[Dr. Sivana]

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.

I am a huge fan of classic television, but the fact is that CBS continuied to dominate for a few more years after the purge in the ratings, and they also got a younger demographic watching the shows. In short, we are all complicit.

Eventually, ABC would surprise the world by winning the ratings on the backs of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Monday Night Football, Charlie's Angels and Three's Company, etc. Less overtly liberal, but not particularly rural, either.

Even back in the day, some of the "serious" shows (which do poorly in reruns) were quite liberal. "The Defenders" comes to mind. Shows like "Laugh-In" and "Smothers Brothers" were well before the purge. Even some classics that we at FR love had a liberal undercurrent (Get Smart, Twilight Zone). The liberals then were literate, talented and were capable of subtlety.

[chrisser]

I haven’t seen it in years, but I seem to remember “The Waltons” skewing a bit left, especially toward the end. John Boy seemed awfully liberal despite his rural upbringing.

But maybe I’m misremembering.