Table of Contents

Introduction: The Hustle
1 Approaching Tandem Productions
2 Sanford and Son
3 Good Times
4 The Jeffersons
Conclusion: A Piece of the Pie
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

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

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

“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.”
*author of Cultural Moves: African Americans and the Politics of Representation*

"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'.” 
 
*author of The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom*