Yeah, cultural artifacts are important. But they are NOT the reason why TVLand (or pretty much any other TV network nowadays) airs shows. They air shows because people today like to watch them. There are tons of historical shows that are not aired.
It’s not like Song of the South, because Song of the South is not readily available (legally anyways). The Dukes of Hazard show is. You say they should explain the historical context and still air the shows? Where is that sort of thing done? On disk, like with Tom and Jerry. Not on TV.
When it comes to the selection of what we can watch, TV is less important now than it has ever been. And the type of self-censorship you mention is less powerful than it ever has been.
(I can very easily watch Song of the South. Not even Disney polices that, since they have no intent to sell it. Their self-censorship means little in the age of the Internet.)
TV Land obviously has the right to do as they please when it comes to their programming but I think some of this censorship is getting ridiculous. When are we going to start removing Mark Twain books from public libraries for their use of racial epithets?
At the end of the DoH movie there are repeated shot of the car (or rather a series of identical cars) doing one of the big jumps from the film, and you can watch one after the other get absolutely destroyed upon landing.
Do you think a majority of Whites or even a sizable fraction of the country is offended by the use of the word by that character in that context, or that most who have seen the show completely get that like Archie in All in the Family it is the character and that behavior that is being made fun of?
I suspect that if DOH had been an “edgy” comedy making fun of good ole boy racism by showing idiots riding around and crashing in a Confederate flag decorated car that its being there would not be a problem either.
DOH was not the worst show ever but a valuable cultural artifact, a great work, it warn’t. No one argues it was. It was meant for mindless consumption and was consumed in that manner … and nothing wrong with that. It was a low level Saturday morning cartoon in live action. The Confederate flag had no critical meaning to its value other than (in its time) a cultural shorthand for Southern Good ole boy. Huck Finn OTOH is A Great Work, and is not consumed mindlessly, and its use of the word “nigger” by the characters who used the word and how they used it is an integral part of it as a work of literature.
Huck Finn has been banned from many libraries - it’s number 14 on the list of the most banned books from 2000 to 2009, admittedly behind books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Of Mice and Men, and the Harry Potter series (first place). That is an action made out of ignorance.
Well just how many people have to be offended before something is removed? Sorry I still say if they are going to get rid of DOH because of a flag on top of a car, then they should also get rid of “The Jefferson’s”.
Along with that, they should also get rid of “The Beverly Hillbillies” because in some of the early episodes Granny is seen waving a Confederate flag and singing “Dixie”.
How about one? Because no white person in the history of white people has been genuinely offended by being called a honky. If you meet one who says otherwise, that white man is lying to you.