Quote:
Originally Posted by bitontheslide
The black and white minstrel show was cancelled in 1978 because it was seen as racist and offensive .... 1978
From wikipedia
The show's premise began to be seen as offensive and racist on account of its portrayal of blacked-up characters behaving in a stereotypical manner. After the murder in Alabama in 1963 of 35-year-old white postal worker William Lewis Moore, who was on a protest march against segregation in the American South, the satirical show That Was the Week That Was did a sketch in which Millicent Martin dressed as Uncle Sam and sang a parody of I Wanna Go Back to Mississippi ("Where the scent of blossom kissed the evening breeze / Where the Mississippi mud / Seems to mingle with the blood / Of the <censored> that are hanging from the branches of the trees[8]) accompanied by minstrel singers in blackface ("... we hate all the <censored> and the Catholics and the Jews / Where we welcome any man / Who is strong and white and belongs to the Ku Klux Klan"), parodying the Black and White Minstrels supposed trivialising of southern U.S. racism.[9][10]
A petition against the show was received by the BBC from the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination in 1967.[11] In 1969, due to continuing accusations of racism, Music Music Music, a spin-off series in which the minstrels appeared without their blackface make-up, replaced The Black and White Minstrel Show. However after one series, The Black and White Minstrel Show returned.
Since its cancellation in 1978, The Black and White Minstrel Show has come to be seen widely as an embarrassment, despite its huge popularity at the time.[12][13]
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I can definitely remember repeats being shown in the mid eighties but the show was cancelled all the way back in
1978. Its a thought for all those who say this is some kind of new phenomenon The show was still popular when it was cancelled so good that they didnt care how much money it made, it had to go anyway.