Distributor Pulls ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ Videotapes Due to CBS Challenge

An Arizona-based video distribution company that launched an aggressive campaign this year to market “Amos ‘n’ Andy”--the first network television series to feature an all-black cast--has pulled the tapes off the market because of a legal challenge from CBS, the original owner of the program.

Shelly Barrios-LeVeille, vice president of sales and marketing for Bridgestone Multimedia, said Monday that the company was complying with a cease-and-desist order from CBS, even though it continues to believe the episodes are in the public domain.

“It’s done, it’s over with,” Barrios-LeVeille said. “We know we’re still in the right. But we would have to spend over a half-million dollars and spend a minimum of 36 months in court before all was said and done.”

Bridgestone seven months ago started releasing “Amos ‘n’ Andy” in two two-volume sets containing 10 episodes each. Executives for the firm said they had sold about 50,000 units, and that “Amos ‘n’ Andy” was their top seller in the company’s line of vintage television shows.

The “Amos ‘n’ Andy” show ran on CBS from 1951 to 1953, then continued in reruns. But CBS yanked the show out of syndication in 1966 because of prolonged protests by the NAACP, which claimed it portrayed blacks in an offensive and negative light. The series has been absent from the airwaves since then.

Bridgestone, which marketed the show as a historical and important breakthrough for African Americans, had made the videos available through direct order and in catalogs, as well as in stores such as Tower Records and Wherehouse.

Barrios-LeVeille said Bridgestone had offered CBS a deal to share in the revenue from the tapes, but that CBS refused. A CBS spokesman declined to discuss whether the company has any plans to market the show itself.