Blackface was a performance tradition in the American theater for roughly 100 years beginning around 1830. It quickly became popular in Britain as well, where the tradition lasted longer than in the U.S., occurring on primetime TV, most famously in The Black and White Minstrel Show, which ended in 1978,[12] and in Are You Being Served?'s Christmas specials in 1976[13] and finally in 1981.[14]