I live in rural Nebraska - we don’t need this kind of exposure
OK, the basic idea is "Green Acres’ - without the charm of Eva Gabor. Wealthy couple (Lake Bell, Dax Shepard) decide to move to Nebraska from New York to enjoy the simple life and slower pace. Throw in some odd neighbors, cows and the same kind of small town tropes we’ve all seen a thousand times and the show is good to go. Oh well, co-star Ed Begley Jr is a major supporter of recycling so I understand his involvement.
I’m going to check out the first couple of episodes. On a good day, we might see shades of ‘Northern Exposure’ in this show but I’m not optimistic.
When she heard about this, my wife’s reaction was “Green acres again?”.
It’s worth pointing out that Green Acres itself was inspired by the radio sitcom Granby’s Green Acres, which featured Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet as, basically, the same husband-and-wife team they played on the radio sitcom My Favorite Husband (which was basically the radio proto-I Love Lucy). Gordon played an ex-banker turned farmer, so you had the “rich city folks” vibe.
Granby’s Green Acres was in 1950. Green Acres was 1965-1971, with a 1990 reunion show. That’s about one inflammation every fifteen years. The question about the timing of Bless this Mess isn’t so much “why now?” as “Why were we spared an outbreak in 2005?” We’re just about due for the next cycle.
Rich City Folks Try to Run a Farm – the 15 year locust of TV memes.
Googling, it appears the premise is that this couple decides that moving from Manhattan to a farm in Nebraska will allow them to pursue a simpler life. Now, I’m no expert, but my understanding is that real farming is a lot of work with very long days, seven-day workweeks and very little income (plus tons of debt). Honestly, when I hear how bad it is, I’m amazed that anyone does it.
If they’re Manhattanites who wanted the simple life, why not do what everyone else does and move upstate or to Connecticut?
If the farm is paid for, and you aren’t dependent on it for income, they aren’t that hard to maintain. I would think that a wealthy couple could live on a farm easily. Thus the premise.
It’s the “move back to the earth” and try to make a living that’s fucking hard!
Optimistically, this could have a Newhart appeal, and/or bridge the Red State/Blue State divide that the Rosanne show (original) did. However, I’m a little skeptical that it’ll play in the flyover states because the show is Lake Bell’s creation, and she is a born-and-raised New York city girl. So, it probably appeals to the coastal elites mostly. I hope they don’t make the Nebraska locals too colorful.
In 2009 Kelsey Grammer wasHank a high-powered Wall Street type who moved his family to his wife’s rural home town, where they encountered the rustic natives.
It lasted five episodes. Grammer later said on the Tonight Show that even he wanted it canceled.
The premise of the show is failed at the start, not even counting the Green Acres rip off aspect. There is no way in hell I could buy Dax Sheppard as some sort of big city sophisticate.
As a farm boy born and raised, and of a certain age, I hated Green Acres for how it portrayed farming and rural life. There was NOTHING in that show that was remotely real. I thought Hollywood was insulting us rural folk. I also thought the Beverly Hillbillies should buy some new clothes and a new truck. And Hooterville should get a diesel loco. And Hazzard County should pave some back roads (all the back roads in WI are paved.)
Later I “got” the deliberate absurdity of it all.
Later still I realized that how Hollywood portrayed city life wasn’t any more accurate. Friends was just as unreal as Green Acres, just less obvious about it.
Even later I realized Hollywood doesn’t get ANYTHING right. Even if there’s no reason to change things (Apollo 13, Bohemian Rhapsody, Hidden Figures, First Man…), they still do.
