Speaker 1: Let's go by Cogotten Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Forgotten Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, James law Junior, your guest host, producer
Speaker 1: and regular host. Like Hanslan Assignment, I'm taking you back
Speaker 1: to the earliest seventies. I was a kid, and I
Speaker 1: remember the show being huge. I remember Gerald Deane. The
Speaker 1: first person I saw in Drag is a black person
Speaker 1: that was done for laughs.
Speaker 2: This person was.
Speaker 1: A groundbreaking televish personality from the seventies. Flip Wilson. You're
Speaker 1: old enough, you've heard the name. You're even older enough
Speaker 1: you remember him. Flip Wilson made Time Magazine, Life, Magazine, People.
Speaker 2: He was a star. Klero.
Speaker 1: Flip Wilson Junior, like me, a junior was born in
Speaker 1: December eighth, so this month, Mark says, would have been
Speaker 1: his eighty second birthday.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Ninety second, eighty second, seventy second. I came in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three. I kept you math. He died in twenty
Speaker 1: eight November, so that's around the same time he was.
Speaker 1: He's considered the first black TV superstar and the highest
Speaker 1: pay performer of his era. You know, one of the
Speaker 1: things is he was one of eighteen children from Jersey City.
Speaker 1: His mother left the family, so he said, with his father,
Speaker 1: and at some point he was in foster care. He
Speaker 1: was in the military, which many did that back then.
Speaker 1: He went to the US Air Force and maybody laugh,
Speaker 1: he became Flip. That was the nickname there. Then then
Speaker 1: he started the Osden jobs. That became a comedian. He
Speaker 1: was somebody. Why I mentioned him today because I you know,
Speaker 1: these are he's not talked about enough. He was very underrated.
Speaker 1: It's a great documentary out about him too. He was
Speaker 1: just a comedian. He was a cultural phenomenon. White audiences
Speaker 1: loved him. Everyone loved him. He redefined representation and he
Speaker 1: proved that a black entertainer could dominate prime time television
Speaker 1: on his own turns. It his pre Richard Pryor before
Speaker 1: Red Fox was still in the clubs, but he was
Speaker 1: on TV yet before Annie Murphy, before you know any
Speaker 1: of the comedians that came before Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby
Speaker 1: was doing drama. He was doing I Spy in the
Speaker 1: sixties and doing comedy records. But Phlip Wilson was like
Speaker 1: a Carol Burnett's He was like he did interviews and
Speaker 1: he did sketches and he did ketch comedy and he
Speaker 1: did stand up.
Speaker 2: I ain't talked to the Ardi audience.
Speaker 1: He was somebody that I just looked up to, you
Speaker 1: just as a kid seeing him.
Speaker 2: He is.
Speaker 1: The Flip Wilson Show was this giant, giant hit from
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nineteen seventy four. At the peak of the show,
Speaker 1: he was earning over one hundred thousand dollars an episode.
Speaker 1: Think about that for the early seventies. That's a lot.
Speaker 1: He was the first black performer to host a major
Speaker 1: network variety series with huge ratings. He also became the
Speaker 1: first black entertainer to win an Emmy for variety series
Speaker 1: and appear on major you know and all the major stuff.
Speaker 1: He is the first black TV starter reached top tier
Speaker 1: earning status in American television. Bill Cosby and Diane Carroll
Speaker 1: are close. Bill Cosby later we could talk about this point.
Speaker 1: It just there was I spy and he was the
Speaker 1: leader then. But later with Collie Show, which did even better,
Speaker 1: and then we talked about her before Diane carrolls, Julia
Speaker 1: was big.
Speaker 2: The show was a just a cultural revolution.
Speaker 1: It just was, you know, it's he had first been
Speaker 1: the stand up comedian, you know, being on Johnny Carson,
Speaker 1: which was always do anything at Sullivan's show, laughing. His
Speaker 1: style was non threatening, but he was sharp, lots of
Speaker 1: character driven comedy, very smart. You know, someone will say
Speaker 1: he's pre He's a precursor to maybe like a Chris
Speaker 1: Rock later. He appealed to all audiences. Was just that
Speaker 1: just was back then. It was just really rare for
Speaker 1: a black comedian. He had a bunch of catchphrases that
Speaker 1: I'm America really too again. His show, which was on NBC,
Speaker 1: No One needs how clearly expected don't do anything. He
Speaker 1: is the first black person. I can saying that he's first,
Speaker 1: but just the truth. He's the first black person to
Speaker 1: host and produce a major network variety show. In its
Speaker 1: debut season nineteen seventy seventy one, it was number two
Speaker 1: in the Nielsen ratings.
Speaker 2: It won two Emmys.
Speaker 1: He had people like Jackson five, I'm Not Leave, Lucille Ball, Ray,
Speaker 1: Charles raitha Frankman on the show.
Speaker 2: It's what it Is.
Speaker 1: It showed that black entertainers and talent could carry a
Speaker 1: primetime TV show. Just thinking about it now, it's like,
Speaker 1: just thinking about it, it's like, of course they can,
Speaker 1: right no, but back then they weren't sure.
Speaker 2: There wasn't no one. There was no before.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I King Cole in the fifties had
Speaker 1: a brief brush with success on TV, and this show
Speaker 1: was a huge hit. But it was taken down fast
Speaker 1: because people in the South windon now. But I was
Speaker 1: like in the fifties, we're talking twenty years later. He
Speaker 1: was able the right timing. He ordered breakdown racial barriers.
Speaker 1: He was the master of character comedy, and two of
Speaker 1: his characters were huge. Geraldine, as I just mentioned, Jeraldine
Speaker 1: Jones was his bold, sassy woman. These several catchphrases were
Speaker 1: what you see as what you get, as the devil
Speaker 1: made me do it. Geraldine was so loved by the
Speaker 1: public many forgot that she was played by Flip Wilson.
Speaker 1: And the thing that made Geraldine not sort of a caricature.
Speaker 1: It was cartedish on some level. But Geraldine was strong
Speaker 1: majoro teen is like empowering woman. So it wasn't just
Speaker 1: like you know it was, it was Jeraldine was somebody.
Speaker 1: He also did Reverend Leroy and he was a leader
Speaker 1: of the Church of What's Happening Now, very satirical routine
Speaker 1: flamboyant preachers.
Speaker 2: But it was fun. It wasn't you watch them. They're
Speaker 2: not mean spirited. It's just like some fun television.
Speaker 1: By nineteen seventy two, he was the first black entertainer
Speaker 1: to become the number one order on television period, one
Speaker 1: of the richest performers in Hollywood, obviously laying the groundwork
Speaker 1: for our citior Hall, Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, all them.
Speaker 1: So he proved back then in the seventies a black
Speaker 1: community could be commercially and the critics loved him too,
Speaker 1: so critically successful at the same time in the top level.
Speaker 1: But you know, after all that, he decided to, you know,
Speaker 1: come things come to us. Four years not a long time.
Speaker 1: He decided to leave the spotlight and raise his children.
Speaker 1: He did a few specials and things, but he just
Speaker 1: kind of prayed into the background.
Speaker 2: There was his turn on his terms. The thing about
Speaker 2: him is.
Speaker 1: Why I chose him to talk about on this and
Speaker 1: why I choose anybody. This person was universally loved, commercially successful,
Speaker 1: fully in control producing his art. He was just a
Speaker 1: groundbreaking artist. But he was just so well liked, and
Speaker 1: I was he loved it just like people really we
Speaker 1: mentioned his name. They smile A laid the groundwork for
Speaker 1: so many black comedians later, but he also produced some
Speaker 1: really good television. So Fip Wilson is our forgotten how
Speaker 1: because people just don't talk about enough. So he's now well,
Speaker 1: we'll never forget him on this show, right, So there
Speaker 1: you go. I'm James I Jr. For gott in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: It's on Facebook. We have for yeah, you know this
Speaker 1: is coming out during the Christmas holiday. We do have
Speaker 1: a Forgotten Hollywood Christmas book. Well, it's our favorite Christmas
Speaker 1: Films on Amazon dot Com. Dougast and James Augnier to
Speaker 1: check that out, of course. Shout to Dougasts, Shout to
Speaker 1: all of you, thanks for making to show a huge
Speaker 1: hit for us as you always do. As we head
Speaker 1: towards four hundred episodes and I was crazy in six
Speaker 1: years of doing this.
Speaker 2: Again, I'm James. Talk to you next time.