Christine Acham: Revolution Televised – Prime Time and the Struggle for Black Power

In her book Revolution Televised – Prime Time and the Struggle for Black Power, Christine Acham provides the reader with the historical background of the evolution of black agency within the realms of mainstream television, focussing on the period of the 1960’s and 1970’s. While other critics have dismissed the ‘black’ TV shows of this time as simply negative representations, she argues that this approach has been fairly limited and reductive. Instead, she states that African American actors and producers disrupted TV’s traditional narratives about blackness and portrays how TV has been used as a tool of resistance against mainstream constructions of African American life. Furthermore, Acham shows how these actors challenged the development of story lines and characters, which ways they found of covertly speaking to a black audience, and how they used other media outlets like magazines to question TV producers’ motives. She selects particular shows of the 1960’s and 1970’s to demonstrate these aspects, like Julia, a TV milestone for being the first show to star an African American since Amos ‘n’ Andy and Beulah; Black Journal and Soul Train, which stand as landmark non-fiction programs that specifically addressed the African American community; the Flip Wilson Show, Sanford & Son and Good Times, being popular within both the black community and mainstream society; and finally The Richard Pryor Show, which represents critical black engagement with television in the late seventies.
Beginning with a review of the historical development of African American participation within mainstream society in chapter one, Acham investigates how factors like Jim Crow, segregation, integration and de facto segregation led to the formation of black communal spaces. “Reading the Roots of Resistance,” she provides the point of view she applies for the observation of the particular shows, in order to show the flaws in the shape of African American cultural criticism, which has often operated on the basis of binary positive/ negative representations and thus being simplistic. She states the importance of the historical period these shows were broadcasted, namely the period of Black Revolution, and how this moment in history was made more public by the use of television. Acham further portrays the multifaceted nature of the African American community and the ways in which the ideology of uplift operates within black society, in order to show how television can still be a source of empowerment and/ or resistance. By briefly exploring the term “sellout” and its meanings, she illustrates the diversity of ideas within the African American community, and the way the black community has always been multifaceted, with class, social and cultural differences. Within this perspective, Acham investigates what was going on behind the scenes of the before mentioned shows, how black actors were trying to achieve the uplift of African Americans and to which extent they were able to achieve this. Quoting episodes, sketches and interviews, she sticks to the ‘primary texts’ and avoids applying the binary view of positive and negative representations, but keeps in mind the circumstances of mainstream television and the limits in which black actors were struggling for control over their own images. In her conclusion “Movin’ On Up,” Acham addresses the problem of white producers having a stranglehold on the network system, and the lack of African American programming outside the situation comedy reveals that the networks remain unwilling to deal with black material outside this genre. Yet, she offers a hopeful prospect, when she mentions HBO and cable television and Chris Rock, portraying him as an assertive, politically charged comedian who brings us back to the present day lives of African Americans.
Christine Acham’s book is a must read for anyone dealing with or interested in television and black popular culture. She offers a perspective that goes beyond the former simplistic criticism and applies an approach that copes with the historical background and the actual conditions of mainstream television. By observing the overall picture from more than one angle, she provides a scholarly wide ranging point of view, and shows how television can become a medium of resistance.