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I can’t imagine those shows lasting much longer than they did past 1970, purge or not. Two years tops for some (such as “Mayberry RFD”, which really ceased to be after Griffith and Knotts left). Even “Gunsmoke”, which survived the initial purge, was running on fumes by the time it was cancelled in 1975. Cancelling “Hee Haw” was dumb, since it had barely gotten started and ended up being a huge hit in syndication.

Even so, the rapid social decline was already occurring even as those shows still aired (by 1965).

Petticoat Junction was actually cancelled a year before the rural purge (1970). Mayberry RFD was just a faint shadow of The Andy Griffth Show’s glory. And Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres were running out of ratings gas. Can’t see what social good it would have done to keep them around longer. In retrospect, the Norman Lear shows were poisonous (except perhaps for Sandford and Son) but if cancelling the cornball stuff made way for the amazing Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, then it wasn’t a bad thing in retrospect.