“Jed!!!”
~ Clive Barnes
WV, I think it’s only fair to point out that NOWHERE in the yahoo news link you provided does it mention that the chosen family will be “southern.”
It does mention “rural” and it does allude to the original sit-com which featured the word “hillbilly.” But, I repeat, it never mentions “southern” – the hook on which you hang your entire complaint, at least in your letter.
That, of course, is not to say that they won’t go with a southern family; but that’s not to say that they will. Go to some nether corners of the Mid Atlantic and New England states and you’ll be amazed at how undeveloped they are.
“And hillbillies prefer to be called sons of the soil, but it ain’t happening! A-he hee!”
/Dr. Hibbert
Television…
Nope, nothing interesting there yet.
Turn your TV off for a week. You rob them of their power if you don’t watch.
Here in West Virginia we have trouble picking up the basic 3 stations. I can, if I can make the rabbit ears contort in unnatural positions. And I live in the 2nd biggest city in the state … hardly the middle of nowhere, so you can imagine what it’s like higher up in the mountains, down towards Logan/Beckley.
The only show I watch faithfully is Survivor when it’s on. I know it’s disgusting, I know the people are void of meaning, but I love it.
I also love Law & Order, but almost never get a chance to watch it.
I have this thing where if I can’t watch a show uninterrupted, I won’t watch it. With a 2 year old in the house, you can guess how often I get to watch my “stories.”’
Blockbuster, on the other hand, knows us by name.
Stix Nix Hix Pix.
There’s all kinds of real-life dramas that they could do without a comedy sub-theme:
- the trauma of going off to high school
- the excitement of being a college freshman
- mom decides to go off to college at age 30, with demanding school age kids and a husband surrouding her
- reality meets the dad when divorce happens
- dating as a separated spouse in their 30’s or 40’s
Instead we get this. Or we get ‘Felicity,’ which is some crap representation of what life as a freshman is like. Sheesh. No wonder network TV continues to lose market share.
In case anyone wants to know where the Hillbillies “really” came from: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20020829.atc.05.ram
To think what John and Gilda could be doing now…sigh
Does WV in your username mean West Virginia? If so, your coming to the defense of southerners is sort of ironic 
Gee, WV, did you read my earlier post? Any reaction to my observation that NOT ONCE is it stated that a southern family will be chosen?
Frankly, I think your whole complaint against CBS is a case of guilty until proven innocent.
(And BTW, racekarl. You should be a little more careful about how you spell Virginia. And yes, I think it’s ironic too.)
Um … racekarl?
Do you mean that WV isn’t south?
Oh really?
Culturally it is … geographically it’s in the middle, granted.
And stuyguy, yes I read it, but we all know it will be a family from the south. CBS isn’t going to pick a family from Boston Proper who just happen to be “backwards.”
From ABCnews
So obviously they think of the south when they think “hillbilly.” The show is offensive, and WV_Woman is doing the right thing in writing a letter to protest. I think the show would be an embarrassment to watch, and if I watched TV at all, there’s no way in hell I’d turn this crap on.
And bringing up the rear…
FOX!
http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/30/television.greenacres.reut/index.html
I was KIDDING!!!
http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/30/television.greenacres.reut/index.html
JM, I have no inside info or contacts, tho if they were at Fox, I wouldn’t admit it anyway.
Why didn’t somebody tell me?
As for the rest of your letter, you tell 'em sister!
I think the reason most of us look fondly on The Beverly Hillbillies was that that the city folks were just as often played as fools against the Clampett’s common sense as the other way around. Jed was easygoing and laid back before the term was even invented. Heck, he was wearing the Miami Vice look years ahead of its time.
Some folk’ll never lose a toe
but then again some folk’ll
like Cletus, the slack jawed yokel
This has been one of my major piss-off points for years and years. I’m not sure if started when woman from D.C. who was enrolling her kids in our elementary school asked my mother if they taught the kids to read in the sixth grade, but I’d say that had a lot to do with it. Let’s face it, since the fat people banded together and it became uncool to make fun of them, folks from the rural south are the only ones you can promote negative stereotypes of and get by with it anymore.
I’m appalled that anybody thought this was a good idea.
“Shut up, old lady. And stop kicking me there.”
Rainier Wolfcastle, Saving Irene Ryan
As much as I think the OP should get that boulder off her shoulder…I’d love to see a NYC born ‘n’ bred shipped off to, say, Argyle, Minnesota.
I’m a farm chick, born ‘n’ bred, but through my military career I was afforded the opportunities to live or spend time in Miami, DC, and San Francisco. Those same opportunities allowed me to experience NYC, Boston, LA, Houston, and SD. In my civilian (and married-to-the-military) life/lives I’ve seen Chicago, Madrid, Sevilla, Minneapolis, and Honolulu.
Taking Ukelele Ike or Maeglin or Eve or Coldfire and putting them in a rural community - a 20-minute car ride away from anything resembling what they know and appreciate - would have a much higher comedic value than taking a MTV/Sex In the City/Law and Order-watching People/Time- reading, or Today Show/Nightline-watching American and dropping him/her into LA or NYC.
It’s a lot easier to get used to everything you want at your fingertips than to realize you have to get into your car and drive to pick up your pizza - or a quart of milk, for that matter.