"The Real Beverly Hillbillies" slammed as demeaning to country folk [A new, CBS reality tv show]

AP ^ | Jan. 8, 2003 | AP

[summer]

POSTED: Jan. 8, 2003 9:15 a.m.

WHITESBURG, Ky. (AP) - An Appalachian advocacy group placed ads in some of the nation's largest newspapers Tuesday, criticizing a proposed CBS reality TV series that it says is demeaning to rural people.

The show, which is being called "The Real Beverly Hillbillies," places a poor Appalachian family in a Beverly Hills mansion. Casting for the show is being conducted in the Appalachian states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

[weegee]

I've got an idea, as "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" is being run, concurrently run a show - call it "OhmyGod, We're Dirt Poor!" - which takes a wealthy family and puts them into a poor, Appalachian community or urban ghetto and forces them to try to survive. Any guesses as to which show a majority of Americans would tune into?

Here's a promo: Ted Turner is DESTITUTE. Imagine him sitting on his porch cursing the gub'ment and those Christians up the street. Without his money and influence he'd probably end it all like his dad.

[freedumb2003]

>>Kids, I have some news to share. We are going vegetarian for awhile..."<<


The word "vegatarian" is American Indian for "Can't Hunt."

[socal_parrot]

"Imagine the episode where they have to interview maids."

Well they better speak Spanish.

[weegee]

This is pure nonsense. America is now so wired, nobody is so out of touch as to be befuddled by a transplanted life into a Beverly Bills mansion. The Internet, DVD players and satellite dishes bring the world to the most remote "hillbillies." The small towns in Kentucky's hills have McDonalds and Wal-Mart nearby. Hollywood has a view of rural America at least 40-years-old. Hollywood isn't hip - it's clueless!

How about taking a family (with teenagers) from an Amish or Jewish community that does not use modern conveniences, electricity, etc?

And who would there be to protest? Their peers wouldn't have tvs to see the programs.

There may be some rural American Indians who could be moved their too. How about some Peruvian Indians? From the Amazon jungle to Beverly Hills. Yucks galore. Get them Pat Boone's old home, it was next door to the Osbournes (cross over appeal).

[Aquinasfan]

but I bet if you pitched a show with a similar scenario, say a poor black family out of some urban ghetto into a mansion in Beverly Hill, a few would get quite wrankled at the idea.

You bet.

[weegee]

Re: media stereotypes

people who have southern accents are dumb

...unless they are "lawyers".

[Cooter]

This has already been done, and is called "The Anna Nicole Show" (Anna is from Texas, not Appalachia, but she's definately hillbilly material).

[Floratina]

Green Acres was fictional, though. I think this is a great idea!!

[weegee]

Jimmy Carter was a scientist who couldn't even pronounce the word "nuclear" (the left tries to portray President Bush as the only one, let alone President, to ever mangle that word).

[weegee]

Let's not talk about Lyndon Johnson or Robert Byrd.

Oh, let's. How about on the next season of the Real World we move Robert Sheets Byrd in with a bunch of minority youth. Be sure to educate them on his bio with information on his KKK membership (and recruting) and his statement on not wanting black men serving in the armed forces.

Mr. Byrd sent a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, a notorious segregationist, vowing that he would "never submit to fight beneath that banner (the American flag) with a Negro by my side," according to a letter discovered by author Graham Smith and published in a book, "When Jim Crow Met John Bull." Added Mr. Byrd in his letter to Bilbo: "Rather I should die a thousand times, and see old Glory in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours be degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." Asked about this letter back in 1999, Mr. Byrd did not dispute the quote, and said he was ashamed of it.

[disgustedvet]

I guess I must be an "Appalachian American" too, because folks from my part of the country (TN) all know that you cut wood in the summer to burn in the winter.

When wood is first cut, it is still considered "green" and will not burn as well as wood that has been cut and allowed to "cure" for a few months. So, if you procrastinate and don't cut in the summer, you will either freeze to death, or work yourself to death trying to find wood that is suitable to burn for any length of time.

I'd sure hate to be stuck in a cabin in Montana and have wade out in waist deep snow to scrounge up some "green" wood to try to burn. No, thanks. I'll sweat a little bit in July to save myself from that little fiasco.

If the "experts" were from that part of the country, I'd listen to their opinions.