Amos & Andy was one of the earliest, longest-running, and important radio programs in history. It grew out of an earlier series called Sam 'n' Henry, and was produced in various formats for a 34-year run. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, two white men playing black characters, starred as Amos Jones and Andrew H. Brown who had migrated north to Chicago. Gosden also played George Stevens, the conniving "Kingfish" of the Mystic Knights of the Sea hall. Gosden played a third character, Lightnin', the slow-talking janitor at the lodge hall. After 1943, Ernestine Wade played Sapphire Stevens, wife of the Kingfish.

The popularity of this show is unimaginable today. In part, the show had perfect timing. It chronicled the lives of two average Joes during The Great Depression, offering comic relief to millions who could identify with their plight. During a storyline in which Amos was arrested and charged with murder, no one rode the busses from 7:00-7:15, and it took sanitary engineers a while to figure out why the sewer pipes barely flowed during that time, but then erupted immediately afterward.

The social history of the program has been a controversy since the original broadcast days. The racial stereotyping and the obvious fact that the characters were played by white men has opened the show to serious criticism. In 1931 a petition in the Pittsburgh Courier intended to have the show removed from the air was signed by 750,000 people. The NAACP attacked the show from the beginning, and was especially critical when the television show debuted in 1951, even sued CBS. Ironically the principle characters on the TV show were played by black actors. Though it was a rarity to see black actors playing lead roles on television, the NAACP said the show portrayed the entire black race as stupid and cowardly. The show was forced off the air.

This 1939 episode is one of the more famous ones. As Andy is about to get married, he is shot in the arm! Listeners debated whether or not Andy was technically married or not. No doubt the producers of the 1970s-80s television show Dallas were inspired by this cliff-hanger storyline.