Revolution Televised.pdf

82 What You See Is What You Get
When people pay to see me, I try to make them laugh, not deliver
a sermon or become a spokesman for this or that; I guess I am involved
in civil rights because I am a Negro. But if you’re a comedian,
your first obligation is to be funny. 70
When questioned about racism in television in 1971, he replied,
“It would be ridiculous for me to say anything negative regarding
blacks having an equal opportunity on TV. After all, I was Number
One in the ratings four times last year and twice this season.” 71
Again in rugged individualist fashion, Wilson was an advertisement
for the American Dream and was unable to make an assessment
that went beyond his personal experience. He did not perceive a
need to make any statement beyond what he embodied as a black
man who had succeeded in a racially hostile American society.
He became another model of classlessness if not racelessness in
American society.
What perhaps rings as ambivalence in this analysis of The Flip
Wilson Show and, indeed, in black America’s reception of the show
has to do with the time frame: this was the 1970s, the offspring of
the politically charged ’60s, when the black struggle was still of
critical importance. In the ’90s, Cuba Gooding’s mantra from the
film Jerry Maguire, “Show me the money,” although not a laudable
change, became the new addition to the American lexicon. Black
and white entertainers who amass cash without any sense of political
consciousness are common in contemporary society; indeed, it is
the rare few that give back to their community who stand out. Our
politicized image of the 1960s and the ’70s implores us to imagine a
world of self-sacrifice for group achievement. This was not the case
with Flip Wilson, and certainly this was not the case with various
other African Americans in the ’60s and ’70s. However, Wilson
was in the spotlight, and his deficiencies were contrasted with other
more politicized entertainers in this very public forum.
The Veil of Double Consciousness
Although some TV accounts claim that The Flip Wilson Show was
dropped from NBC because of stiff competition from The Waltons,
producer Bob Henry insists that
NBC wanted him to do more shows. But after four years of this
tremendous adulation, he just wanted to have peace and quiet. He
never had that drive that other performers have that you always had