The Rural Purge of 1969-1972

[treky]

Originally Posted by Coffeecup

I remember that 7:30 starting tv time. If I recall the Wonderful of Disney was on Sunday? and it started at 7. I think it was nice that the youngsters including me at the time could see a show and be in bed by 8 or 9.

yes, it was on Sundays on NBC.

[Schmo]

Let’s remember that advertisers also played a role in the “purge”. They wanted shows that appealed to younger audiences with more disposable income.

[Steve_uk]

Originally Posted by Schmo

Let’s remember that advertisers also played a role in the “purge”. They wanted shows that appealed to younger audiences with more disposable income.

..yes with less intellect and attention span.

[Docteur Ralph]

I was born in 1960 and lived in a cornfield in Indiana and I can say I hated the rural purge. Suddenly when I was 10 years old there were no more shows that weren't set in big cities. Red Skelton was probably my favorite show at the time, but I watched Hee Haw, Green Acres, and Hogan's Heroes religiously. I really couldn't relate to Archie Bunker or Mary Tyler Moore or all these new shows and wanted my westerns and old familiar fare back. I have read that the networks only put The Waltons on to placate people who were upset about the rural purge and intentionally set it in a time slot that was guaranteed to fail and were upset when it prospered. Hollywood is the devil and has done everything it can to destroy old fashioned families with high moral standards and Christian beliefs. They're doing a fine job...

[James28]

Originally Posted by Dr. Thong

How can the executives be "lazy?"

if the shows in question are still delivering ratings and profits, then of course they'll keep them on. Quality or watchability have nothing to do with it. The executives care about $$$ and demographics.

My retort to this: If such a show keeps getting renewed despite its declining quality or non-watchability, and having already ran its course, then younger shows on the network will suffer and be held back.

For example, I think the runs of Taxi and Too Close for Comfort were pretty much ruined because of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. And the shows that Ledhed mentoned could be a reason why the early 1980s were a terrible time for sitcoms. HD, L&S, and The Jeffersons kept getting renewed because there was nothing fresh or good until Cheers debuted.

And I suppose that after Gunsmoke got back to the Top-10 of the ratings after it was saved from cancellation, that one must have held back younger shows, also. LOL

[jimpickens]

The funny thing about that is many of these rural shows were not only still popular but did respectfully in the rating sure some shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and petticoat junction were getting long in the tooth although I don't see TBH lasting long without granny but as proven in its syndication run shows like Hee Haw were very popular too the end.

[IllinoisTVFan]

Originally Posted by Schmo

Let’s remember that advertisers also played a role in the “purge”. They wanted shows that appealed to younger audiences with more disposable income.

It's still this way. As someone with experience in this, part of the reason is advertisers believe (wrongly I might add) that younger audiences are more likely to try a new product than older people. It's not so cut and dry actually. My major issue with advertisers is how they often stereotype when attracting a specific group. For example years ago I worked at a marketing research firm and we were doing testing on a sports drink.It was men of all age and women until 25. I asked why and they said nonsense such as women after 25 don't workout. Not true of course, especially since I was 27 at the time and worked out everyday for hours. Advertisers need to realize not everyone is the same but until they do this will be a problem. I mean there were shows cancelled even though they were huge hits because 18-49 didn't watch them (and that's the only group they care about sadly).

[Schmo]

In one sense, the RP marked a return of TV to its earliest years, when sitcoms had urban settings and a voluble style of humor.

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by jimpickens

They need to a reverse purge today to thin out all the urban and suburban shows that are stinking up the airwaves.

i wish they would do one for all of those aging crime dramas that have been on cbs forever some of them are goood shows but are long past ther sell by dates

[treky]

Originally Posted by 70s show watcher

i wish they would do one for all of those aging crime dramas that have been on cbs forever some of them are goood shows but are long past ther sell by dates

[jimpickens]

They need to complete purge of stuff like American Idol, The Voice and Dancing With The Stars as well as **** like Survivor bring back the westerns.

[Dr. Thong]

Originally Posted by James28

My retort to this: If such a show keeps getting renewed despite its declining quality or non-watchability, and having already ran its course, then younger shows on the network will suffer and be held back.

For example, I think the runs of Taxi and Too Close for Comfort were pretty much ruined because of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. And the shows that Ledhed mentoned could be a reason why the early 1980s were a terrible time for sitcoms. HD, L&S, and The Jeffersons kept getting renewed because there was nothing fresh or good until Cheers debuted.

And I suppose that after Gunsmoke got back to the Top-10 of the ratings after it was saved from cancellation, that one must have held back younger shows, also. LOL

OK, I'll concede the point on Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, which coincidentally began their decline during the same season, 1980-81. HD lost Ron Howard and Donny Most and L&S moved to California.

And also during that time -- early 80s -- the sitcom was in decline. Even Cheers wasn't a hit its first season. It was The Cosby Show that revived the sitcom and made it viable again. You have to put Bill Cosby's real-life transgressions aside, because nobody knew about it then.

[James28]

Originally Posted by 70s show watcher

i wish they would do one for all of those aging crime dramas that have been on cbs forever some of them are goood shows but are long past ther sell by dates

Hey, I first suggested something like this five years ago (when the original CSI was airing its last season).

This year (2020), it's Criminal Minds that's ending. I don't know about NCIS, or how long it will continue to be CBS's top drama, especially with The Big Bang Theory gone (which is the reason why I stopped watching CBS last year). I could see Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, and NCIS: Los Angeles ending in the early 2020s (I am worried about their future renewals because they're just going to end up cancelled without a proper sendoff later).

It'd be boring if every procedural were literally the same (i.e. not unique).

[Schmo]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

I think this is right. You had ethnic shows like Amos and Andy, the Goldberg's, Life with Luigi, and then no show was ever "grittier" than The Honeymooners. Between protests and advertisers who wanted squeaky clean programming, most of that stuff got pushed out for small town/suburban shows where Dad was some sort of professional.

In the early years of TV, most shows were produced in NYC and most of the audience was in the urban northeast. By the late 1950s, most Americans owned a television, production had shifted to Hollywood, and a more “white bread” sitcom style developed.

[Yong Fang]

I think the whole "Rural Purge" thing was unfair to CBS. A lot of these shows were showing their age. Of the shows below.....


The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS, 1962–1971)
Green Acres (CBS, 1965–1971)
Mayberry R.F.D. (CBS, 1968–1971)
Hee-Haw (CBS, 1969–1971)
Jim Nabors (CBS 1969-1971)

The first three were about at the end of their rope anyway. Especially The Beverly Hillbillies. Show wasnt good at the end. Mayberry RFD to me was a contination of the less stellar Andy Griffith Show without Andy Griffith. I have read that Jim Nabors was actually getting tired of television and wanted to hit the road with his musical act as a headliner and do other stuff.

Hee Haw worked much better as a syndication series anyway and I am sure made the producers of the show a lot more money.

So I dont think it was so much CBS just saying "We need to kill all these country shows", more that these shows were at their end and were going to be cancelled anyway. As mentioned before, Gunsmoke survived because Paley's wife loved the series and it was an excellent series. Gunsmoke was pretty amazing in that it began when I Love Lucy was on and ended when MASH was on the same network.


To me now, a lot of 1960's TV shows were for lack of a better term, hokey. Unsophisticated and dumb. There were exceptions like The Dick Van Dyke Show which very could have been shown in color a decade later. Andy Griffith Show, even seen as a "country or rural show" was very well written and done, well arguably the black and white episodes of the first five seasons. Leave it to Beaver was another show of the early 1960's that while very dated, pretty much showed suburban life of sixty years ago.

But a lot of the shows were gimmicky, Like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, Addams Family, The Munsters. Sort of a flight of reality and I think by the end of the 1960's into the early 1970's it wasnt so much getting rid of the "country shows", is that people wanted shows with more realism. I think that in the 1950's and 1960's the networks really shied away from realism, and then slowly saw that people dont mind seeing married people in one bed, social problems being discussed, once taboo issues being discussed. All In the Family kicked that door down in 1971-1972. Thus beginning of the 1970's Golden Age of mostly realistic comedies and dramas.