Sam & Henry (also rendered as Sam 'n' Henry) was a radio show which aired in 1926 and 1927 by Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll. It is often considered to be the first situation comedy. Radio transmission diagram and electromagnetic waves Radio is a technology that allows the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light. ... 1926 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Events January 7 - First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London January 9 - Military rebellion crushed in Lisbon January 14 - Paul Doumer elected president of France January 19 - Britain sends troops to China February 12 - First British troops lad on Shanghai February 14 - Earthquake in Yugoslavia - 700 dead February... Freeman Fisher Gozzie Gosden (May 5, 1899 - December 10, 1982) was a USA radio comedian, and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. ... Charles James Correll (February 2, 1890 _ September 26, 1972) was a USA radio comedian, best known for his work on the Amos & Andy show with Freeman Gosden (see). ... A sitcom or situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance originally devised for radio but today typically found on television. ...

In late 1925 radio actors Gosden and Correll had been approached about doing a radio show based on the then popular comic strip "The Gumps". Gosden and Corell thought about the suggestion, and then instead proposed their own radio show using characters they created themselves. Like comic strips, each show would be amusing in itself, but also be part of a longer story with continuing characters. As they had gotten much favorable response to some voices impersonating African American characters they had done on the radio earlier, Gosden and Correll proposed that the principle characters be African Americans (named Sam Smith and Henry Johnson) newly arrived in Chicago from the rural South. Events January-May January 3 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... The Gumps were a popular comic strip about an ordinary family by Sidney Smith. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ...

Sam & Henry premiered on Chicago radio station WGN on January 12, 1926 and enjoyed popularity. The show ran for 586 episodes, the last one airing on December 18, 1927.Gosden and Correll also recorded some of their Sam & Henry routines for Victor Records. WGN is the callsign of two broadcast stations in Chicago, Illinois, both owned by the Tribune company. ... January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... The Victor Talking Machine Company (1901 - 1929) was a United States corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. ...

The following year Gosden and Correll reworked the premise on a more ambitious scale, which became their famous radio show Amos & Andy. My brothers and sisters! My brothers and sisters! Some of you may be laughing at this mockery of the black man and his dreams. ...