Green Acres: Dancing With the Stars probably isn't pulling the numbers this sitcom classic was pulling when it got dumped in 1971, along with Hee Haw, The Beverly Hillbillies and the even-higher-rated Andy Griffith Show spinoff, Mayberry R.F.D. For once, audience size didn't matter. CBS was just done—done with cows, trees, and mail boxes that sit on posts by the side of dirt roads. It wanted more big-city shows like the one it had introduced the previous fall: a little something called The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

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And it's odd:Just one season later,1972-1973 CBS premiered the rural family drama classic "The Waltons",which at the time surprised everyone by getting good ratings and lasting 9(!)years,so rural shows were NOT dead.

The first season especially of The Waltons was extremely well-written and had high production values, along with a great cast. It's not really a surprise that it did well in the ratings from today's standpoint, though as you suggest that may be at odds with the expectations of the times. However, the country was experiencing a nostalgia wave of sorts around 1972, so I think a show about the '30s was well-timed to succeed.

They didn't need to cancel the shows, but that being the end of the Civil Rights era and given the changes made to American society during that time, most of the rural shows would have had to have been extensively rewritten to accommodate the new realities.

And frankly, while the shows are classics, the writing had grown a little stale in the later seasons. It's likely that had most of them stayed on the air, the viewership would've dropped off anyway, forcing them to be canceled.

So, did their strategy work. Did all the shows they put on after cancelling the rural shows have higher ratings? It just seems strange to cancel a show with high ratings.

And don't forget that long after Fred Silverman left CBS(he was partially responsible for the demise of the "rural"-based shows on CBS),CBS,from 1979-1985 once again struck rural gold(1979-1982,it was highly-rated)with "The Dukes of Hazzard".

I just think the uppity, Harvard-graduate network executives believe "rural" shows are just so beneath them, but what they don't understand is people want brainless entertainment. Are you going to tell me that "american Idol" or "Dancing With The Stars" appeals to a "sophisticated" audience. I doubt it....

And it's odd:Just one season later,1972-1973 CBS premiered the rural family drama classic "The Waltons",which at the time surprised everyone by getting good ratings and lasting 9(!)years,so rural shows were NOT dead.

I don't think you can compare rural dramas of the 70's (Waltons, Little House On The Prairie) to rural sitcoms of the 60's. They are different types of shows, both are products of their times. As the 70's came along, the landscape of TV was changing and the days of rural sitcoms were numbered, although I think they could have hung on for one more season 1971-72 instead of getting the ax after the 70-71 season.

If there hadn't been a rural purge, I think 'The Beverly Hillbillies' would have been cancelled anyway because it was becoming unwatchable. 'Green Acres' and 'Mayberry RFD' could have ran for another year or two. 'Family Affair', although it wasn't a rural show, was cancelled at the same time, but should have ran a lot longer. They should have taken 'My Three Sons' off instead and found a new time slot for 'Family Affair'.

I'm not sure why Family Affair got cancelled, but as with the rural sitcoms I think Family Affair could have lasted one more season 1971-72 and then end it there.

Speaking of Family Affair, how about Brian Keith's other series The Brian Keith Show aka The Little People? I have not seen this series since it originally aired, it's been almost 40 years I barely remember it now. 2 seasons and 48 episodes, I wonder if this series will ever be seen again, either as repeats on TV or DVD release.

The only show that I really watch out of the ones that were cancelled at that time is Green Acres. I have watched Beverly Hillbillies, but I could only handle the episodes from the early seasons, it was good up until I think about the third season and then the fourth was talorable so I definitely agree that Beverly Hillbillies was cancelled at the right time. As for Green Acres, I could see that it was starting to go down hill. The characters were extremely exaggerated to the point where is was starting to get ridiculous and so were the story lines. I still enjoyed the show up until the last two episodes, but I think that it was a good time to end the show.

Its kind of funny to think though, my second favorite show might be responsible for the ending of my favorite show.

I'm not sure why Family Affair got cancelled, but as with the rural sitcoms I think Family Affair could have lasted one more season 1971-72 and then end it there.

Speaking of Family Affair, how about Brian Keith's other series The Brian Keith Show aka The Little People? I have not seen this series since it originally aired, it's been almost 40 years I barely remember it now. 2 seasons and 48 episodes, I wonder if this series will ever be seen again, either as repeats on TV or DVD release.

I remember this show, too, and have often wondered the same thing.

No they didn't need to be canceled the idiot Network Brass were idiots for doing so, the numbers reflected their popularity with the viewers. They didn't care what the viewers wanted or liked.

The only thing I remember about The Brian Keith show aka The Little People was the theme song it was catchy.

...but CBS management had a mandate to eliminate virtually all "rural-based" shows between 1969 and '71 [save for "THE GLEN CAMPBELL GOODTIME HOUR" and "MY THREE SONS", which they finally eliminated from their schedule in 1972]. They wanted to reach a younger and more "urban" audience (the better to attract advertisers who wanted to focus on that clientele)...and the way they decided to do this was to gradually decrease the number of shows with "rural" appeal. Most of those kind of shows were still "Top Ten" hits, but the majority of those viewers watching were "too old"; therefore, not attractive enough to advertisers. So the network cancelled "PETTICOAT JUNCTION", "THE RED SKELTON HOUR" and "THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW" in the spring of 1970. The following season was the last for "MAYBERRY R.F.D.", "HEE HAW" {they continued to flourish in syndication}, "THE JIM NABORS HOUR" [his variety show], "THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES", "TO ROME WITH LOVE", "FAMILY AFFAIR", "THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW" (after 23 years!!!), "HOGAN'S HEROES"...AND "GREEN ACRES".

Jay Sommers knew the end was coming for "GREEN ACRES"; that's why he produced two pilots that he "slipped" into the show's format at the end of the 1970-'71 season {"The Blonde" ["CAROL"], starring Elaine Joyce, and ""Hawaiian Honeymoon" ["PAM"], starring Don Porter and Pamela Franklin}, in the hopes that CBS would pick up one of those "urban-based" ideas as a weekly series. They didn't. He tried again, two years later, with "DADDY'S GIRL", starring Eddie Albert and Dawn Lyn. Again, no sale. It was the end of an era....

:tv:

According to "The Complete Director to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 - present (2007)" for the 1970-71 TV season, Green Acres was not even listed in the Top 30 shows. (and not for the 1969 - 70 TV season either) The show had dropped considerably in the ratings, so it was likely justified to be cancelled.

I'm not certain The Beverly Hillbillies justified being cancelled in 1971. The show likely could have ran another season, at least ratings wise, even though it was not in the Top 30 for 1970-71 either. Cast members of TBH expected to be renewed for a tenth season, supposedly. For 1969 - 1970, it was No. 18. Not sure how much it dropped to for the 1970-71 season.

Petticoat Junction had not ranked in the Top 30 since 1967, so a 1970 cancellation for it was no surprise either.

According to "The Complete Director to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 - present (2007)" for the 1970-71 TV season, Green Acres was not even listed in the Top 30 shows. (and not for the 1969 - 70 TV season either) The show had dropped considerably in the ratings, so it was likely justified to be cancelled.

I'm not certain The Beverly Hillbillies justified being cancelled in 1971. The show likely could have ran another season, at least ratings wise, even though it was not in the Top 30 for 1970-71 either. Cast members of TBH expected to be renewed for a tenth season, supposedly. For 1969 - 1970, it was No. 18. Not sure how much it dropped to for the 1970-71 season.

Petticoat Junction had not ranked in the Top 30 since 1967, so a 1970 cancellation for it was no surprise either.
It was time to retire some of these shows. The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction were all shows that were hilarious in their early seasons, but the writing suffered in the later ones. It's surprising given the fact that these shows had a small writing staff to turn out the scripts as opposed to some series which used a lot of freelance writers.

I like all 3 of these shows, from what I remember reading about Bev. Hillbillies it was still doing good in the ratings when it was cancelled when All In the Family and these crudeer and harsher progams came about. I remember watching Bev. Hillbillies till the very end as a kid. But I will agree that as the years went by they each became less funny. Pet. Junction was still interesting to watch though more as an ongoing dramedy than a full blown comedy. Bev. Hillbillies seemed to do more and more "stunts" (going to London etc.) to keep fresh and though they were different, I still preferred them when they stayed home. Green Acres seemed to get more and more bizarre as the years went by, this one never became a drama. But I liked all of them and have seen them all all the way thru. My favorite, if I had to make a choice, is Pet. Junction. But the other 2 are excellent too.

I think what hurt CBS was the fact that so many of these shows were cancelled at once instead of phased out. "Hee Haw" and "Mayberry R.F.D." still had high ratings in fact. This most certainly wasn't unnoticed at the time; it was a public relations fiasco that still gets brought up to this very day. Count "Lassie" in that group of shows too. It survived another two years in syndication. "Hogan's Heroes," also gone in that wave.

I can understand their decision, as they had "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "All in the Family" at the time, and I certainly would've wanted to go in that direction too. They should have, in fact. But cancelling so much else at once got the network a lot of bad press.

I remember seeing an interview with Ken Berry, who had to move out of a house he'd just bought due to the cancellation of "Mayberry R.F.D." This despite the show being 15th in the ratings for that season.

CBS even appeared to be trying to make up for some of their late 1960s/early 1970s decisions in their live 75th anniversary special in 2002, giving the rural shows of the 1960s their own segment that apparently ate up the time supposed to be used by another segment devoted to reality programming. (They also allowed the Smothers Brothers to openly mock the network's decision to cancel them in 1969.)

"Green Acres" might have lasted another year, "Mayberry" another two years, "Hee Haw" forever. The beleaguered "Petticoat Junction" actually saw its ratings go up a bit during its final season. The quality of the sitcoms had for sure decreased but they still got the numbers. Note the shows that came along later because of these decisions ("The Jeffersons," "Alice," "One Day at a Time") seemed to go on forever, despite ratings losses.

I honestly think the network caught so much flack about their decision to "cancel everything with a tree in it" that part of the reason "The Waltons" got on the air was CBS needed a rural hit for damage control purposes.

For what it's worth, "Mayberry R.F.D." was replaced by "Arnie," a show about an intellectual that bombed after one season.

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For what it's worth, "Mayberry R.F.D." was replaced by "Arnie," a show about an intellectual that bombed after one season.

Arnie was not really an intellectual. He was a blue-collar worker who was promoted to management, so he traded in his hardhat for a business suit, so to say.

Actually Arnie lasted two seasons, running 1970-72 on CBS, so it ran on CBS concurrently with Mayberry RFD in its first season. For its second season, CBS premiered it fall 1971 in a strange timeslot for sitcoms, 10:30 PM ET, following My Three Sons, in its twelfth and final season, at 10:00 PM ET. Both shows were moved to other nights before the end of the season.

Another reason for the mass cancellations at CBS (and the other networks as well) was the FCC Prime-Time Access Rule, which went into effect fall 1971 and was meant to encourage more local programming. This rule limited each network to 3 hours primetime programming each night, so each network lost a half-hour of programming from every night of the week. Network primetime used to begin at 7:30 PM ET all nights except for Sunday night (7:00 PM ET start then). After this change, by fall 1972 networks were all beginning their primetime programming a half-hour later than they had prior to fall 1971.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Time_Access_Rule