[PAPERBACK]

African American Studies/Media Studies

“It's fucking great that someone recognizes and appreciates what we were doing during this important period in television history. Christine Acham gets it and spells it out. Got it?” -Richard Pryor

“Vitally important to understanding how the Black Power and Arts movements, the Chitlin' Circuit, and television history converged in the 1970s with mixed results.” -Black Issues Book Review

“A brilliant and engaging book that offers a completely fresh take on black television in the seventies. Spurning the simplicity of 'negative' versus 'positive' images, it instead explores the complex forms of agency and resistance that black actors exercised. This is unquestionably the finest treatment of its subject that I have read, and will spark intense debate about the critical issues it raises for some time to come. A marvelous, poetic read!” -Michael Eric Dyson, author of Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves, and Demons of Marvin Gaye

Christine Acham offers a complex reading of African American television history, finding within programs like Sanford and Son and Good Times opposition to dominant white constructions of African American identity. 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.

University of Minnesota Press
Printed in U.S.A.
Cover design by Laura Shaw

[INSIDE FRONT FLAP: ]

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 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 analyzes 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.

[INSIDE BACK FLAP:]
[Author Photo]
Author photo by William Harting

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

[BACK COVER:]

African American Studies/Media Studies

“It’s fucking great that someone recognizes and appreciates what we were doing during this important period in television history. Christine Acham gets it and spells it out. Got it?” -Richard Pryor

“Revolution Televised is a brilliant, engaging, often eloquent book that offers a completely fresh take on black television in the seventies. Spurning the simplicity of ‘negative’ versus ‘positive’ images, it instead explores the complex forms of agency and resistance that black actors exercised. This is unquestionably the finest treatment of its subject that I have read, and it will spark intense debate. A marvelous, poetic read!” -Michael Eric Dyson, author of Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves, and Demons of Marvin Gaye

“Christine Acham illuminates the television programming of an eruptive, insurgent, and highly political and cultural moment.” -Ed Guerrero, author of Do the Right Thing

University of Minnesota Press
Printed in U.S.A.
Jacket design by Laura Shaw