Description: Analyzes the social, political, and institutional context of The Flip Wilson Show, which ran on NBC between 1970 and 1974.
Review Quotes: Meghan Sutherland's The Flip Wilson Show is a refreshing study that re-situates the post-civil rights variety show genre in relation to a broad genealogy of racial performances in American culture. Sutherland's original analysis examines the intersections of social identity formation, black performance, and television culture. Following in the footsteps of Herman Gray and other scholars, Sutherland's book convincingly breaks open the historicity of black performance in relation to televisual discourse."--Daphne A. Brooks "associate professor of English and African American studies at Princeton University and author of Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 and Jeff Buckley's Grace "