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Beulah

  • TV Series
  • 1950–19531950–1953
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 30m
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
135
YOUR RATING
Episode guide
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Beulah (1950)
  • Comedy
The misadventures of a maid named Beulah.The misadventures of a maid named Beulah.The misadventures of a maid named Beulah.
IMDb RATING
7.8/10
135
YOUR RATING
  • Stars
    • Ethel Waters
    • Louise Beavers
    • Amanda Randolph
Top credits
  • Stars
    • Ethel Waters
    • Louise Beavers
    • Amanda Randolph
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 13User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Episodes79

    Browse episodes
    TopTop-rated

    Photos13

    Beulah (1950)
    Beulah (1950)
    Ethel Waters at an event for Beulah (1950)
    Rodney Bell and Sam Flint in Beulah (1950)
    David Bruce, Jane Frazee, and Stuffy Singer in Beulah (1950)
    Rodney Bell and Hattie McDaniel in Beulah (1950)
    Rodney Bell, Hattie McDaniel, and Ernest Whitman in Beulah (1950)
    Rodney Bell and Hattie McDaniel in Beulah (1950)
    Ernest Whitman in Beulah (1950)
    David Bruce and Hattie McDaniel in Beulah (1950)
    Hattie McDaniel in Beulah (1950)
    Ruby Dandridge in Beulah (1950)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ethel Waters
    Ethel Waters
    • Beulahas Beulah
    40 episodes40 eps • 1950–1951
    Louise Beavers
    Louise Beavers
    • Beulahas Beulah
    33 episodes33 eps • 1952
    Amanda Randolph17 episodes17 eps • 1952
    Ernest Whitman
    Ernest Whitman
    • Bill Jacksonas Bill Jackson
    14 episodes14 eps • 1952
    David Bruce
    David Bruce
    • Harry Hendersonas Harry Henderson
    13 episodes13 eps • 1952
    Ruby Dandridge
    Ruby Dandridge
    • Orioleas Oriole
    11 episodes11 eps • 1952
    Stuffy Singer
    • Donnie Hendersonas Donnie Henderson
    11 episodes11 eps • 1952
    Jane Frazee
    Jane Frazee
    • Alice Hendersonas Alice Henderson
    11 episodes11 eps • 1952
    William Post Jr.
    William Post Jr.
    • Harry Hendersonas Harry Henderson…
    7 episodes7 eps • 1950–1952
    Virginia Damon
    • Alice Hendersonas Alice Henderson…
    7 episodes7 eps • 1950–1952
    Clifford Sales
    • Donnie Hendersonas Donnie Henderson…
    7 episodes7 eps • 1950–1952
    Hattie McDaniel
    Hattie McDaniel
    • Beulahas Beulah
    6 episodes6 eps • 1952
    Butterfly McQueen
    Butterfly McQueen
    • Orioleas Oriole
    6 episodes6 eps • 1950–1952
    Bud Harris
    • Bill Jacksonas Bill Jackson
    4 episodes4 eps • 1950–1952
    Dooley Wilson
    Dooley Wilson
    • Bill Jacksonas Bill Jackson…
    3 episodes3 eps • 1951
    Robert Cherry
    • Mr. Leafy's Helperas Mr. Leafy's Helper…
    2 episodes2 eps • 1952
    Jack Hartley
    • George Dunstonas George Dunston
    1 episode1 ep • 1951
    Warren Coleman
    • Mr. Chandleras Mr. Chandler
    1 episode1 ep • 1951
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    The misadventures of a maid named Beulah.
    • character name as series title
    • one word series title
    • forename as series title
    • beulah the maid character
    • sitcom
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Genre
      • Comedy
    • Certificate
      • Not Rated
    • Parents guide
      • Add content advisory

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Hattie McDaniel had to leave the show after starring in 6 episodes because she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
    • Connections
      Featured in Inside TV Land: Inside TV Land: African Americans in Television - Variety (2002)

    User reviews13

    Review
    Top review
    Pathetically unfunny
    Some TV watchers get extremely annoyed by the phenomenon which they call 'same character, different actor'. I've never understood why they go into high moral outrages about this. I quite agree that Dick York was a better Darren Stephens (on 'Bewitched') than Dick Sargent, but I also feel that an episode of 'Bewitched' with 'the wrong Darren' is still better than no 'Bewitched' at all. Maybe some TV-watchers object to 'same character, different actor' because it forces them to confront the fact that TV isn't actually real life.

    The vintage TV sitcom 'Beulah' must infuriate such people: during the run of this TV series, the lead role was played by four different actresses ... and every other recurring role in 'Beulah' was recast at least once during the sitcom's four-year run. Even more bizarrely, the title character - an African-American woman - had originally been played (on radio) by a white male!

    'Beulah' was a spinoff from the popular radio sitcom 'Fibber McGee and Molly'. The homespun McGees, of Wistful Vista, employed a sassy black maidservant named Beulah. This being radio, Beulah was voiced by a white male actor named Marlin Hurt, who dressed normally (no blackface, no drag) and began each live-studio radio transmission standing with his back to the microphone. Eventually, actor Jim Jordan (Fibber McGee) would summon the maid by calling: 'Oh, Beulah!' This was Hurt's cue to spin round and shout directly into the mike his high-pitched catchphrase: 'Who dat bawlin' fo' Beulah?' The studio audience, astonished to hear this ostensibly Negress voice emerging from a white man, would always react in surprised laughter. At the end of each episode of 'Fibber McGee', the radio announcer would always read off the cast credits - including Marlin Hurt as Beulah - yet audiences were continually surprised that this recurring character was played by a white male.

    Eventually, actor Hurt received his own spinoff radio sitcom, 'Beulah', in which the McGees' black servant went to work for the wholesome Henderson family. Like many other popular radio programmes of the late 1940s, this sitcom was eventually adapted for television. But 'Beulah' - like "Amos 'n' Andy", for the same reason - required racially authentic casting for its transition to video.

    The tv series 'Beulah' originally starred Ethel Waters, in Hurt's original part as the Hendersons' maid/cook: this demeaning role was the only steady employment the talented Waters could get at this time. Waters eventually left in disgust, to be replaced by Hattie McDaniels: one of the first Oscar winners to star in series tv, McDaniels was ill and needed the money. After starring in only six episodes of 'Beulah', McDaniels died and was replaced by Louise Beavers, a much less talented performer than Waters or McDaniels. Eventually, Beavers also got tired of the 'yassuh!' dialogue, and she was replaced by Amanda Randolph (who?).

    What's really offensive about 'Beulah' isn't the minstrel-show repartee or Beulah's subservience to her white employers the Hendersons, but the fact that the scripts continually had the well-meaning but stupid Beulah causing problems which were invariably solved by her wise caucasian employers. (Beulah's white massah was a respectable suburban lawyer named Harry Henderson, no relation to the title character in 'Harry and the Hendersons'.) In a typical episode, son Donnie Henderson thinks he'll be more popular with girls if he learns how to dance ... so Beulah and her boyfriend (handyman Bill Jackson) taught Donnie to dance. Unfortunately, being stereotyped Negroes in a 1950s sitcom, Bill and Beulah give Donnie lessons in boogie-woogie and jive. Donnie's parents, being respectable white folks in a 1950s sitcom, are scandalised. Beulah moans: 'I put my big foot into it again.' (All of the actresses who played Beulah were hefty, and much of the sitcom's alleged humour was derived from this.)

    The role of Bill, slightly less yassuhfied than Beulah, was originally played by Ernest Whitman but was recast with Dooley Wilson, the immortal piano-playing Sam of 'Casablanca'. Wilson did his own singing, but he was in fact unable to play piano: in 'Beulah' and in 'Casablanca', his piano-playing was dubbed.

    The family next-door over to the Hendersons also employ a black maid, named Oriole. (Is that meant to be funny?) Oriole was originally played by Butterfly McQueen, the most annoying black performer I've ever seen. Why is she named Butterfly, when she has the voice and cheeks of a chipmunk? The role of Oriole was later recast with Ruby Dandridge, somewhat less annoying. The resident director for this series was Jean Yarbrough, a prolific but untalented hack who worked with some of Hollywood's major comedians yet who ruined everything he touched. Many of the performers in 'Beulah', black and white, did splendid work elsewhere ... but none of them are worth watching here. I'm tempted to rate 'Beulah' zero points out of 10, but I have a deep passion for the artefacts of early television, so I'll rate this racist rubbish one point in 10.
    helpful•24
    44
    • F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
    • May 5, 2004

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 3, 1950 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The Beulah Show
    • Filming locations
      • Hal Roach Studios - 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Roland Reed Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      30 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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