
February 25, 1951
Andy Meets Girl's Mother
March 11, 1951
Car Trouble
March 25, 1951
Easter Dresses
April 1, 1951
Espionage!
April 8, 1951
#273 Faith in Those You Love (aka Faith In Those We Love) (aka Hotdog Stand $900 invest in Death Valley Oil Well Scam
Listen
May 27, 1951
#280 Photo of Jewellery Store Robbery (aka $1,000 Reward for Jewellery Store Robbery
Listen
June 3, 1951
Green-eyed Monster
November 18, 1951
#290 (Possible Date Only) Proposal to Nancy Simpson (aka Two Brides for Andy
Listen
November 25, 1951
#291 Sapphire's Sister Hortense Moves In (aka The Sisters Inheritance) (aka #369 & #370 Quiet Eve at Home Around Piano
Listen
Home from a hard day at the pool hall, the Kingfish finds Sapphire in a flutter over a letter just arrived from her sister in Georgia.
December 30, 1951
#296 Porch Wreckers (aka The House Wreckers) (aka Amos & Kingfish Get Construction Jobs
Listen
1952
January 6, 1952
Kingfish's Resolutions
January 13, 1952
The Memory Box
January 20, 1952
Jezebel
January 27, 1952
A Woman's Perogative
February 10, 1952
The Trailer Trip
February 17, 1952
Momma's Big Romance
February 24, 1952
Trouble with the Government
March 2, 1952
Pennies from Heaven
March 9, 1952
The Green Orchid Mystery
March 16, 1952
Where There's a Will, There's a Way
March 23, 1952
Andy's Mama?
March 30, 1952
The Kingfish Works the Racket
April 6, 1952
Andy's Tv Sweetheart
April 13, 1952
The Easter Ball
April 20, 1952
Andy Sublets from the Kingfish
April 27, 1952
The Reappearing Car
May 4, 1952
#314 A Day at the Races (aka # Kingfish Buys a Racehorse) (aka Andy Buys A Racehorse
Listen
May 18, 1952
The Office Wife
May 25, 1952
Vacation Days
September 28, 1952
The Masquerade Ball
October 5, 1952
Revolving Money
Andy and the Kingfish land work readying a swank new downtown office building for tenants, and the paycheck has the Kingfish playing lord and master.
Sapphire's brother-in-law Leroy is back from South America, and the family gathers round the table for a welcome-home dinner.
November 9, 1952
Andy Romances Drusilla Montgomery
November 23, 1952
Kingfish's Freezer
November 30, 1952
Uncle Theodore's Present
December 7, 1952
A Present for Saphire
December 14, 1952
Merry Christmas
December 21, 1952
Christmas Show
1953
January 4, 1953
Getting to the Wedding
January 11, 1953
Momma's New Car
January 18, 1953
Dinner with Diggy
January 25, 1953
The Bridesmaid
February 15, 1953
Comic Valentine
March 1, 1953
Sapphire's Revenge
April 5, 1953
The Kingfish and the Burlesque Queen
November 22, 1953
Kingfish's Tourist Service
November 29, 1953
#362 Loan Business (aka #361 Loan Sharks) (aka Kingfish's Tourist Service In the Loan Business
Listen
1954
February 21, 1954
Windy & Breezy - Television Love Birds
April 28, 1954
Guest: Frank Sinatra
September 13, 1954
Guests: Jack Benny, Liberace
October 17, 1954
Kingfish's Old Flame, Boo Boo Winters Comes to Town
October 24, 1954
Kingfish Rents His Apartment to a College Girl
December 5, 1954
Andy Needs His Birth Certificate to Inherit $6,000
1955
January 2, 1955
Getting the Best of Brother-in-law
January 16, 1955
Kingfish Rents Mother-in-law's Car
January 23, 1955
Sapphire's Looking for Romance. is Kingfish Ready?
February 6, 1955
Kingfish is Offered $2,500 to Find a Lost Hsband
February 13, 1955
Andy to Be Celebrity
February 27, 1955
Mama Engaged to Mr. Johnson
March 6, 1955
$5,000 in Stolen Money
March 13, 1955
#412 Kingfish & Sapphire Both Rent Cottage Out (aka #414 Dismal Dell Cabin) (aka Mamma's Flooded Cottage
Listen
March 27, 1955
Dismal Dell Cabin
April 3, 1955
April 10, 1955
Easter Sunday Dinner at Home
April 17, 1955
Kingfish Mistakes Saphire's Boss's Son for Boss
April 24, 1955
An old annuity policy pays off in a lump sum, and the Kingfish is crowing to Andy about his unexpected good fortune.
May 8, 1955
The Waiter and the Chambermaid
May 15, 1955
May 22, 1955
Peace has returned to the Stevens home with the in-laws moved out -- until Sapphire sweeps into the living room in a new blouse and peasant skirt with something on her mind.
2003
The Story
Amos 'n' Andy was one of the most popular -- and most contested -- programs in American radio history. Created and performed by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who had earlier done Sam 'n' Henry, it began in 1928 as a nightly fifteen-minute serial and followed Amos Jones and Andy Brown, two friends who leave the rural South for Chicago and later Harlem, along with the endless schemes of their lodge brother George "Kingfish" Stevens. In 1943 it moved to a weekly half-hour situation comedy performed before a studio audience. Gosden and Correll were two white performers voicing the Black lead characters, and the show's racial stereotypes drew sustained protest -- the Pittsburgh Courier's 1931 campaign led by Bishop W. J. Walls at the height of the program's fame, and the NAACP's objections later, most prominently against the 1951 television version -- a controversy inseparable from its huge popularity and its place in broadcasting history. `[wiki]`
Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
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