From the Paley Archive: Black Achievements in Television

The Paley Archive preserves a rich collection of Black achievements in television over nine decades. Here is a small sample of the series and programs over five genres: Comedy; Drama; Music: News/Talk/Documentary; and Sports.  You can do your own binge of this rich work now!

COMEDY

Beulah (1950–53)
Julia (1968–71)  
The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74) 
Sanford and Son (1972–77) 
The Jeffersons (1975–85) 
Amos ‘n Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy (1983)
227 (1985–90) 
Frank’s Place (1987–88) 
In Living Color (1990–94)
Def Comedy Jam (1992–97) 
Roc (1991–94) 
Mo’ Funny: Black Comedy in America (1993)
Chris Rock: Bring the Pain (1996)
Girlfriends (2000–06) 
Key & Peele (2012–15) 
black-ish (2014–present)
Insecure (2016–21)

DRAMA 

Philco Television Playhouse: A Man is Ten Feet Tall (1955)
East Side/West Side (1963–64)
Brian’s Song (1971)
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974)
Roots (1977)
The Women of Brewster Place (1989)
The Tuskegee Airmen (1995)
The Wire (2002–08)
Scandal (2012–18)
Being Mary Jane (2013-9)
How to Get Away with Murder (2014–20)
Empire (2015–20)
Queen Sugar (2016–present)
Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019)

MUSIC

The Nat King Cole Show (1956–57)
Seven Lively Arts: The Sound of Jazz with Billie Holiday (1957)
Robert Herridge Theater: The Sound of Miles Davis (1960)
The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (1966)
The Leslie Uggams Special (1969)
Soul! (1968–73)
Soul Train (1971–2006)
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983)
Soundstage: Aretha Franklin (1985)
The Velvet Rope: Live in Madison Square Garden (1998)
BET Awards (2001–present)
BET Hip Hop Awards (2006–present)
Special Edition Of 20/20: Michael Jackson: The Man and his Music (2009)
Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America (2010)
Beyonce: I am …World Tour (2010)
Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip Hop (2014)
American Soul: Just Us (2019)

NEWS, TALK ,DOCUMENTARY

NBC White Paper: Sit-In (1960)
CBS News Special Report: March on Washington (1963)
Black Journal (1968–77)
The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986–2011)
The Arsenio Hall Show (1989–94)
1992 Presidential Debate with moderator Carole Simpson (1992)
POV: Chisholm’72: Unbought and Unbossed (2005)
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006)
The Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama (2008)
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2013)
America After Ferguson (2014)
Selma: Fifty Years Later (2015)
The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (2015–16)
The Daily Show with Trevor Nunn (2015–present)
John Lewis: Celebrating a Hero (2020)

SPORTS

Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin (1968)
Triumph and Tragedy: The Olympic Experience with Tommie Smith and John Carlos (1976)
NBC News Special: Black Athletes: Fact& Fiction (1989)
Baseball: The National Pastime, featuring Jackie Robinson (1994)
Third and a Mile: Emergence of the Black Quarterback (2013)
Best of Stuart Scott (2014)
Muhammad Ali: 50th Birthday Celebration (1992)
ESPY Awards (1993–present)
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (1995–present)
The Journey of the African-American Athlete: The Courage to Try: 1875-1959   (1996)
The Journey of the African-American Athlete: The Spirit to Succeed 1950-Present (1996)
SportsCentury Greatest Athletes, featuring episodes on such athletes as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, Joe Louis, Bill Russell Jim Brown, and many more (1999)
SportsCenter Special: African American Trailblazers, profiles of Willie O’ Ree and Jackie Joyner-Kersee (2014)
The Last Dance (2020)