What is the Rural Purge?
“‘Pears to me there’s more than one fox with feathers on his mouth.” – Jed Clampett
RURAL PURGE: The Day Hollywood Killed the Great Conservative Comedies & Westerns
“Comedy is the only hope for Humanity!” Roseanne Barr
Was it only just May of 2017 when Roseanne returned? At the time some commentators asserted that this was “Something new — Conservative Comedy!” Others slammed back “No such thing as conservative comedy, dummy!” Both sides were wrong.
There was a time when Conservative Comedy ruled the airwaves and we laughed, we really did. More important, we — young Boomers and our elders — loved it! You too, I bet, or you wouldn’t be reading this.
Conservative Comedy?
Yup. When you come down to it, EVERY human endeavour has its conservative and its liberal sides. Even the Arts. Some folks start out liberal and mature into conservative. For everything there is a season.
The comedy-astute Steve Allen pointed this out in his 1981 book FUNNY PEOPLE: “Humor has swung to the left… The great majority of American entertainers are at the very least affiliated with the Democrats. Their social sympathies incline to the left…”
“American Conservatives,” Steve went on to explain, “love the amiable, traditional sort of folk humor they derive from such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Gomer Pyle, Mayberry…”
Conservative humour has always been about character, story and golden days of yesteryear. Jokes downright corny — we love country corn! Flaky characters. Story-lines more about family and friendship, loyalty and allegiance, sentiment and memory. Downhome music. Homecomings. Old friends gathered on a Mayberry evening porch…
Before the Rural Purge: The Two Wings of Comedy
For years, Liberal comedy found its strength and power in Stand-up. Youthful rebellion. Change and discovery. Righteous political comment and revolution. Sexuality and shock words. Seven words you can never say on TV. It was a young Stand-up Roseanne Barr who jolted folks with lines like, “Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself!”
And the two wings of comedy thrived in their own venues.
Conservative, in Hollywood productions, especially television, and in popular genre fiction such as Romances and Westerns.
Liberal, in live performance, both Stand-up & Improv, as well as LP records. And in print, mostly new slick magazines from Playboy to National Lampoon.
A perfect balance of power. And then in March, 1971 that balance was destroyed by the Rural Purge. All three U.S. networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, were involved.
Almost overnight, most of the old Hollywood guard had been replaced by younger ambitious men. In both the motion picture studios and at the TV networks. The Old Guard had tried to satisfy the pressure from emulous outside interests. They first killed Gilligan’s Island. And then Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and I Dream Of Jeanie. Followed by the Westerns Daniel Boone and Death Valley Days. As well as two Ivan Tors wildlife series: Daktari and Gentle Ben. Even though all seven still had good ratings. But it wasn’t enough. Not near enough. And now the old executives were gone.
Although they admitted in private notes to each other that “ratings indicate that the American public prefers hillbillies, cowboys, and spies,” the eager new programming executives wanted new programs. Shows and characters that reflected themselves: elite, wealthy, urban, ambitious, university-educated, progressive and sexually liberated. Especially sexually liberated. A new phrase appeared: “Pushing the envelope.”
A priority target was The Beverly Hillbillies. Partly because of its strong traditional rural values, but also because real-life Beverly Hills grandes dames intensely hated the character of Mrs Margaret Drysdale, as perfectly portrayed by Broadway stage actress Harriet MacGibbon. And made sure that their harried, high-placed, hyper-ambitious Hollywood husbands heard it: “Cancel those f#*%@ Hillbillies!”
And on that one dark day of Monday, March 1st, 1971, they slashed!
Gone was Petticoat Junction. Green Acres. Mayberry RFD (sequel to the cherished Andy Griffith Show). Hogan’s Heroes. The Doris Day Show. The Don Knotts Show. The New Andy Griffith Show. And The Beverly Hillbillies.
Along with the Conservative Sitcoms, they also cancelled the beloved “Old Hat” Variety Shows of that time: The Red Skelton Show, The Johnny Cash Show, The Jim Nabors Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Lawrence Welk Show, The Andy Williams Show. And Hee Haw.
As well as the last great Westerns: Alias Smith and Jones, Big Valley, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, High Chaparral and The Virginian. ABC cancelled its Comedy Western series Here Come The Brides.
Revamps & Second Chances.
Although Gunsmoke was given a last-minute reprieve. According to Sherwood Schwartz, creator of Gilligan’s Island, it was the network president William Paley himself who saved it. When he returned from a vacation in the Bahamas and was told of the cancellation, “Mr Paley was furious. Gunsmoke was his favorite show of all time. Not only in television, but on radio. It was also Mrs Paley’s favorite show.” Every artist’s dream: devotees in high places.[1]
The Doris Day Show was allowed to return by revising its basic premise. The show had already moved its story locale from her family ranch in Marin County to the city streets and offices of San Francisco. Now Doris Day’s character abruptly changed from a widowed mother of two sons who wanted a wholesome place to raise her family to a “swinging single career woman” who had relationships with men. Her rural family and friends, even Lord Nelson the sheepdog, callously disappeared without explanation.[2]
And Hee Haw‘s Canadian Creator/Producer team, Frank Peppiatt and John Aylesworth, came back with a brand new plan. Sidestep the big networks altogether and put their popular show immediately into first-run North American syndication. Where it found its loyal audience, thrived and continued it’s run till 1993. In 1996, The Nashville Network asked for an additional new season, making for a total of 25 seasons. Hee Haw won a Primetime Emmy and TV Land Entertainer’s Award.
But the Rural Purge had been accomplished.
As character actor Pat Buttram — known best as Mr Haney from Green Acres — said: “They canceled every show that had a tree in it — including Lassie.” Yes, our fave long-coated Rough Collie was gone too. Lassie, after 17 seasons, would be the last live-action animal drama shown on Prime Time American network TV. Ivan Tors’ wildlife anthology Jambo followed the fate of his popular Daktari and Gentle Ben. Even Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was cancelled. [3]
Notes on the Rural Purge:
Looking back at it now, the word “Purge” hardly describes what they did, does it? They took out as many shows about Love, Loyalty and sacred Family Values as they could.
Paul Henning, a gentle soft-spoken man from Missouri farm country who had created The Beverly Hillbillies, later explained in an interview: “Life can’t all be four leaf clovers. I was hoping for ten years. Ten was the magic number. Things changed. They cancelled all the rural shows. We were lumped together and pushed over the falls.”[4]
While the 1970 Monday and Tuesday Prime Time schedules had included The Red Skelton Show, Gunsmoke, Here’s Lucy, Mayberry RFD, Doris Day Show, Carol Burnett Show, Beverly Hillbillies, Hee Haw, Don Knotts Show and To Rome With Love — by autumn of 1975 the shows in those same Prime Time slots were The Invisible Man, Rhoda, Phyllis, Maude, All In The Family, Medical Center, Good Times, Joe and Sons, Switch and the expensive, heavily-hyped Beacon Hill.
The envelope-pushing had begun…
“Live Free, Mon Ami!” – Brian Alan Burhoe.
Afterwards Forever After: An Afterword
When I want a laugh and also want to bask in the radiance of perfect comedy writing, I watch The Beverly Hillbillies Pilot on YouTube. Every scene, every line, is just right, building up character and storyline for the series to come. A comic masterpiece.
And in the Second Episode (“Getting Settled”) Jed has a serious talk with Elly May. It’s funny enough in its own way, but when he says “You’re the living picture of your Ma” and she hugs him, the look on Jed’s face — he still deeply misses his beloved wife, he feels he’s been a failure at raising their daughter — is a brief moment of true sentiment that Paul Henning rarely wrote. Perhaps he should have. A great performance by Buddy Ebsen.
What We Lost
When we lost those great programs — The Beverly Hillbillies and Hogan’s Heroes — Bonanza and The Johnny Cash Show — The Red Skelton Show[5] and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour — and Lassie! — they not only took away a whole lot of brilliant entertainment, they stole some of our own reality and replaced it with theirs. Especially for those of us who are Country Folks…
…seems like all we have left nowadays is our Music!
“‘But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back.
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man in Black.”
Footnotes & Final Reflections
[1] In fact, in 1972 William Paley used his power to instate and protect a brand new Rural Show: The Waltons. But when his “involvement in the day-to-day operations of the network lessened” in the mid-70’s, William Paley was given the choice of saving only one of his pastoral favorites. He chose The Waltons.
With Amanda Blake leaving after a fight with the producer, along with health problems of Milburn Stone and James Arness (Arness’ worsening leg-pain — he was shot there by a German machine gunner at Anzio in ’44 — restricted his time on horseback), Paley allowed CBS executives to cancel Gunsmoke.
“The end of Gunsmoke came with a jolt! Of course, none of the people working on the show were informed of the cancellation. The first we heard of it was when we read of it in The Hollywood Reporter. It was a wonderful show that lasted more than any other TV series — 20 years. We filmed 635 episodes. Gunsmoke‘s characters reached into the hearts of Americans.” – James Arness, from his AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
“I’m really proud of Gunsmoke. We put on a good show every week — one that families could all watch together without offending anyone.” – Ken Curtis (Festus Haggen)
If the Rural Sitcoms were the great Conservative Comedies, then Westerns were our National Dramas, our History, our Mythology — where we came from and how we became who we are…
==>> For More, You Have Gotta See Our National Mythmakers — The Western Writers
[2] Although CBS advertised a sixth season of her revamped show for 1973/74, Doris Day announced that she wasn’t renewing her 5-year contract. Cancelling her own show. She retired from show biz and opened a pet-friendly hotel. And created the Doris Day Animal Foundation. She spent the rest of her life working for animal welfare.
“I’ve never met an animal I didn’t like, and I can’t say the same thing about people.” – Doris Day
[3] “Even Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was cancelled.” After its NBC cancellation, Wild Kingdom‘s producers followed Hee-Haw‘s example and went into first-run syndication. Although they repeated old shows, they made a number of new episodes each year up to 1988.
“Including Lassie…” We Canadians continue to love and create Animal Stories. And most of ’em have been shown on Canadian networks and non-network television in the US. A popular nature series was Lorne Greene’s New Wilderness, shown in 25 countries.
And, besides the classic Littlest Hobo, other Canadian television live-action series have been Call of the Wild, White Fang, Katts and Dog (released in the US as Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop), The Dog House and the current and popular Hudson & Rex. About a German Shepherd K9, the police procedural series Hudson & Rex is set and filmed in St John’s, Newfoundland.
After all these years, The Littlest Hobo is still on the road. And our TV screens. So if you want to join me for a while, just grab your hat, come travel light — that’s hobo style. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on…
“We were lumped together and pushed over the falls.”
[4] In his over four-hour interview with Bob Claster for the Television Academy, Paul Henning talked about meeting his future wife Ruth at a radio station. Paul wrote for such programs as The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, The Real McCoys and The Andy Griffith Show. And created his popular Rural Comedies The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction while producing Green Acres. To see the interview Click here.
[5] After all these years, Red Skelton remains my favourite funnyman. Red was the most beloved Conservative Comedian of them all. The story of Red’s expulsion from American TV is a sad one, and hurt him deeply. But he continued to play popular one-man stage shows for years. Even a Royal Performance for another lifelong fan, Queen Elizabeth.
For more about our beloved clown, you can watch this funny, heart-touching interview: Dini Petty’s Award-winning Talk with Comedy Legend Red Skelton.
“Good night and God bless.”
Further Reading:
THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES: A Fortieth Anniversary Wing Ding by Stephen Cox
THE FIRST BEVERLY HILLBILLY: The Untold Story of the Creator of Rural TV Comedy by Ruth Henning
FUNNY PEOPLE by Steve Allen
THE GUNSMOKE CHRONICLES: A New History of Television’s Greatest Western by David R Greenland
THE HOOTERVILLE HANDBOOK: A Viewer’s Guide To Green Acres by Stephen Cox
INSIDE GILLIGAN’S ISLAND: From Creation to Syndication by Sherwood Schwartz
WHAT’S ON TAPP? The Gordie Tapp Story From Country Hoedown To Hee Haw by Gordie Tapp
WHEN VARIETY WAS KING: Memoir of a TV Pioneer – Featuring Jackie Gleason, Sonny & Cher, Hee Haw and More by Frank Peppiatt
“Your Granny’s old now, boy. And she’s had a long life of service to others. And in all that time she’s only asked for one thing out of life — her own way.” Jed Clampett
RURAL PURGE: The Day Hollywood Killed the Great Conservative Comedies & Westerns
Updated Monday, July 11, 2023.
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