Ordinarily, I wouldn’t spend an hour watching a TV show about Dukes of Hazzard, but things just kind of fell into place for it.
It really is interesting the relationship CBS had with ruralia. Shows in rural America were very, very successful for the network, and they always seemed unhappy about it.
It’s not too much unlike Fox’s relationship with Married With Children. Very successful show that Fox always seemed more embarrassed about than proud of.
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FWIW CBS used to and might still be known as the “Tiffany Network” because they had a reputation for being the most refined and sophisticated of the Big Three.Report
CBS had immensely successful rural comedies back in the 60s: Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, etc. (The last three were in a shared universe, with occasional cross-overs.) By the mid-seventies they had all run their course.Report
This, more or less. CBS was trying to come off its Country Broadcast System reputation. They finally managed to justify axing a lot of content they didn’t like but much of which was nonetheless popular, and along comes Dukes of Hazzard which was not only something they didn’t care for but was something they couldn’t use the line about age demographics to justify cancelling.Report
A few years ago, my office decided to bring a guy in to talk about financial products. Fortunately, his name was given in an e-mail, so we could all get it out of our systems before he introduced himself. Arnold Ziffel.Report
@saul-degraw @mike-schilling @leeesq If any of y’all are interested, at about 28:25 they talk about the relationship between CBS and Dukes and rural television.Report
Are there any shows in particular that gave them this reputation or was it undeserved? As Mike pointed out, the Beverly Hillbillies isn’t exactly a sophisticated and refined show.Report
I had assumed that nickname came after the rural purge, but I have no authority in this matter.Report
And it seems I’m completely wrong:
“The network is sometimes referred to as the “Eye Network”, in reference to the shape of the company’s logo. It has also been called the “Tiffany Network”, which alludes to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of its founder William S. Paley.[3] It can also refer to some of CBS’s first demonstrations of color television, which were held in a former Tiffany & Co. building in New York City in 1950.[4]”Report
I read the Wikipedia entry to in order to find out how CBS became the Tiffany Network. I’m still wondering about what was the perceived high quality programs during the tenure of William S. Paley. CBS’ rural comedies like Dukes of Hazzard, the Beverly Hillbilles, and Green Acres aired during Paley’s tensure. They don’t strike me as particularly high quality. Neither does there non-rural programming.Report
Perhaps not, but “Green Acres” was brilliant absurdist theater.Report
Agreed about Green Acres. It was really the template for Arrested Development: everyone is crazy in their own way, except for one character who’s the voice of reason (Eddie Albert/Jason Bateman) and he’s not that sane either.Report
Uncle Jesse was the heart of the show. I remember an episode where Luke (or was it Bo?) got agitated about something that had happened and said “it was the dang thing that happened!” (Paraphrased, of course, but the word “dang” did appear prominently.)
Uncle Jesse got real quiet and just pointed at him and said “you watch your language” and Luke (or was it Bo?) lowered his head and said “yessir”.
All the adults in the room nodded. I didn’t understand that at the time.Report
During the 90s, Fox actively courted a young, black and Latino, urban audience. They had shows like “NY Undercover” in response to “NYPD Blue” and “In Living Color” in response to SNL. I always preferred Fox’s offerings. Part of it was probably age (I was born in ’83). And part of it was probably growing up in a town that had large black and Latino populations, assuming this was the norm, and feeling like shows with diverse casts were more “real” than those with all or almost all white casts. I actually didn’t even realize Fox’s intentions at the time until randomly reading a Wikipedia article that laid it out a few weeks ago. “You mean other white people didn’t watch those shows?”
I’m very bad at doing certain “white people” things. I’ve never watched a single episode of any of the shows mentioned here. I barely even watch CBS nowadays as it strikes me as a channel for old, white folks. I’m more likely to watch a re-run of “Martin” (I *loved* “Martin” back in the day) then one of “Big Bang Theory”. And I still remain a little surprised that I’m in the minority in that regard. Egocentrism is strong with this one.Report
Moonrunners starred Robert Mitchum’s son James, who looks a lot like him. The ad campaigns made a point of talking up the connection to Thunder Road with Waylon Jennings saying something like ‘He’s taking up the business his daddy done in Thunder Road!’Report