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Back around 1971, some City Slicker named Fred Silverman conducted the "Rural Purge" and none of us were the better for it.
Out in the Hinterlands | June 12, 2021 | Big Fan of Emmylou Harris

Posted on 06/12/2021 3:06:57 PM PDT by SamAdams76

I have mosquito bites all over my arms and legs. I'm thinking because I've been out camping, sitting by the campfire and doing a lot of cast iron based cooking over said fire. Which is some of the best kind of cooking if you are to be camping.

Then I go into my tent and roll myself into a "sleeping bag" but even then, I'm thinking mosquitoes are still able to get through.

So a lot of mosquito bites and it's only mid June. Lot of camping left to go this season.

Nothing better though then sleeping under a tent and hearing all the noises of nature, especially pit-pattering rain and crickets and tree frogs. Then you get the birds in the morning waking you up as the sun gains strength in the east.

Then you get the campfire going again in put some "cowboy coffee" on as you prepare the eggs and bacon to get your next camping day off to an acceptable start.

But I digress.

I'm old enough to remember back when "rural" themed TV shows ruled the day. You had "Hee Haw" which was such an incredible institution that I might need several posts to fully describe it. You had "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Petticoat Junction", "Mr Ed", "Andy Griffith", "Jim Nabors Show", and "Lassie" just to name a few.

Oh yeah, and "Gunsmoke" and "F Troop" just to name a couple more.

All these shows (and more!) had respectable to great ratings on TV and presented good American values to the general public.

But along came this douchebag named Fred Silverman who took over CBS around 1970 and felt that rural values were not conducive to how he felt America should be and the "rural purge" was on.

In came more "urban" based shows like "Mary Tyler Moore", "All In The Family", "The Jeffersons", "What's Happening", "James at 15", and "Sanford & Son."

Certainly not all Fred Silverman creations but Fred did kill the rural-based TV shows in order to cater to more urban and suburban audiences (though those audiences did appreciate the rural shows as even "Hee Haw" got decent ratings in NYC and Boston.)

Fact is, rural shows basically disappeared in the early 1970s with the notable exceptions of "The Waltons" and "Little House On The Prairie."

Basically from then on, you had the urban-suburban TV shows with their loud voices, their canned laughtracks and their more liberal values dominating the airwaves.


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: sitcoms; television; tv
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To: Chainmail

Kirby with his BAR, Caje, Littlejohn. I loved that show!


161 posted on 06/12/2021 9:10:20 PM PDT by Freestate316 (Know what you believe and why you believe it.)
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To: plain talk
Clint Eastwood went from spaghetti westerns and Kelly’s heroes to Dirty Harry.

He also directed "Breezy".

162 posted on 06/12/2021 11:24:37 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Tony in Hawaii

Will Geer was a perverted bi-sexual. Absolutely disgusted me when I found that out. The Waltons was one of my favorite shows. Geer playing the ‘wise’ grandfather but in real life was nothing but a depraved leftist freak. I guess that’s why it’s called acting.


163 posted on 06/12/2021 11:40:35 PM PDT by LibertyWoman ("Where there is no law, there is no liberty." Benjamin Rush)
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To: Salamander

Dang who’s dog was Beauregard ....hmm....google or the dux

Tik tik tik

Hee Haw

Should have known hon

Btw....I just cleaned up chihuahua dog poop I stepped in and tracked all over downstairs

Hardwoods thank God

Doesn’t Happen much...she usually squawks to go out...

Ugh

Not as bad as snale poop though.....I remember my corns....I guess the big ones like you have make some big scat


164 posted on 06/12/2021 11:41:05 PM PDT by wardaddy (Feel my warmth)
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To: Bratch

Red Skelton toured some after his show went off. He performed at the 1982 Worlds Fair for a while I remember that much. I saw a few minutes but I was working maintenance there and had a trouble call to go on.


165 posted on 06/13/2021 12:08:19 AM PDT by cva66snipe
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To: Cecily

Best MASH episode and funniest was “The General Flips at Dawn”. General Hamilton Steele paid a visit and that was Harry Morgan’s initial appearance on MASH. It and McArthurs visit IMO were the two best.


166 posted on 06/13/2021 12:14:54 AM PDT by cva66snipe
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To: lizma2
Watched Ed Sullivan with a babysitter when the Beatles 1st made American TV. She didn’t stop screaming. LOL!

Love the songs.

The one thing my sister never forgave me for even 50 years later LOL. She was 5 years older and wanted to watch Ed Sullivan because The Beatles were on that night. I was maybe 7-8 and wanted to watch Bonanza and an argument took place. Mom comes in and turns the TV off end of argument.

Fast forward to 2015 and sis is in a memory care unit with Dementia. Every time I visited here which was several times a week she said "You're a Brat. I wanted to watch Ed Sullivan and The Beatles and you wanted to watch Bonanza. Mom turned the TV off." Bless her heart she couldn't remember hamburgers I had just brought to her and asked me where they were after she ate them but she never forgot that LOL.

167 posted on 06/13/2021 12:26:21 AM PDT by cva66snipe
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To: blackdog
I have every Barney Miller episode. I think it ran all the way to 1983.

The series was broadcast on ABC Network from January 23, 1975, to May 20, 1982.

Regards,

168 posted on 06/13/2021 2:45:31 AM PDT by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: buckalfa

Brief but funny, “Fernwood Tonight”.


169 posted on 06/13/2021 3:37:50 AM PDT by blackdog (Joe Biden, Deep State Cuckold.)
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To: eyeamok
Speaking of Fred, I went down a rabbit hole on the ill-fated "Supertrain" TV series back in 1979 while researching this article and that's worthy of it's own thread someday!

Here is a very retro clip of a February 1979 Today Show in which Gene Shalit hypes up the show. I forgot how bizarre Gene looked back in the day with his busy hair, his oversized mustache and loud bowties. But I guess that was rather stylish in the 1970s. Back in the day, they called people like that "colorful."

170 posted on 06/13/2021 5:16:50 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (Give me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer)
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To: SamAdams76

The Dukes of Hazard was the #1 rated TV program in America for several years in a row in the early 1980s.


171 posted on 06/13/2021 6:12:05 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: FLT-bird
The Dukes of Hazard was the #1 rated TV program in America for several years in a row in the early 1980s.

Which proves that there is (and always was) an audience for rural-themed shows. Hee-Haw was one of the shows caught up in the 1971 "rural purge" yet that show flourished for two more decades in syndication and got decent ratings even in New York and Boston.

For most of my life, I thought Hee-Haw was just a corny show for cowpokes, but as I learned more about it in my research and saw some clips, I have a lot more respect for it (and the people involved in making it). Good humor done cleanly with a lot of good music.

172 posted on 06/13/2021 6:26:28 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (Give me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer)
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To: daler

Yes, she certainly was.


173 posted on 06/13/2021 6:37:21 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Enough. Divide the country.. now. )
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To: SamAdams76

The Hee Haw jokes and skits were corny, but the music (Roy and Buck) and musical guests were top notch.


174 posted on 06/13/2021 10:05:52 AM PDT by Cecily
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To: Grampa Dave

Gunsmoke was great; easily the best western that ever aired on TV. And some believe the radio version was even better; in fact, many of the early TV episodes were simply adaptations of scripts originally written for radio.

Of course, the radio series had a completely different cast: William Conrad as Matt; Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc and Georgia Engel as Kitty. You can even find publicity shots of the cast, in costume as their characters. All were given auditions for the TV series, and CBS decided to go in a different direction with casting. William Conrad actually directed two episodes of the TV series, one in 1963, the other in 1971. McNear made six appearances on the show, playing parts other than Doc Adams.


175 posted on 06/13/2021 1:29:22 PM PDT by ExNewsExSpook
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To: HandyDandy

Some shows also have great theme music, too. Barney Miller and Rockford Files had great music. The Night Court theme is fun to play


176 posted on 06/13/2021 1:58:08 PM PDT by perfect stranger
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To: perfect stranger

I agree. Really good theme music is a requirement. Rockford and Barney Miller are upfront in my memory of music from tv shows.


177 posted on 06/13/2021 2:20:19 PM PDT by HandyDandy
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To: Chainmail

I remember Combat. My father used to chuckle when my young brothers and I would talk about “Chargent Chaunders”. Of course Kirby was always out checking the perimeters.


178 posted on 06/13/2021 2:41:30 PM PDT by HandyDandy
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To: wally_bert

The Lance White was a great one. Rockford had to play second fiddle Tom Selleck!


179 posted on 06/13/2021 2:45:34 PM PDT by HandyDandy
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To: HandyDandy

His only flaw was being nearly perfect.


180 posted on 06/13/2021 2:47:33 PM PDT by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure.)
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