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Speaker 1: On the evening of January eighth, four, nearly half of

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Speaker 1: American households tuned to their TV sets to CBS for

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Speaker 1: an epic matchup. No, it was huge at the Juggernauts.

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Speaker 1: It was a classic one. No, it wasn't Muhammad Ali

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Speaker 1: versus Sunny. Listen, I don't accom peaceable or do I

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Speaker 1: have to take you? It was a fight between a

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Speaker 1: feisty grandmother and a kangaroo she had mistaken for a

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Speaker 1: giant jack rabbit. Giant jack rabbits. I had him card.

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Speaker 1: This was the actual premise of an episode of the

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Speaker 1: classic sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. And while it may seem preposterous,

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Speaker 1: you have to understand this aired less than two months

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Speaker 1: after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In fact,

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Speaker 1: earlier that same day, the new President, Lyndon Johnson delivered

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Speaker 1: his first State of the Union address to a still

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Speaker 1: traumatized nation. And you know, here's this little old, you know,

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Speaker 1: hillbilly lady confused by what of kangaroo is? You don't

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Speaker 1: get more escapist than that. The Beverly Hillbillies, a classic

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Speaker 1: fish out of water story featuring the Backwoods Clampet family

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Speaker 1: who Strike It Rich went on to become one of

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Speaker 1: the most successful sitcoms of all time, averaging upwards of

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Speaker 1: fifty million viewers during its run, the kind of numbers

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Speaker 1: you never see today outside of Super Bowl profits. Sword

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Speaker 1: and CBS greenlit a whole host of new shows catering

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Speaker 1: to audiences who couldn't get enough of country themed programming.

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Speaker 1: This was the height of rural representation on network TV.

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Speaker 1: JE Manhattan, just give me that country shid. But by

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Speaker 1: the end of the decade, the network put the Clampet

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Speaker 1: clan and all of their country cousins out to pasture.

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Speaker 1: These city folks don't want our tang around I whatever,

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Speaker 1: put that notion in your here. They even put down

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Speaker 1: Lassie anything in the country, anything that was not in

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Speaker 1: a city with breaking concrete, Bye bye. In this episode,

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Speaker 1: we'll investigate what caused the largest slaughter in sitcom history

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Speaker 1: and meet the man who wielded the axe. He and

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Speaker 1: I literally whacked the hell out of that schedule and

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Speaker 1: cancel about a dozen and a half shows from CBS

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Speaker 1: Sunday Morning and Simon and Schuster. I'm Morocca and this

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Speaker 1: is Mobituaries, This mobid, the rural purge March sixteenth, nine

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Speaker 1: death of the country broadcasting system Big Wheels had the

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Speaker 1: network started spinning. The verdict was that heha had to

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Speaker 1: go to city slickers don't believe in grinning and who

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Speaker 1: the heckniques jokes and coma. That's Hehaw co host and

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Speaker 1: country music legend Roy Clark singing about the rural purge

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Speaker 1: in n two, one year after CBS canceled the musical

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Speaker 1: variety show, consigning it to syndication. They canceled all the

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Speaker 1: singing and the picking, but the scubborn little Donkey wouldn't leave,

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Speaker 1: and then little Fella is still alive and kicking. That

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Speaker 1: song is is smart, it's satirical. I mean it's about

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Speaker 1: the rural purge. I think it's about rural people in

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Speaker 1: general feeling left behind. And I think this is them saying,

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Speaker 1: you know, the networks don't care about us, like we're forgotten,

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Speaker 1: and this is a show that remembers that we're here.

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Speaker 1: Sarah s. Gridge hails from Virginia and wrote a book

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Speaker 1: all about the sitcom slaughter route to CBS and rural

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Speaker 1: comedies in the nineteen sixties, And so how much TV

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Speaker 1: did you have to watch to write this book. I

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Speaker 1: was watching about four hours a day over the course

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Speaker 1: of about a year, year and a half. So basically

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Speaker 1: you were an average American. Yeah, except that I was

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Speaker 1: having to take notes and look for themes and um,

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Speaker 1: you know, so it was work after all. Let's go

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Speaker 1: back to the beginning, okay, and by which I mean

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Speaker 1: the beginning of television, because life didn't really exist before television.

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Speaker 1: What is CBS in the late forties and nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: what is its image? CBS is the Sterling Network in

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Speaker 1: the forties and fifties is CBS They calumb me a

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Speaker 1: broadcasting system also known as the Tiffany Network. Now, in

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Speaker 1: those early days, the only people with access to TV

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Speaker 1: signals lived in cities at that point. They're they're putting

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Speaker 1: a lot of programming on that features immigrants, that features

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Speaker 1: Jewish families, that features people of color. They're trying to

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Speaker 1: appeal to the demographics of the place where they're making

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Speaker 1: the shows. Amos and Andy, which revolved around a group

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Speaker 1: of African American friends in Harlem, was originally created and

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Speaker 1: voiced by white actors on radio. On TV, the show

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Speaker 1: still played to racial stereotypes, but the cast was entirely

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Speaker 1: African American, the first show with an all black cast,

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Speaker 1: something that wouldn't be seen on CBS again until the

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. And this one really surprised me. More than

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Speaker 1: sixty years before The Goldberg's premiered on ABC, there was

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Speaker 1: The gold Egs on CBS. Just hearing from your relatives

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Speaker 1: in Europe after not hearing for so many years. That's

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Speaker 1: beautiful and Jade, did you count how many times they asked?

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Speaker 1: And the characters are obviously Jewish, yes, And that's a

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Speaker 1: big part of the stuff, the story. They don't try

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Speaker 1: to hide that, it's emphasized. And then unfortunately what happens

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Speaker 1: with The Goldbergs is that one of the lead characters

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Speaker 1: is included in one of those lists. Sarah is referring

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Speaker 1: to lists of communist sympathizers, which included actor Philip Loebe,

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Speaker 1: who played the male lead on The Goldbergs. This was

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Speaker 1: all at the height of the Red Scare, with the

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Speaker 1: government investigating so called communist infiltration of American institutions, including

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Speaker 1: the media. FBI director j Edgar Hoover reportedly dubbed CBS

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Speaker 1: the communist broadcasting system. Not the image you wanted in

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Speaker 1: Cold War America. Around the same time, TV signals were

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Speaker 1: beginning to spread beyond urban centers into a America's heartland.

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Speaker 1: So it was audios to those ethnic comedies. So CBS

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Speaker 1: is entertainment slate becomes whitewashed. Basically, yes, um, they're trying

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Speaker 1: to find something that's going to appeal to the largest

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Speaker 1: possible demographic, and so they start out by saying, Okay,

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Speaker 1: quiz shows, that's a great way to go check before Yes,

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Speaker 1: let's check before questions. That is until CBS and NBC

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Speaker 1: came under investigation for rigging the results. But there was

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Speaker 1: a new television craze riding to the rescue. Westerns are

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Speaker 1: popular across the board. Every network is doing them, and

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Speaker 1: that's emphasizing new American ideals. It's the idea of the

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Speaker 1: West and American individualism and being rugged and masculine and

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Speaker 1: you know Western from the title. I mean, there's no

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Speaker 1: kidding around here, right Gunsmoke starring James gunn Smoke, I

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Speaker 1: mean is just a monster. Oh yeah, absolutely. There were

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Speaker 1: about forty one Westerns on television at one time, and

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Speaker 1: this is across three networks. Wow. Westerns were especially popular

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Speaker 1: with the expanding rural and southern markets, and it was

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Speaker 1: those markets CBS was aiming at with its very first

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Speaker 1: rural comedy, premiering in nine six, The Andy Griffith Show

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Speaker 1: starring Andy Griffin. So The Andy Griffith Show is one

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Speaker 1: of the great shows of all time, one of the

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Speaker 1: great family sitcoms of all time, maybe the best show

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Speaker 1: about small town life ever made. You may remember Alan

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Speaker 1: Seppondwall from our season one episode on sitcom character Deaths

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Speaker 1: and Disappearances. Allan is the chief TV critic for Rolling Stone,

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Speaker 1: and if you couldn't tell, he's a big fan of

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Speaker 1: The Andy Griffith Show. Andy Griffith plays Sheriff Andy Taylor

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Speaker 1: of maybe Are, a small town in North Carolina. He

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Speaker 1: has a deputy, Barney Fife, played by the great Don Notts,

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Speaker 1: who is who is really eager but also completely bumbling.

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Speaker 1: So and you will not allow him to put a

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Speaker 1: bullet in his gun that you've come very near shooting

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Speaker 1: yourself in the foot. You know, they ain't exactly much

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Speaker 1: of a call for one legged deputy. You're combining some

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Speaker 1: of the elements of the western with some of the

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Speaker 1: elements of the rural comedy. So you've got a sheriff.

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Speaker 1: He's kind of standing in as that law figure in

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Speaker 1: Mayberry is kind of an idol. I mean it's for

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Speaker 1: for a lot of people, right, it's a fantasy. I

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Speaker 1: mean the only the only lawbreaker is the town drunk

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Speaker 1: and he locks himself in at night. I didn't get

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Speaker 1: mindfull eight hours in one. I don't get mindfull eight hours.

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Speaker 1: I'm grouchi. Do you mind? The Andy Griffith Show became

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Speaker 1: such a breakout success that it birthed its own set

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Speaker 1: of lesser quality spinoffs throughout the nineteen six U s

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Speaker 1: mc gomer Pyle was originally Mayberry's lovably dim weighted filling

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Speaker 1: station attendant, and Jim Nighbors played him. You know, I

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Speaker 1: had a lot of catchphrases, you know, golli and shazam uh.

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Speaker 1: And then at a certain point they decided to have

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Speaker 1: him enlist in the Marines, and later in the decade

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Speaker 1: there was Mayberry RFD. Note to our urban listeners, r

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Speaker 1: f D stands for Rural Free Delivery. It's basically the

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Speaker 1: Andy Griffith Show without Andy. It's it's Andy Griffith was

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Speaker 1: ready to move on, but they wanted to keep the

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Speaker 1: show going. Now, this burgeoning rural comedy cornucopia isn't happening

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Speaker 1: on its own. Someone's green lighting these shows. James Aubrey

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Speaker 1: is really the mastermind of the rural craze at CBS.

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Speaker 1: I just have to say his name is mud to

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Speaker 1: me because he canceled the Judy Garland show. Yeah so,

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Speaker 1: and and that is just that's a capital crime in

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Speaker 1: my opinion. The types of shows championed by James Aubrey

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Speaker 1: invited a rebuke in from Federal Communications Chairman Newton Minno,

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Speaker 1: who thought the networks could do better. When television is good, nothing,

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Speaker 1: not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers, nothing is better.

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Speaker 1: But when television is bad, nothing is worth. This is

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Speaker 1: what came to be known as the vast Wasteland speech.

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Speaker 1: I can assure you that what you will observe is

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Speaker 1: a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, formula,

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Speaker 1: comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, ma'am, violence,

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Speaker 1: say it is a murder Western badmans. He is arguing

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Speaker 1: that he did not feel television was living up to

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Speaker 1: its vast potential, the kind of potential that a network

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Speaker 1: like CBS had displayed often throughout the fifties, and of course,

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Speaker 1: about a year and a half after that speech, I

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Speaker 1: think after maybe a little bit of soul searching, maybe

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Speaker 1: there was they felt a little bit chastened. The Beverly

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Speaker 1: Hillbillies premieres. You know, we thought about what you said,

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Speaker 1: Newton Minno, but we really liked this Clampitt family pitch,

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Speaker 1: and oh boy, did that corn yield a prophet. This

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Speaker 1: is Beverly Hills, dared dwell, the rich, the famous, the glamorous.

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Speaker 1: In September nine, CBS premiered a new series about one

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Speaker 1: of the most exclusive enclaves in the country, home to

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Speaker 1: sportsman play boys, gilbillies, Hillbillies. Who are these people? Where

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Speaker 1: are they from? And why did they come to Beverly Hills.

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Speaker 1: The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the most popular shows

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Speaker 1: on television in the ninth seen sixties. Well as as

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Speaker 1: a wise man once saying, it's it's the story of

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Speaker 1: a man named Jed. He was a poor mountaineer. He

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Speaker 1: barely kept his family fed. But then one day he

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Speaker 1: was shooting at some food and you know what happened.

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Speaker 1: Up through the ground came bubble and crude oil that

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Speaker 1: is black Gold, Texas. T Jed, along with his daughter

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Speaker 1: Ellie May, nephew Jeff Throw and Granny decided to pack

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Speaker 1: up and moved to Beverly Hills. That is yeah, movie

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Speaker 1: stars swimming pools. The Beverly Hillbillies was the brainchild of

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Speaker 1: comedy writer Paul Henning, who would come to California by

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Speaker 1: way of Independence, Missouri, which also happened to be the

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Speaker 1: hometown of President Harry Truman. Young Paul got his start

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Speaker 1: as a soda jerk at the local drug store. And

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Speaker 1: who should come in there but Harry Truman, And he

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Speaker 1: talked with him a couple of times. That's Henning's daughter Linda,

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Speaker 1: and Harry you know, said, well, one thing you ought

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Speaker 1: to do is go to law school. He said, it'll

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Speaker 1: never hurt you to get a degree in law. Well,

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Speaker 1: thank god he didn't stick with that. Yes, the inspiration

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Speaker 1: for the Hillbillies came from Henning's summers in the Ozarks.

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Speaker 1: I think he observed people and he loved the honesty. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He always called Jed one of nature's noblemen, Jed Clampett. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he must have known somebody kind of like Jed. I

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Speaker 1: would think, Now I know that Ellie May was partially

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Speaker 1: based on me because I'm an animal nut. And can

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Speaker 1: we just say the actors who played these roles. I

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Speaker 1: mean Irene Ryan who played Granny. She was a great actress.

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Speaker 1: Oh she's wonderful. She was great. And she came in

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Speaker 1: to see Daddy to read for him, dressed kind of

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Speaker 1: as Granny, and Daddy took one look at her and thought,

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Speaker 1: here she is, you know, this is Cranny. Veteran Hollywood

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Speaker 1: actor Buddy Ebsen played Jed Quick aside. Ebsen was the

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Speaker 1: original choice to play the tin Man in The Wizard

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Speaker 1: of Oz. Well, people that asked me to what I

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Speaker 1: attribute to success of the Hill it was people humor,

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Speaker 1: genuine humor, Paul Hitting, It's a genius. Who out there

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Speaker 1: do you think he was writing the show for. I

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Speaker 1: think the people he he basically knew, which was in

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Speaker 1: between the two coasts, you know, just your basic people.

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Speaker 1: He certainly wasn't writing for the critics. Reviewers called the

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Speaker 1: series painful to sit through and the most shamelessly corny

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Speaker 1: show in years. Even the Hillbillies should take Umbridge as

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Speaker 1: a TV critic, what's your take on the Beverly Hillbillies

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Speaker 1: I don't think that's a show I would review very

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Speaker 1: positively were to debut today. Look, they made a lot

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Speaker 1: of money off of it, so some somebody was being

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Speaker 1: smart about something, even though everyone on that show is

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Speaker 1: so dumb. Turns out even some of the folks working

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Speaker 1: inside CBS at the time were flummixed. Here's the late

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Speaker 1: newsman Mike Wallace. I confess I didn't really understand what

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Speaker 1: was going on. I mean, this was, after all, the

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Speaker 1: Network of all the Stars and suddenly Beverly Hillbillies. But

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Speaker 1: Sarah Eskridge thinks, to critics then and now have it backwards.

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Speaker 1: It's very subversive because I think what you see with

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Speaker 1: this family um is that they make fools out of

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Speaker 1: the people that are around them in Beverly Hills. I

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Speaker 1: tell you, Jed, this place is full of the laziest, greasiest,

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Speaker 1: unfriendliest mess of people. I ever did lay my eyes

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Speaker 1: all okay, And there's an old tradition of this, right,

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Speaker 1: like the country folk who are in fact to have

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Speaker 1: horse sense, who are smarter than the city slickers, and

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Speaker 1: the ways that matter exactly, and so you know, they

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Speaker 1: might not be well versed in twentieth century consumer culture.

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Speaker 1: But they're well versed in family, They're well versed in

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Speaker 1: how to survive off the lands. They're well versed in

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Speaker 1: how to be a good friend and community member. The

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Speaker 1: rural comedies were beginning to reshape CBS. Meanwhile, sitting atop

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Speaker 1: the network was a man known for his fine taste

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Speaker 1: and air udition, William Paley, the legendary chairman of CBS.

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Speaker 1: I mean, sort of very sophisticated guy. What does he

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Speaker 1: think of these shows? He is less than pleased. By

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Speaker 1: the time to Beverly Hillbillies comes along, you start hearing CBS.

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Speaker 1: It's not the communist broadcast system anymore, but it's now

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Speaker 1: the country broadcast system. However, the money that they're minting

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Speaker 1: from these shows helps ease the pain a little bit. Yeah, no,

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Speaker 1: it was huge. This was you know. They aired one

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Speaker 1: of the most watched episodes of television ever, in which

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Speaker 1: Granny goes in punches kangaroo that she mistakes for a

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Speaker 1: giant jack rabbit. Yes, is she trying to cook the

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Speaker 1: jack rabbit? Why are you asking me these questions? I

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Speaker 1: don't know. Well, I'll tell you this story. That's Linda

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Speaker 1: Henning again. One day I looked out of my dressing

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Speaker 1: room window and saw Granny who I thought was Granny.

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Speaker 1: It turned out to be the stunt man dressed like Granny,

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Speaker 1: riding a kangaroo that had been saddled down the street.

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Speaker 1: So that's the kind of thing you'd sometimes run into

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Speaker 1: when you worked there. That didn't happen on the set

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Speaker 1: of All in the Family, not at all. No, no

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Speaker 1: kangaroos on that set. Linda Henning was nearby because she

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Speaker 1: was working on the set of her father's latest hit sitcom,

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Speaker 1: Petticoat Junction. Come ride a little train that is rolling

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Speaker 1: down the tracks to the Junction. I really didn't know

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Speaker 1: much about Petticoat, and quite frankly, there isn't much to know.

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Speaker 1: I'll let the show's theme song explain. There's a little

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Speaker 1: hotel call the Shady Rest at the Junction. It is

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Speaker 1: run by Kate. Come and be her guest at the junto.

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Speaker 1: The show takes place at a hotel along a spur

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Speaker 1: of a railroad that's been cut off from the main track.

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Speaker 1: Once a week, a new visitor will check in. That's

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Speaker 1: the whole show, Like, nothing really much happens. It's just

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Speaker 1: sort of lingering around the hotel. The train station, a

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Speaker 1: little bit of the town. B Benadrrett played family matriarch

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Speaker 1: and hotel owner Kate. As long as you're a guest

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Speaker 1: in my hotel, you're entitled to shady rest hospitality. But

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Speaker 1: TV fans of all ages may know her far better

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Speaker 1: for another role. What's going on, Bernie? What are you

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Speaker 1: up to? B Benadrrett was Betty Rubble. I loved Betty

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Speaker 1: Rubble flint Stones she was. She was wonderful, kind of

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Speaker 1: my mentor. The widowed Kate had three daughters whose names

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Speaker 1: were forever confused, Billy Joe, Betty Joe, and Bobby Joe.

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Speaker 1: And I was Betty Joe the youngest. I'll admit I'm

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Speaker 1: not doing so well in my mind or subjects, but

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Speaker 1: I'm leading my class in basketball, gymnastics, and ice hockey.

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Speaker 1: Probably the most memorable image from the show was from

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Speaker 1: the opening credits, with all three teenage girls peering out

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Speaker 1: from the inside of a water tower with their petticoats

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Speaker 1: hanging over the side. Lynn Double was the Redhead. I

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Speaker 1: would get fan letters from girls who'ld say, when I

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Speaker 1: come home from school, uh, we play petticoat junction and

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Speaker 1: I'm you now along that Railroad was the fictional Hooterville,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to the continuing country comedy craze, the Paul

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Speaker 1: Henning universe expanded a third and final time in n

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Speaker 1: with Green Acres. How do you feel about New York City,

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Speaker 1: Mr Douglas, I hate it. Mrs Douglas disagrees. I certain

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Speaker 1: Green Acres was the reverse Beverly Hillbillies. A city slicker

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Speaker 1: lawyer played by Eddie Albert convinces his socialite wife played

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Speaker 1: by Ava Gabore to move to the country. My wife,

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Speaker 1: good fine acres. We are exactly that's a great theme song.

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Speaker 1: So they moved. They moved to Hooterville. They start running

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Speaker 1: a farm instead of him being a big city lawyer. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then weirdly she fits in much better than he does.

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Speaker 1: Even though it was his idea. The show was edge.

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Speaker 1: You're more imaginative than the Beverly Hillbillies or Petticoat Junction

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Speaker 1: that you know. There's a pig with a full name,

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Speaker 1: Arnold zipfle Um. Square eggs. Yeah, there's an episode where

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Speaker 1: the hen starts laying square eggs. Things were very strange

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Speaker 1: and surreal and just much more creative than they tended

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Speaker 1: to get on the other two shows. And by the way,

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Speaker 1: we need to do a better job educating our children.

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Speaker 1: I mean, too many young people who think that Jaja

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Speaker 1: go Boar was the star. Ja Ja Gabor came to

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Speaker 1: Gilligan's Island on a speedboat and didn't rescue them for

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Speaker 1: reasons passing understanding. Is that true? Yes, but a vagabar

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Speaker 1: was Lisa on Green Acres. You know they had another sister, Magda.

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Speaker 1: I did not. Yeah, she didn't really do much. She

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Speaker 1: was a socialite. Zeppo said, there you go, exactly. She

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Speaker 1: was a zeppo, which is better than being there is

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Speaker 1: still yet another one, gummo, gummo. Okay, okay early, So

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Speaker 1: at least she was a Zeppo. Since the worlds of

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Speaker 1: Paul Hennings shows all overlapped, there were plenty of opportunities

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Speaker 1: for crossover episodes. His daughter Linda remembers, and when I

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Speaker 1: did the Hillbillies, Granny and and Jed and everybody came

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Speaker 1: out to Hooterville to the Shady Rest Hotel, and Granny

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Speaker 1: mistook the dog who had jumped in the baby carriage

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Speaker 1: for my child for a lot of animal confusion with Danny.

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Speaker 1: One thing all the rural comedies had in common, they

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Speaker 1: seem to exist in a parallel universe. You know, when

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Speaker 1: I watched these shows, and I didn't watch petticoat Junction,

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Speaker 1: but when I watched certainly Green Acres and UM and

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Speaker 1: Andrew Griffith Show and Beverly Hillbillies, you know, I would

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Speaker 1: look for clues about what was going on in the

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Speaker 1: world at that time, and if they were there, boy,

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Speaker 1: they're hard to find. Now. Those those shows are entirely

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Speaker 1: designed to get like create a big impenetrable wall between

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Speaker 1: the world outside your window and the one being projected

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Speaker 1: on your TV s hermetically sealed, so it's very escapist.

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Speaker 1: All of these horrible things that are happening in the country,

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Speaker 1: um that are that seemed to be tearing the entry apart.

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Speaker 1: None of that's happening in rural comedy. No special episodes

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Speaker 1: acknowledging the assassinations of JFK, m l K or RFK.

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Speaker 1: No references to violence in the South linked to the

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Speaker 1: Civil rights movement. The Andy Griffith Show, that's supposed to

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Speaker 1: be Mount Airy, which is a stone's throw from Greensboro

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Speaker 1: where the first sit in took place in and that

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Speaker 1: took place within just a couple of months of the

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Speaker 1: show airing. And I gotta tell you, when you think

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Speaker 1: of Sheriff Andy, I mean, if you say to me

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Speaker 1: law enforcement officer the South nineteen sixties, I think Bull

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Speaker 1: Connor right in Alabama, in African Americans being attacked with

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Speaker 1: water hoses, exactly, and and he's completely the exact opposite.

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Speaker 1: And I think that it's presenting a kinder, gentler self

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Speaker 1: and what's being shown on the news. And pretty much

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Speaker 1: all the characters on these shows are white. Absolutely with

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Speaker 1: the rural comedies, you will have black guest stars. You

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Speaker 1: will have um, maybe a storyline that revolves around one

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Speaker 1: black character, which happened in the Andy Griffith Show, but

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Speaker 1: I think total that Um, it's a story where Obie's

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Speaker 1: football coach, Um is also playing the piano and teaches

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Speaker 1: him that it's okay to be cultured. And also, like sports,

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Speaker 1: if things are sort of planned and worked out, it's

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Speaker 1: always possible to pursue several interests at the same time.

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Speaker 1: It's the only episode out of two forty nine that

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Speaker 1: features a speaking black character. You know, Sammy Davis Jr.

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Speaker 1: Guest start on The Beverly Hillbillies in a later season

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Speaker 1: as a cop as a cop which is which is

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Speaker 1: kind of odds is an interesting choice and not just

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Speaker 1: a copy is an Irish cop. That's sorry, I didn't

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Speaker 1: have the pleasure of making the like of the Oaks.

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Speaker 1: And of course he nails the accent because he's Sammy

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Speaker 1: Davis Jr. And can do anything. Big fan here that

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Speaker 1: I think that might have been my favorite five minutes

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Speaker 1: I watched in the entire year and a half that

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Speaker 1: I was watching Rural Comedy nine were in Vietnam. Certainly

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Speaker 1: wasn't being mentioned on these shows. Remember Gomer Pyle, you know,

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Speaker 1: the character who moved from Mayberry to a marine base

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Speaker 1: in the mid nineteen sixties. You know, the fact that

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Speaker 1: he's a marine. He wouldn't He would have been in

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Speaker 1: donang Um faster than he could have stabbed his fingers

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Speaker 1: and you know, and yet somehow he never gets deployed

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Speaker 1: out if his friends gets deployed, no one gets killed.

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Speaker 1: And it doesn't get any more cut off from the

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Speaker 1: main world than Petticoat Junction. Remember, the entire premise was

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Speaker 1: built around a train that was quite literally cut off

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Speaker 1: from the main line. Yet Linda Henning defends the value

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Speaker 1: of escapism. She remembers receiving fan mail from servicemen who

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Speaker 1: were watching her show overseas. Oh, it moved me a lot,

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Speaker 1: and I was glad that there was something that talked

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Speaker 1: about escape, that there was something that they could say

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Speaker 1: that maybe would take them away from some of the

402
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Speaker 1: horror of what they were experiencing. But a new generation

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Speaker 1: of viewers wanted an escape from escapism from television. In Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: Ladies and Gentlemen beat the Smothers Brothers with the Smothers

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Speaker 1: Brothers Comedy Hour in the late nineteen sixties, CBS ventured

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Speaker 1: out of the bubble with a show that dared to

407
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Speaker 1: address current events. They were clean cuts, war suits. They

408
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 1: looked like the boys next door, but their comedy was

409
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Speaker 1: very subversive and they seemed to have their finger on

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Speaker 1: the pulse of the music scene especially, and so they

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Speaker 1: had all of these wonderful musical groups. Their comedy had

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Speaker 1: a lot of double entendres that were considered risque. They

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Speaker 1: had Pete Seeger come on to sing an anti war song.

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Speaker 1: It was a very big deal. Yes, And and that's

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Speaker 1: part of the problem is that as they become more popular,

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Speaker 1: they also start to become more political. Are you aware

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Speaker 1: of what the Smothers Brothers is replaced with I don't remember,

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Speaker 1: oh my yes, oh my god. The Smothers Brothers were

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Speaker 1: too much, too soon for CBS and the words of

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Speaker 1: the network brass. The Brothers were unwilling to accept the

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Speaker 1: criteria of taste established by CBS, and we're pulled off

422
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:19,560
Speaker 1: the air in nine nine they're replaced by this you know,

423
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: country music variety show, which could not be more philosophically

424
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: or stylistically opposite of what the Smothers were doing. It's

425
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: um I mean, it does seem like it's designed to

426
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:37,120
Speaker 1: appeal to every possible Southern stereotype. And um, I confess,

427
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,120
Speaker 1: out of all the rural comedies, that's the only one

428
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: that I actually was watched growing up. Was not on purpose.

429
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:46,360
Speaker 1: And my grandparents loved heiha. Why do you think they

430
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,399
Speaker 1: loved it? Because they liked the music. The music, And

431
00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 1: let's let's just point out Roy Clark and Buck Owens,

432
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:57,159
Speaker 1: the hosts, great musical talents. They're gonna put me in

433
00:27:57,200 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: a movie. They're gonna make a big star out of me,

434
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,600
Speaker 1: you know, a film about a man who sat alonely

435
00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:08,120
Speaker 1: but all I gotta do is at naturally. Yeah, he's

436
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,680
Speaker 1: great just incredible musicians, but they loved the music. The

437
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: jokes were corny, would be putting it mildly. What's the

438
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: difference between a hair dresser and a sculptor. Well, a

439
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 1: hairdresser curls up and dies and a sculptor makes faces

440
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 1: and buff You kind of had to watch between your

441
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,280
Speaker 1: fingers because I felt a little embarrassed for them that

442
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 1: they were doing it. But they, you know, the older folks,

443
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,199
Speaker 1: and my wife loved that show. So it was on

444
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: and he Hall was a hit, but it turned out

445
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: to be a last stand for rural comedy. With the

446
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 1: arrival of a new sheriff at CBS, he Hall was

447
00:28:46,400 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 1: about to get the old Heath ho In. Through the

448
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:07,000
Speaker 1: saloon doors comes Fred Silverman, and he detests rural comedy

449
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 1: with a passion that exceeds a thousand burning suns um.

450
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: He thinks that rural comedy is stupid. Fred Silverman would

451
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,080
Speaker 1: go on to become a network television legend known as

452
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: the Man with the Golden Gut, responsible for Roots, Mash

453
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:27,960
Speaker 1: and Scooby Doo. But back in he was the brash,

454
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: thirty three year old, brand new head of programming at CBS,

455
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 1: and he had one mission to rid the network of

456
00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 1: rural comedy. Fred Silverman called those rural comedies shit kicking.

457
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,800
Speaker 1: Is that necessarily an insult? I don't think anything that

458
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: you use the words ship to describe is probably going

459
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 1: to be considered a positive. Well, if I say you're

460
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: the ship, not you, that would be a compliment, But okay,

461
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,560
Speaker 1: sort of. I don't say that. Um. I think that

462
00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: he thinks that people who watch those shows are people

463
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: who are literally kicking ship for a living. Fred Silverman

464
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: did not really strike me as the kind of guy

465
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: who would kick back and watch petticoat Junction or some

466
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:10,440
Speaker 1: of these other shows. But it's really a matter of

467
00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 1: changing demographics. Earlier, Nielsen was largely just measuring audiences, how

468
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 1: many people are watching, how many how sets are tuned in.

469
00:30:17,920 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: At a certain point, they were able to break it

470
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: down and say, this number of people in the city

471
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 1: are watching versus this number of people in rural America.

472
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: You know, these households that are wealthy versus these households

473
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: that are blue collar. But a lot of people were

474
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 1: still watching. People still like these shows. Fred Silverman, his

475
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 1: business people were saying, look, we can't sell advertising on

476
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 1: these because the only people are watching them are the

477
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 1: hicks from the sticks, And we want to be able

478
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,720
Speaker 1: to sell ads to people in big cities with big

479
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: disposable income, because that's where advertisers want. Here's Fred Silverman

480
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: in Choots House in one. Something had to be done,

481
00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 1: and I think there was total agreement. Bob bodho is

482
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 1: president of the network, his boss, Jack Schneider and Paley

483
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:04,280
Speaker 1: said let's let's bite the boat. Silverman and his bosses

484
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 1: began with a little target practice. Petticoat Junction was the

485
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:13,000
Speaker 1: first to buy the farm. Linda Henning remembers, I still

486
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: to this day think it was kind of lousy what

487
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: they did. We never heard from the powers that be

488
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 1: at CBS. Nobody bothered to call us the Beverly Hillbillyes,

489
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: Green Acres and Hehaw were soon primed for slaughter. Were

490
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:33,960
Speaker 1: scheduled for Tuesday night. As Fred Silverman saw it, let

491
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 1: Tuesday be the receptacle for all the crap that that

492
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,520
Speaker 1: we we weren't able to cancel yet. Meanwhile, CBS began

493
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: experimenting with more urban and gritty fair The results of

494
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: those experiments were mixed. You've got an appointment with the

495
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,400
Speaker 1: interns on Friday. These weren't about unpaid employees. They were

496
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 1: young doctors, and the tagline was the interns, It's about

497
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 1: what it's all about. Wait, wait, you're using that tagline

498
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 1: for a doctor show. I guess so, I mean by

499
00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 1: Jean Paulsard, I mean, it's just it feels like a

500
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,760
Speaker 1: Seinfeld tagline or something. And then there was the Storefront Lawyers,

501
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 1: And this was an earnest attempt to sort of be

502
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,760
Speaker 1: attuned to what was going on in the world, change

503
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 1: within the establishment, young advocates practicing law in Century City

504
00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: to pay the bills in the ghetto, to pay their dues.

505
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 1: Both shows were canceled after one season, but hope was

506
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 1: not lost. That same season, a certain show about a

507
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: girl who turned the world on with her smile from

508
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 1: the Silverman realized that the Mary Tyler Moore Show was

509
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: the kind of show that could restore luster to the

510
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:51,800
Speaker 1: Tiffany Network. And I looked at Mary Tyler Mona said,

511
00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: this is such a terrific show. We got this sitting

512
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:58,560
Speaker 1: in the middle of Allas Ship Kicker shows. And then

513
00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 1: halfway through the nineteen seventies seventy one season, CBS took

514
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 1: a chance on producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin and

515
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 1: their new comedy All in the Family, This country coming

516
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: to anyhow? What what else we get out of Vietnam

517
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:22,720
Speaker 1: or something? Don't be a wise guy, smart, controversial, thrilling

518
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: television that made people laugh and think, and for Archie

519
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 1: Bunker to live, Jed Clampett would have to die. Fred

520
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 1: Silverman explained, I work from Amber Dame of Bob Wood,

521
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,160
Speaker 1: who was president of the network, and uh he and

522
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: I literally whacked the hell out of that schedule and

523
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: cancel about a dozen and a half shows. The casualty

524
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 1: list eventually included all the rural comedies, the largest slaughter

525
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 1: in sitcom history. TV legend ed Sullivan was collateral damage

526
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:59,040
Speaker 1: due to his older skewing audience. Silverman's like wielding a

527
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: machete through this cornfield, gleefully, gleefully. So. One actor may

528
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: have put it best when he lamented CBS canceled everything

529
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 1: with a tree in it, anything in the country, anything

530
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 1: that was not in a city with breaking concrete. Bye bye. Yeah.

531
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 1: I would not have wanted to be a CBS switchboard

532
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 1: operator in the death of these programs wasn't only a

533
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:23,440
Speaker 1: gut punch for fans, it was personal for creators like

534
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:27,360
Speaker 1: Paul Henning. I think he took it very personally, because

535
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 1: I mean he had poured all of his blooded, sweat

536
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: and tears into these shows, well, certainly into Beverly Hillbillies,

537
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 1: and he was quite an introvert anyway, and he he

538
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,560
Speaker 1: kind of withdrew after that. Now it's tempting to paint

539
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,920
Speaker 1: Fred Silverman as the villain in this story, but we

540
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,720
Speaker 1: actually owe him a debt of gratitude. During Silverman's tenure

541
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: at CBS, the Norman Lear Universe expanded to include Maud

542
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 1: and One Day at a Time and Good Times, and

543
00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:01,920
Speaker 1: the Jefferson's Became Two was the first CBS sitcom's featuring

544
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:06,400
Speaker 1: largely African American casts since the days of Amos and Andy.

545
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:11,800
Speaker 1: He basically created this new, sophisticated Golden Age of sitcom's,

546
00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:14,880
Speaker 1: arguably the best era for sitcom's in the medium's history.

547
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,600
Speaker 1: Did Fred Silverman have to be ruthless? I think he

548
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,240
Speaker 1: did um because I think if you look at CBS

549
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 1: from like, you know, seventy two to seventies six or so,

550
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,399
Speaker 1: when they had you know, all in the family, Mary

551
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 1: Tyler Moore, the Bob Newhart Show, Mash Carol Burnett. They

552
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:32,800
Speaker 1: were airing those five shows on one night for a season.

553
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:36,280
Speaker 1: That's probably the best night of programming in the history

554
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: of network television. That's amazing. It is amazing, and I

555
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:41,399
Speaker 1: don't know that that would have been post like could

556
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,680
Speaker 1: you imagine a network airing All in the Family and

557
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:51,320
Speaker 1: Pettico Junction. Do you think that Southern audiences felt abandoned

558
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:56,759
Speaker 1: when CBS acts all those shows. I think so because

559
00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 1: if you think about Southern re presentation since then, you

560
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 1: see pockets, but it's nowhere near as prevalent as it

561
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: was during the sixties. Even if these were caricatures in

562
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: many ways. Yeah, but at the same time, they're still

563
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,840
Speaker 1: they have hearts there, they have substance, and they have

564
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:17,200
Speaker 1: a soul. I, like many of you listening, discovered the

565
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:21,120
Speaker 1: rural comedies and reruns usually after I got home from school.

566
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:24,720
Speaker 1: They were corny and funny, but I had no idea

567
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,239
Speaker 1: of their former glory. How many tens of millions used

568
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 1: to watch them in prime time and how many were

569
00:36:31,320 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: still watching them when they were canceled. I can understand

570
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: why many people in the middle of the country might

571
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 1: have felt aggrieved that Network executives on the coasts thought

572
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:46,560
Speaker 1: they weren't the right market or desirable demographic. The rural

573
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 1: Purge happened almost fifty years ago, and yet there's something

574
00:36:51,160 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: very contemporary about the story. Awesome. As for he Hawk,

575
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,480
Speaker 1: remember Roy Clark singing about the rural Purge at the

576
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:13,280
Speaker 1: beginning of the episode, Well he had the last laugh.

577
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 1: When the show was resurrected in first run syndication. The

578
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:36,920
Speaker 1: show lived for another twenty five years. We'd like to

579
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:41,280
Speaker 1: conclude this mobituary with an in memorium for the victims

580
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:50,960
Speaker 1: of the Rural Purge. Green Acres, Petty co Chunction, The

581
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:58,280
Speaker 1: Beverly Hillbillies, The Red Skelton Show, The Ed Sullivan Show,

582
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: Family Affair, Hehaw, Hogan's Heroes, The Jackie Gleason Show, The

583
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 1: Jim Neighbor's Hour, Mayberry r f D, The New Andy

584
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:36,840
Speaker 1: Griffith Show, and Lassie. Next Time on Mobituaries, The story

585
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,840
Speaker 1: of how Aies Pop Song. It is a song with

586
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:45,040
Speaker 1: velocity right, so big and bold and brash. Product two

587
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen Sports Team Back to Life. I will go

588
00:38:49,160 --> 00:39:00,120
Speaker 1: to my grave singing or champ Yes, I will. I

589
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,640
Speaker 1: certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary. May I ask you

590
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,680
Speaker 1: to please rate and review our podcast. You can also

591
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:10,640
Speaker 1: follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow

592
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:14,760
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at Morocca. You can subscribe to Mobituaries

593
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:18,960
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of Mobituaries was

594
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 1: produced by Megan Marcus. Our team of producers also includes

595
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:27,680
Speaker 1: Harry Wood and me Morocca. It was edited by Meg

596
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,880
Speaker 1: Dalton and Nathan Miller and engineered by Nathan Miller. Additional

597
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: editing by Sam Egan. Indispensable support from Genia Staneski, Lucy Kirk,

598
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: Richard Rohrer, and everyone at CBS News Radio. Special thanks

599
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,359
Speaker 1: to David Bushman at the Paley Center for Media. Our

600
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:48,640
Speaker 1: theme music is written by Daniel Hart and, as always,

601
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:53,040
Speaker 1: undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John Carp without whom

602
00:39:53,280 --> 00:40:05,600
Speaker 1: Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries

603
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:09,440
Speaker 1: the podcast, May I invite you to check out Mobituaries

604
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:13,759
Speaker 1: the book. It's chock full of stories not in the podcast.

605
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,640
Speaker 1: Celebrities who put their butts on the line, sports teams

606
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:22,320
Speaker 1: that threw in the towel for good, forgotten fashions, defunct diagnoses,

607
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 1: presidential candidacies that cratered whole countries that went to put

608
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 1: and dragons, Yes, dragons, you see. People used to believe

609
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 1: the dragons will real until just get the book. You

610
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:37,719
Speaker 1: can order Mobituaries the book from any online bookseller, or

611
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 1: stop by your local bookstore and look for me when

612
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 1: I come to your city. Tour information and lots more

613
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Speaker 1: at mobituaries dot com