Columbia, Missouri? Nope, never lived there, for four years, re-meeting RexDart, who i knew in Jr. High, and since then i definately didn’t move to California. Nope, not me!! 
Uh oh, I think he’s about to rise again!
The show was indeed wildly popular among Southern males, this one included (though I don’t know about syndication); I was about nine or ten at the time. And heck, it was a fun show, if aimed pretty low (also it starred my great-uncle for a couple of seasons).
The problem I have with it is that so many people seem to think it was an accurate depction of life in the South. And that’s going to continue as long as the TV/movie people continue to typecast Southerners. And THAT’s going to continue as long as TV/movie *watchers *keep believing the Southern myths. People soak up impressions of places they’ve never been from mass-cultural outlets, and mass culture has a vested financial interest in not presenting ideas that challenge its viewers’ beliefs.
Incidentally, when I was living in Iowa for a couple of years, I was talking to a good friend up there once about the South. And I forget how the comment came up, but he casually said, “But you’re not a REAL Southerner…”
I jumped all over him. Raised in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s hometown and I’m not Southern? Drink sweet tea for breakfast and I’m not Southern? And so on. What he meant of course was that I have all my teeth and bathe regularly. In fact he meant it as a compliment. What he didn’t realize was that I’m Southern, and I’m educated and progressive-minded, and therefore this is another way to be Southern. (A couple years ago I got him to come visit Memphis for a few days. He absolutely loved it.)
Finally, Roy Blount Jr. wrote a hilarious column about this attitude once, in which he talked about how Southerners like to act dumb and call themselves hillbillies and scream themselves hoarse at SEC football games, but we do it because we know it’s all a big joke (well, OK, some of us do). He said he we have to be careful doing it around Yankees who don’t know we’re kidding. And then he had a brilliant paraphrase of Thomas Jefferson: “For a Southerner, eternal vigilance is the price of irony.”
Oh yeah, and Slacker, the ladies all seem to like it when I rise again… 
I’ve noticed more guy-bashing than usual on TV and in advertisements. I thought the last safe target was the Amish…
One of my faves is the Halls ad where guys get beaned with golf balls while their female partners are unscathed.
Bryan Ekers:"…At the very least, it doesn’t encourage repeat purchase."
-----SNORT-----
The real question is: is it the ad agencies or the clients that are oblivious? I’ve heard DEVO’s “A Beautiful World” in an ad and can only assume that the agency at least listened to the whole song…
I Love Lucy
Bewitched
That Girl
Mary Tyler Moore
Maude
The Golden Girls
Murphy Brown
Caroline in the City
Ally McBeal
Moesha
Sex and the City
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
and many more…
And how is The Simpsons from the “male perspective”? Last time I checked, the Simpson family had 3 females and 2 males, all of which are featured pretty much equally.
You mean like Grace in “Will and Grace”, or Daphne in “Frasier”, or Darma in “Darma and Greg”? I could rattle off a hundred more, but hopefully you get the idea. I must be getting completely different shows on my TV than you are.
Or Peggy Hill. Ego combined with semi-ignorance is cringe-worthy, but funny.