The Amos 'n' Andy show was a situation radio comedy show that ran from the middle 1920's into the 1950's. Amos 'n' Andy were a famous radio comedy duo that got their start in 1926 on the Chicago based radio network WGN. In the beginning the show was called "Sam n Henry"and had major success in the Chicago area. The show received so much success, that Charles Correll and Freeman Gosden, the actors who played the parts, wanted to syndicate the show on a national level. WGN refused to syndicate so the actors left WGN for national syndication. WGN owned the name of the show "Sam n Henry", but did not hold the rights to the basis and material of the shows, so Gosden and Correll had it renamed as Amos 'n' Andy when it became syndicated.

Amos n Andy was one of the first serial comedy shows on radio. The show was based on loose stereotypes of African American dialects and behaviors. Ironically, the shows actors were white men that painted themselves with black grease paint, like Vaudeville and stage actors of that era. The program ran on radio as a nightly comedy serial from 1928 until 1943. It then ran as a weekly situation comedy from 1943 until 1955. CBS ran a weekly TV adaptation from 1951 until 1953. The show then continued nationally syndicated as reruns until 1966.

The storyline of the show was that Amos Jones and Andy Brown worked on a farm in Georgia, near Atlanta. During the first week of the show, the pair wanted to find a better life in Chicago. Despite the warnings of friends, they departed north to Chicago on a train. Armed with only the clothes they could carry, $24, and four ham and cheese sandwiches, the pair set out to conquer Chicago. After arriving in Chicago, the duo lived in a boarding house and worked some odd jobs to survive, until they founded The Fresh Air Taxi Company. When the listening audience increased, Pepsodent toothpaste came on board as a sponsor and NBC launched the show nationally in November of 1929. During this transition the characters decided to relocate to Harlem New York.

With developing story-lines and the addition of characters, the show continued to do well across the nation. They added the character George "Kingfish" Stephens, which was also voiced by Gosden and other early characters, such as Amos's wife Ruby. Andy's girlfriends and The Kingfishes's Wife Sapphire only came in through dialogs between Gosden and Correll's characters. Then later on, as the show added more characters, actors and actresses were hired to play additional parts. The story developed from a strict comedy into a drama and comedy combination, with the near death of characters such as Amos's fiancee Ruby, and the girlfriend struggles of Andy.

The show continued to have a great fan-base on radio throughout the 50's. The t.v. show did not do as well, lasting only two years, even with a decent length in rerun syndication, Amos 'n' Andy will be remembered most for the radio comedy portions of the show.