Revolution Televised.pdf

86 This Ain’t No Junk
my idol, I love him, I love the way he spells his name with two d’s
and two x’s. . . . I don’t know why he uses two d’s, but I saw his
nightclub act once and I know why they got all them x’s. . . . I heard
he was so sharp and debonair and charming and good looking. . . .
I happen to be the spittin’ image of him. I have often been stopped
on the street by people who thought I was him ’til they saw I was me.
Foxx publicly and vociferously denied the connection between his
television persona and role as stand-up comedian. While on the
nightclub stage he was a sharply dressed, acerbic, and blue stage
performer. Fred Sanford, on the other hand, usually dressed in suspenders,
baggy pants, and a shirt that had not seen an iron in years.
Indeed, in the aforementioned episode, Foxx and Sanford are pictured
opposite each other and, although the same person is clearly
playing both roles, the characters’ dress, demeanor, and speech
are completely different. Foxx wanted to maintain his own stage
identity. However, there is perhaps some truth to the sentiment that
Redd Foxx and Fred Sanford were innately connected. What makes
Sanford and Son relevant and humorous was gleaned from Redd
Foxx’s extended career as a black comedian on the Chitlin’ Circuit
and from a long tradition of African American comedy.
Many African American political groups protested Sanford and
Son, dismissed it as the white world’s beliefs about black people,
and discussed it as television’s reinscription of stereotypes. This will
be discussed in greater detail later on, and analysis of the articles of
protest indicates that the ideology of uplift played a significant role
in the rejection of the program. Sanford and Son was considered an
antiprogressive text by various black political groups and politicized
individuals who were concerned about the impression the show
conveyed to an American public. Sanford and Son appeared particularly
regressive because it was produced during the era of the Black
Revolution, when many in the black community, of varying political
beliefs, wanted to convey a sense of a progressive black society.
While acknowledging these concerns, I still argue that because of the
active role played by Redd Foxx and other black writers and performers,
the show exhibited resistance to mainstream co-optation.
Foxx used mainstream network television and the format of the
situation comedy to bring traditional African American folklore and
comedy of black communal spaces aboveground. He also used his
valuable position within the network to create new opportunities
for African Americans in the typically exclusive industry.