CBS and the "switch"
I find it interesting how CBS went from good wholesome show like the BH to nasty vile shows by Norman Lear.
shareThat is what was called the Rural Purge...
shareThink we know that.
shareis it true that the new shows had lower rstings then the BH?
shareAll In The Family was the top rated show for like five straight seasons...
shareI love BH but really it did run 9 years, one of the longest running sitcoms ever, I can't imagine it would have lasted much longer. The ratings it's final season were down but nowhere near that of the other "country" shows like Green Acres however I can understand why CBS would think it was time to axe it; the last season's scripts were quite bad (Frogman, anyone?) and Jethro and Elly May were getting deep into their thirties to be "kids" even early twentysomething kids. I do wish though CBS would have had the courtesy to respect what Donna Douglas and Max Baer did for them for almost a decade and try to find them new shows, as they did with Buddy Ebsen and were working on with Irene Ryan at the time of her death (nothing was filmed but there were talks of another sitcom for her).
I'm not sure exactly what CBS replaced TBH with, however ALL IN THE FAMLY was already on the air, it came on as a midseason replacement in 1971, during the last half of TBH's last season. A lot of writers have written it replaced them but that's actually not true. It is kind of hard to imagine THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES was on CBS at the same time as both ALL IN THE FAMILY and THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, the sensibilities of these shows being so different, but indeed it was during it's last year.
It is kind of hard to imagine THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES was on CBS at the same time as both ALL IN THE FAMILY and THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, the sensibilities of these shows being so different, but indeed it was during it's last year.
Plus the country was changing at the time and THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES seemed out of place in the 70s while ALL IN THE FAMILY and MARY TYLER MOORE were far more reflective of the changing country. Another major reason for the rural purge was demographics. on rival networks ABC and NBC shows such as THE MOD SQUAD, FLIP WILSON, LAUGH IN, ADAM-12....etc etc were scoring higher numbers with younger and more urban/suburban and more affluent viewers than BH or GREEN ACRES, HEE HAW, PETTICOAT JUNCTION...etc etc on CBS which was more skewed to older and more rural viewers. These shows seemed lame and cheesy to the Flower generation and weren't nearly as desirable to advertisers on Madison Avenue. Baby boomers as well as more affluent and urban audiences tended to prefer crime and medical dramas that were more gritty and topical, and variety shows/sitcoms that were more witty and satirical. share
Apparently the ratings for TBH were still good and the show was very popular in rural areas and southern states but it's popularity in the all-important metropolitan areas had taken a nosedive. They did run out of ideas though by the end and nine years is a fairly amazing run for a sitcom.
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