The Dark Side Of America’s Redneck Reality TV Obsession

[TMC]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthi...t-way-too-real

America has long been comfortable laughing at hillbillies. The hugely popular Ma and Pa Kettle films of the late ’40s and ’50s were spun out from a 1946 film adaptation of a rural slice-of-life novel called The Egg and I. In their first movie, the Kettles and their 15 children move to a modern home and struggle to learn how to live with all the expensive gadgets Pa Kettle wins in a tobacco slogan-writing contest.

There ended up being 10 Kettle films in total, and at the height of their popularity, Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride — the actors who played the titular Ma and Pa Kettle — were the biggest stars in the country.

The Beverly Hillbillies were no different. Paul Henning created the show for CBS in 1962, based on his experiences living in the Ozarks. The show was panned by critics, but became one of the most popular TV shows ever made. Henning went on to make two spin-offs for CBS, Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.

CBS then doubled down on hillbilly/rural America-based programming so heavily — including the shows Hee-Haw, The Jackie Gleason Show, Mayberry R.F.D. — that by the late ’60s, the network had earned the nickname “The Country Broadcasting Network.” The oversaturation led to backlash, and CBS began its “rural purge,” canceling 15 shows between 1970-1971. Not even Lassie was spared.

But the famous pop culture hillbillies of 20th century were actors reading from scripts. Their versions of poverty and ignorance ended when the episode was over. It was safe. Today, the real Pa Kettles and Jed Clampetts of the world are speaking directly to people like them. But when you take real Americans who’ve been living under the poverty line and pull them into the pop culture spotlight, the dark reality of what it means to be poor in America comes with them.

[tlc38tlc38]

I don't consider "The Beverly Hillbillies" to be rednecks. To me, a hillbilly is someone who doesn't know any better. A redneck is someone who does know better but chooses not to improve themselves.

[Yong Fang]

No, Jackie Gleason is from Texas. He was the one chasing The Bandit! Buford T. was definitely a redneck!

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

No, Jackie Gleason is from Texas. He was the one chasing The Bandit! Buford T. was definitely a redneck!

No. Jackie Gleason is definitely from Brooklyn!!! His character Buford T Justice was a Southerner , but Jackie Gleason is a Brooklyn boy for sure.

He was a good actor, a New Yorker to be able to play a rural redneck so well! He was hilarious as Buford T. Justice.



Like Carroll O'Connor, how he went from playing a guy from Queens with a total New York accent to playing a sheriff in a small town in Mississippi doing a very good southern accent in The Heat of the night !