Campaign to Stop the Real Beverly Hillbillies

In 2003 the Center for Rural Strategies and thousands of other individuals and organizations across the country stopped CBS Television from producing "The Real Beverly Hillbillies," a proposed reality show based on the old situation comedy. The idea was to find a poor rural family, move them to a Hollywood mansion, and make a reality TV show out of their encounters with affluence and hip culture. "Imagine the episode where they have to interview the maids," chortled an CBS executive. The show's concept crossed the line between fun and ridicule and prompted a national conversation about rural life and culture that reverberated from the halls of Congress to Main Street.  [more…]