Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services

Rutgers University Press

Visit our Partner Page See all our books
book: Scratchin' and Survivin'
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Scratchin' and Survivin'

Hustle Economics and the Black Sitcoms of Tandem Productions
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2024

About this book

The 1970s was a golden age for representations of African American life on TV sitcoms: Sanford & Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons. Surprisingly, nearly all the decade’s notable Black sitcoms were made by a single company, Tandem Productions. Founded by two white men, the successful team behind All in the Family, writer Norman Lear and director Bud Yorkin, Tandem gave unprecedented opportunities to Black actors, writers, and producers to break into the television industry. However, these Black auteurs also struggled to get the economic privileges and creative autonomy regularly granted to their white counterparts. 
 
Scratchin’ and Survivin’ discovers surprising parallels between the behind-the-scenes drama at Tandem and the plotlines that aired on their sitcoms, as both real and fictional African Americans devised various strategies for getting their fair share out of systems prone to exploiting their labor. The media scholar Adrien Sebro describes these tactics as a form of “hustle economics,” and he pays special attention to the ways that Black women—including actresses like LaWanda Page, Isabel Sanford, and Esther Rolle—had to hustle for recognition. Exploring Tandem’s complex legacy, including its hit racially mixed sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, he showcases the Black talent whose creative agency and labor resilience helped to transform the television industry.
 

Author / Editor information

ADRIEN SEBRO is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He specializes in critical media studies at the intersections of comedy, gender, and Black popular culture.
 

Reviews

"In Scratchin’ and Survivin’, Adrien Sebro pays close attention to and honors the often-invisible labor of Black culture industries workers. Using the framework of 'hustle economics,' Sebro uncovers a treasure trove of hidden and archival transcripts that give voice to Black-cast sitcom stars like Redd Foxx and Esther Rolle as more than talented actors, but Black Americans working in Hollywood trying to get, as The Jeffersons’ theme song says, their 'piece of the pie'.” 
 — Alfred L. Martin, author of The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom

"Scratchin' and Survivin' should be required reading for scholars of media industries, television history, and Black media studies. It models an interdisciplinary approach that refuses to treat labor, aesthetics, and ideology as discrete domains. In so doing, it reminds us that television history must be told not only through programming trends or network strategies but through the embodied, contested, and often precarious labor of those who made it."

— Media Industries

“This is what the next generation of scholarship on critical black television and media studies look like—original, probing, curious, courageous, confident. By taking on complex questions of Black family life, social class, passing and Black difference, and the role of Black women, Scratchin’ and Survivin’ reframes the radical nature of the meanings, impacts, and struggles over representation and production.”— Herman S. Gray, author of Cultural Moves: African Americans and the Politics of Representation

"Adrien Sebro's fascinating and instructive look at these series will force industry stakeholders to see and pursue them anew."
 — Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, editor of Watching While Black: Centering the Television of Black Audiences

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    vii
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Publisher’s Note

    viii
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Introduction: The Hustle

    1
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    1 Approaching Tandem Productions

    16
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    2 Sanford and Son

    37
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    3 Good Times

    80
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    4 The Jeffersons

    123
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Conclusion: A Piece of the Pie

    163
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Acknowledgments

    171
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Notes

    175
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Bibliography

    195
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index

    201
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    About the Author

    207
    Download PDF

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 14, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781978834873
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.36019/9781978834873
eBook ISBN: 9781978834873
Keywords for this book
race; black; african american; tv; media; media studies; tandem productions; 70s; Sanford & Son; Good Times; The Jefferson; All in the Family; Norma Lear; Bud Yorkin; LaWanda Page; Isabel Sanford; Esther Rolle; work culture; hustle culture; acting; Diff'rent Strokes; popular culture
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
Downloaded on 13.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.36019/9781978834873/html
Scroll to top button