"The Hooterville Massacre"

For years I have held CBS czar William Paley accountable for the rural comedy diaspora that wiped the Big Eye clean of Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, Hee-Haw, Petticoat Junction and most tragically, Green Acres.The oft-told tale is that CBS was loathe to be seen as hayseed central and was courting a classier demographic. Hence the en masse elimination of the top-rated Paul Henning comedies. At one point, episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies were listed among the most watched individual shows ever broadcast. I'm not talking about "very special" episodes or over-hyped cliffhangers, just random shows drawing gazillions of viewers.

William Paley is usually painted as the villain in this tale, but according to this entry from the Museum of Broadcasting website, credit (or blame) sits on the shoulders of CBS executive Robert Wood.

Mr. Wood also gave walking papers to Jackie Gleason, Ed Sullivan and Red Skeleton - paving the way for the overrated "All in the Family" and the ascendancy of the stupidly-hatted Norman Lear. Maybe Wood was just a patsy. I imagine Paley got a lot of grief from the old-money crowd at cocktail parties about his declasse way of making a buck.

Poor Paul Henning. A prophet without honor. I would much rather spend time in Mr. Haney's Hooterville than Archie Bunker's Queens. The Museum of Broadcasting bio credits Mr. Henning with creating television's first "narratively interthreaded" world. That's a pretty apt description of the interplay between Hooterville and Petticoat Junction. Later on, Norman Lear did likewise with Archie Bunker's extended family morphing into multiple off-shoots like Maude, The Jeffersons, Good Times et al.

And just when you begin to wonder what real purpose is served by the digital-inter-webs, you find this nifty Green Acres website featuring cast member grave sites, tons of pictures and a French version of Vic Mizzy's theme song.