Posted on 09/26/2012 8:17:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Fifty years ago today CBS introduced a new TV series that sharply divided American cultural opinion. Critics and intellectuals hated it, and it became for them a symbol of how far television had fallen since the so-called “golden age” of live, New York-based programs in the early days of the medium. Most everybody else felt differently, however.
The show became an instant hit of mammoth proportions. It spent its first two seasons at the very top of the Nielsen ratings. At its peak, it was being watched by 60 million viewers per week. As late as 1982, eleven years after it had left the air at the end of its ninth season, nine of this show’s episodes could still be found on the list of the top fifty highest-rated broadcasts of all time, alongside Super Bowls, blockbuster miniseries, and special event programming. "The Beverly Hillbillies" was, without question, one of the most popular television series in the history of American television.
In the first episode, aired on September 26, 1962, we were introduced to Jed Clampett, his mother-in-law Granny, his daughter Elly May, and cousin Jethro, all poor mountaineers scraping out a happy but subsistence living in some remote location in the Ozarks.
The now-classic opening theme song elegantly sums up the premise of the show. Jed shoots at what he hopes will be the evening’s meal, but misses. His errant bullet pricks the surface of the rich American soil, and oil (“black gold, Texas tea”) commences gushing out of the ground. With his new found riches, his cousin Pearl convinces him that “Californy is the place you oughta be” (in the pithiest phrasing of American Manifest Destiny since “Go West, Young Man”), so he loads up three generations of his family and moves to Beverly Hills...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
When I was little, best thing about being home sick was watching the morning reruns on tv. Also “Ellie Mae” used to pull into my school,s parking lot in a big convertible to pick up her step daughter. Which I thought was very cool.
Had a lot of minor stars in my town. The “Calamity Jane” type character from F-Troop was about 5 doors down. Back then they filmed all over the place. 12 O’Clock High was done mostly at our airport, IIRC.
It’s fun. Right now I am living in “Miami” as they film Dexter here. Funny to see, in LA, police cars saying Miami Dade on them! (They can’t drive them outside of filming; they have to flatbed them back to the studio.).
I wonder how many folks here know about the “Rural Purge”?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_purge
Basically around 1970 all the “rural” shows got the ax by CBS.
In many ways it was (at least one of) the opening shots of the culture wars, the effects are with us to this day.
The basic idea was to replace the Hillbillies, Gomer Pyle, Mayberry RFD, Petticoat junction with Mary Tyler Moore and All in the Family.
The reason was that the “rural” shows were no longer “relevant” to “younger” and “urban” viewers.
I remember watching a MLB All-Stars/Celebrities softball game on TV in 1967. Mantle, Mays, Killebrew, Clemente, Drysdale, McCovey, and others versus Max Baer Jr., Peter Falk, Woody Allen, Larry Storch, and others.
The game was played in Dodger Stadium.
Baer crushed a softball over the fence in left center field. It was . . . impressive.
LOL!
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