CBS television never produced the "Real Beverly Hillbillies." They did not explain why or say that it would not be produced. They just stopped talking about it.
We count that as a victory for rural America.
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What's the Buzz?
A sampling of reports and opinions from press around the country.
New York Times: Show's concept based on myth
"The reality show that CBS is considering not only exploits my part of the world, it also separates struggling Appalachians from the rest of the American poor. If a television network proposed a 'real life' show treating poor African-Americans, Latinos, American Indians, Asians or Jews as curiosities, they, and all Americans of good will, would be justifiably outraged." John O'Brien in a column appearing on the op/ed page of the Saturday, May 10, New York Times.
Read the entire coumn (requires free ID from nytimes.com)
L.A. Times editorial blasts 'Real Beverly Hillbillies'
A Sunday, April 27, Los Angeles Times editorial takes on CBS for its plan to create a reality version of "The Beverly Hillbillies." Read the editorial (requires free ID from latimes.com)
It might be false hope, but there appear to be signs that CBS's The Real Beverly Hillbillies concept could be sinking to the bottom of the cement pond, thanks in large part to the Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg.
Heather Svokos
Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader, January 17, 2003
I'm sure America would be bursting with pride, imagining country kids risking their lives on the front lines in Iraq as their impoverished parents amuse us on "The Real Beverly Hillbillies."
John Kass
Chicago Tribune, January 16, 2003
CBS president Les Moonves admits his network has been unable to find a poor rural family willing to move into a Beverly Hills mansion since announcing the project four months ago. … What he didn't tell TV writers was that the CBS hot line numbers for potential participants opened Sept. 9 have been disconnected.
John Kiesewetter
Cincinnati Enquirer, January 16, 2003
"A lot of rural families are hardscrabble," [said Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies]. "It won't be hard for CBS to find one willing to trade their dignity for hundreds of thousands of dollars and a chance to live as wealthy people. But singling out a family because they are poor and inexperienced just to make them the butt of a national joke is reprehensible."
He added: "If somebody came to CBS with the idea of taking a family that just immigrated from Mexico, putting them in a mansion just so an audience can laugh at them as they interviewed a maid, I think CBS would find that offensive. All we're saying to CBS is: 'Wake up and slap water on your face. This is wrong.'"
Scotland Sunday, January 26, 2003
Dee Davis grew up laughing at "The Beverly Hillbillies," but he isn't smiling at "The Real Beverly Hillbillies," the latest idea for a reality TV show that tweaks the ' 60s sitcom.
"It's a hick hunt," Davis says about CBS scouts scouring West Virginia and other rural states looking for real-life Jethros and Grannies so they can be plunked down into the land of swimming pools and movie stars.
Christina Rouvalis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 20, 2003
Deep in the dim cranial cavity of a network television executive, some rusted part finally dropped into place this week. A light flickered ever so faintly.
CBS had begun to grasp the problem: There remain still, in this day and age, people capable of outrage. CBS evidently had not thought that possible.
The real reality is some people work two jobs just to feed their children and keep their families together, and they'll never hold a designer dress in their hands, much less own one, but when did that become funny?
Jeanne Brooks
Greenville (South Carolina) News, January 19, 2003
Rural people are the sole remaining minority that can be stereotyped without fear of recrimination. Bravo to the Center for Rural Strategies of Whitesville, Ky., for protesting the show and convincing CBS to change its mind.
Editorial
Charleston (West Virginia) Daily Mail, January 18, 2003
"You don't like seeing your picture in the New York Times in such a derogatory manner. I'm a human being, too, even though I am a network executive and people don't put the two things in the same context."
CBS President Leslie Moonves, commenting on Rural Strategies' advertisement opposing "The Real Beverly Hillbillies."
Quoted by Alan Pergament in The Buffalo News, January 17, 2003
After drawing fire from such groups as the Center for Rural Strategies, CBS is assuring critics that "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" isn't meant to humiliate anyone. We'll see. But it sounds as if the scenes of rural poor the WPA photographers once meant to record for posterity, the producers at CBS want to play just for laughs.
Laura Billings
St. Paul Pioneer Press, January 14, 2003
There are so many fish in this barrel it's hard to know where to start shooting.
First, let us examine the phrase "reality television.'' For the record, reality is the stuff that starts when you turn the TV off.
Jim Buchanan
Asheville Citizen-Times, January 12, 2003
This will surely surprise some people in la-la land, but the "hicks" in the South not only have indoor plumbing - they have computers!
Even more shocking, they are using computers and taking out ads in The New York Times and Washington Post to protest CBS' plans for a new, reality version of the old "Beverly Hillbillies" sitcom.
We are surprised no one at CBS appears to have considered how insulting this premise is to the millions of potential viewers who live in, or grew up in, the South or any other rural area.
Editorial
Charlotte Observer, January 12, 2003
Labor Weighs In!
Unions representing more than three million working men and women have voiced outrage with CBS.
Contact CBS Television
Voice your dissatisfaction with this marketing and programming decision.
Fenton Johnson - Gold in them thar Hillbillies
An opinion piece from the Los Angeles Times by the author of the forthcoming Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey.
Rudy Abramson - Up From CBS Comes Bubbling Crudity
An opinion piece from the Los Angeles Times by an editor of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia.
Jason Gray - While Riding a Bus Through Beverly Hills
Thoughts from the Policy Director of the Southern Rural Development Initiative.
Loyal Jones - We Aren't Laughing
Opinion piece by the retired director of the Berea College Appalachian Center.
Anne Shelby - Hillbillies Get Organized
Opinion piece from the mouth of Teges.
What was the Buzz before the Rural Reality Campaign?
Here are some choice comments from folks that weighed in early on the Real Beverly Hillbillies.
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