This IS the Black Private Dick Who's a Sex Machine to All the Chicks

Coincidentally, it being Black History Month and all, this week's series of sketches' theme is Black Action Heroes of the 70's.

Naturally, we kick things off with John Shaft.  How could it be otherwise?  Shaft was created by screenwriter Ernest Tidyman who took the Academy Award for adapting The French Connection for the screen.  The novel Shaft (1970) was then adapted into a film by well respected photographer and director Gordon Parks Sr., and starred Richard Roundtree.  Isaac Hayes wrote the score and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the "Theme from Shaft".  Roundtree went on to play Shaft in two sequels and a TV series while Tidyman went on to pen six more Shaft novels (I own them all, including the rare Last Shaft (1975).)