The "Amos 'n Andy Show" is a program most people today would rather not talk about....as it's considered by many to be a racist show. However, despite its racist beginnings where white radio actors pretended to be black men for laughs, the 1950s show was a lot more enlightened...though some still blanch at the antics of the leads, Andy and the Kingfish as they are REALLY stupid. But if you watch the shows, the rest of the cast were nice, hardworking folks...whether black or white. Plus, some episodes simply have nothing a reasonable person could dislike. A nice example is "The Christmas Story"...a sweet little episode you can find on YouTube.
The story begins with a flashback to the birth of Amos' daughter. Andy is the nervous godfather and he's as proud as Amos at the baby girl's birth. Years pass and now his goddaughter, Arbadella, is spending time with Andy looking in the department store window at the Christmas display. She sees a talking doll and tells Amos she'd love it...but her father told her Santa cannot afford it. So, Andy gets a job as a department store Santa in order to get her that doll.
This is an unusual episode because the Kingfish and Lightnin' aren't in much of it. And, it's unusual because Amos is prominently featured. So, despite the title of the show, Amos was not in many episodes and had become a secondary character. A more appropriate title based on how much of the episodes they appear in would have been "Kingfish 'n Andy"! The overall effect of this is that the show is less about humor and the two lead's idiotic behaviors and is more of a family show...featuring Amos and his sweet family. It also is highly unusual for Amos' little speech about the Lord's Prayer...very sweet and unusual even for the 1950s.
So is this Christmas episode worth searching for on YouTube? Yes and no. If you want a rollicking comedy, it's not particularly funny. But it IS sweet and shows that the television program really wasn't necessarily racist. The characters are all very decent, and good people...something you rarely saw with black characters of that era.