CBS planned to take a real family from rural America and put them on display in a Beverly Hills mansion as part of a new reality-based program tentatively titled "The Real Beverly Hillbillies." Many rural families face a host of difficult challenges. They don't need a reality television program based on "The Beverly Hillbillies" to hold them up to insult and ridicule. Join Rural Strategies in our national campaign to stop CBS from producing "The Real Beverly Hillbillies." It's time to stop mocking and start caring about rural America.
NBC kills their version of Real Beverly Hillbillies
Rural Americans and their friends scored a victory when officials at the parent company of NBC Television said they would not go through with plans to produce a copy-cat version of “The Real Beverly Hillbillies.” Senior officials at General Electric, which owns NBC, have said they are dropping plans to produce “The High Life,” according to Hal Rogers, a member of Congress from Kentucky. More...
Reality TV bites again
Viacom and Leslie Moonves are at it again. The same folks who wanted to ridicule rural people in "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" have picked another rural target for derision: the Amish. UPN, owned by CBS's parent company, Viacom, says it will produce a reality show based on transplanting Amish youth to an urban setting and letting cameras capture their interactions with mainstream society. Les Moonves, president of CBS, also directs programming for UPN. Asked why he would choose to do a show on the Amish, Moonves said, "Well, we couldn't do 'The Beverly Hillbillies.' " More...
Newspaper editorial declares victory for rural Americans
An October 7 editorial in the Cincinnati Enquirer says rural Americans seem to have convinced CBS not to produce "The Real Beverly Hillbillies," a proposed reality show that would make fun of a poor, uneducated rural family. Read the complete editorial...
The Real Beverly Hillbillies is Real Garbage
United States Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia eloquently laid out the case against the proposed television show while praising Rural America in a speech on the Senate floor on July 25th. Read the full text of the Senator's comments.
44 U. S. Congress members ask CBS to stop!
On March 19th, Kentucky Congressman Hal Rogers was joined by 43 colleagues in signing a letter to Leslie Moonves asking that production not begin on "The Real Beverly Hillbillies". More...
Rural America: Stop ridiculing, start caring
A short film from Rural Strategies.
Labor Weighs In!
Read about the strong response that organized labor has mounted against CBS and "The Real Beverly Hillbillies".
What's the Buzz?
Read what other folks are saying about the program.
January 7th Op/Ed Ad
View the advertisement that launched the Rural Reality Campaign.
Rural Reality vs. Reality TV
The Center for Rural Strategies has prepared an interim report: The Anatomy of a Public Awareness Campaign.
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