Green Acres
When we think of the shift in American demographics from rural to urban, we generally think of the period from 1870 to 1920 even though that has been an inexorable trend over our entire history as a nation. We have gone from being 95% rural in Colonial days to being less than 20% rural in recent history. I’m sure we are all very aware of this trend, but what we may be less aware of is all the effects this had had on our lives. Some of us have hayseed in our hair and some of us are farm-strong, but the common element that binds us all is mass media. Remember when you found out that not everyone loved Seinfeld and that it was simply too New York centric to be universal comedy for those more rural in our society? You were disappointed as a loyal Seinfeld watcher, but you sort of got it. But that isn’t where the issue began or ended.
If I asked you to name your top ten TV shows from your youth, they would probably fall into four broad categories: Rural (to include Westerns), Suburban, Urban and Other (Space, War, etc.). I asked four random people who qualify as Baby Boomers to name ten TV shows from their youth. Of the forty listed, twelve were Rural, ten were Suburban, only three were in the Urban category (I Love Lucy, Get Smart and 77 Sunset Strip), leaving fifteen in the All Other category, ranging from variety shows to Combat to Disneys Wonderful World of Color. My point is that the Rural category was strongly represented with popular and successful shows like Andy Griffith, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Wild Wild West, Big Valley, Rawhide, The Virginian, The Real McCoys, Beverly Hillbillies, Mr. Ed, Gomer Pyle and Lassie. I can honestly remember hours of pleasure watching each and every one of those shows. I can even recall the angst of having to decide whether to take my Midwestern weekly Saturday night bath during Have Gun Will Travel or Gunsmoke (a very difficult choice when you are eight years old).
If we rule out the Westerns as a romanticized version of rural America, we are left with an interesting list of shows that depicted small town rural family life that was situational in that it teed up unusual and non-formulaic family units (Andy Griffiths, Opie and Aunt Bea, Zsa-Zsa and Eddie moving from the city to the farm, The Clampetts moving from the Ozarks to Beverley Hills and the country boy who joins the Marine Corps). These generally depicted lovable, but naive simple country folk (often with classic common sense and sometimes with humorous ignorance) who got themselves into the darnedest jams. The network that drove this rural-themed trend was none other than William Paley’s inhabitant of Blackrock at 52nd and Sixth Avenue, CBS. It was so much so that it was nicknamed the Country Broadcasting System and the Hillbilly Network. It was tough for the urban elite executives who generally disclaimed their rural show lineup, but the ratings for these rural shows held up through much of the Sixties.
By the late 60’s the viewership demographics were changing along with the times and the Baby Boomers that grew up on this rural programming and fed the advertising beast, found themselves thinking that the rural content lacked relevance to their much more modern lifestyles. Advertisers still wanted the rural audiences and said that life in Mayberry was escapism from the modern ills of the world ranging from missiles in Cuba to real killing fields in Vietnam. It is noteworthy that even Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. never once mentioned the raging war in Southeast Asia even though it was set in modern times. TV programming was already in turmoil, having cancelled its lineup of panel game shows like What’s My Line, I’ve Got A Secret and To Tell The Truth in the late 60’s to make room for new formats with more urbane comedy like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
This brought about what was called the “rural purge” wherein the networks, which had generally undergone their own generational shift by turning over their executives leadership in favor of younger Baby Boomer types like Fred Silverman. This came to an interesting head during the 1967/68 TV season when CBS chose to air a sitcom called He & She, staring Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss with Jack Cassidy as a sidekick. While the show was an urban comedy considered ahead of its time and is now considered a precursor to the extremely successful Mary Tyler Moore Show (which you may recall included Jack Cassidy)and its various spin-offs, it was positioned in the line-up right after the very popular Green Acres, a cherished position that was thought to be a strong audience sourcing tool for the new show. Strangely enough, the people that loved and watched Green Acres, turned off He & She and the show closed in its initial season despite positive critical review. It turned out that the demographic that liked seeing simple country folk get the better of city slickers, did not enjoy tony urban comedy. I can see Mr. Haney laughing about that one all the way back to his truck while he counted his money.
Once the networks decided to pull the plug on its rural programming, specifically to alter their demographic image with advertisers, who were starting to demand a more and more urban, free-spending audience, Mr. Haney (Pat Butram) was quoted as saying at he time, “CBS cancelled anything that had a tree, including Lassie!” Strangely enough, the way the ball bounced in that era of change fifty years ago was that for every All in the Family that aired for the liberal urbanites, another Waltons and good old John-Boy got aired. For those who think government regulation is the source of all evil, you will not be surprised to learn that the “Prime Time Access Rule” had a hand in this whole process since the networks could syndicate otherwise popular shows to its affiliates for their independent local airing (and to the profitability of the syndicators….the very networks that gave up those 7:30pm slots). Thus, many of the purged shows went immediately into syndication and did as well or better with their viewership than they had in the network line-up. The exception was the red, red, red King of the Hill, which was naturally aired on Fox Network and was a hit for a remarkable thirteen seasons with it politically incorrect humor.
You will recall that “Green Acres is the place to be. Farm Living is the life for me. Land spreading out so far and wide, keep Manhattan just give me that countryside!” Kim and I often joke about being Eddie and Zsa-Zsa here on our little hilltop in Escondido. It ain’t Hooterville or even the thriving metropolis of Pixley, but it is the red land of the pick-up truck, where Trump remains deeply ensconced in the hearts of many of these rural folk that still yearn for a glimpse of Arnold Ziffle the pig and can’t wait for Mr. Haney to drive up in his truck with the new sign that says “Landscape Lighting” or “We Rebuild Decks” or some such topical theme that lodges in the warped mind of this blue-eyed liberal from Manhattan. Green Acres we are here!