What If: No "Rural Purge" In 1970-71?

In the beginning of the 1970s decade, CBS network, reportedly after Fred Silverman got annoyed that some in the business were snidely referring to CBS as the "Country Broadcasting System" ordered the cancelation of a huge number of successful television shows with a rural or western theme.

This became known as the "Rural Purge" or as was said "The year CBS killed everything with a tree in it including Lassie".

Many also say the Rural Purge marked the final death knell of the traditional westerns on American television (which had begun to fade).

How would American television have been different over the last four decades if no Rural Purge had occurred?
 
Some of the best (IMO) '70s comedy shows debuted in CBS in that same timeframe. If there'd been no purge, many of those classic shows probably wouldn't have aired. MASH, All in the Family, Bob Newhart and Mary Tyler Moore are ones that come to mind off the top of my head that I know were on CBS.
 
Two questions:
If no purge when do shows that were purged get naturally cancelled?
Will they be replaced with more rural/western shows, or would some of the OTL programs come in just gradually?
 
Is Bonanza one of these cos it might mean Lorne Green's not free to play Adama in Battlestar Galactica?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I think that perhaps Westerns might have gone on a bit longer, though I do think that shows would have gotten cancelled anyway to make room for new shows.
 
Bonanza lasted until 1973 it pretty much was undoable after Dan Blocker died unexpectedly in 1972.

IIRC, Gunsmoke lasted until 1975.

But no new westerns had been added since 1969 IIRC.
 
The "Rural Purge" happened for two reasons: viewer demographics, for the first time, were weighted more heavily than overall ratings were; and Fred Silverman, an iconoclastic and young (under 35!) executive, became the VP for Programming at CBS. Silverman didn't believe in sacred cows, and he was very willing to take chances. As mentioned, CBS really needed someone like him, because they were the network of older, rural audiences, compared to the increasingly young, hip, urban audiences on NBC and ABC. ("Laugh-In", "Flip Wilson", "Mod Squad", even "Marcus Welby", to an extent).

The Rural Purge was the result of these two things. I would argue that something like it would be inevitable, as long as demographics were more important to advertisers. Therefore, to prevent it from happening, those older, rural audiences would have to be (or at least perceived to be) just as much, if not more, susceptible to advertising. Even assuming that's possible, there are still problems. Older audiences we can save; audiences are going to keep on aging from c. 1970 onward. But rural is a lot harder. The urban audience is already much larger and will continue to grow relative to the rural audience with time.

To answer your question: No rural purge means that CBS is the #3 network by the late-1970s. Many shows that would have aired there instead appear on ABC or NBC, or in syndication. CBS, increasingly desperate, eventually finds an executive promising to "turn this mess around", and voila, delayed Rural Purge, lacking the requisite oomph of OTL because it's not the #1 network, and we're not cancelling any Top 30 shows. CBS stages a modest recovery, but they continue to tread water for the foreseeable future.
 
Bear in mind that the rural shows were tremendously popular in the southern and southwestern states as they were conservative and "clean" and family-oriented entertainment. The Andy Griffith Show is still terribly popular in my part of the country probably due to the small-town Americana values it depicts. You can imagine the uproar in those areas when the rural shows got canned.
 
If that purge hadn't happened, things such as NASCAR racing, country music, country cooking, and four wheel drive vehicles for the CIVILIAN consumer market would all be popular here in modern times!
 
If that purge hadn't happened, things such as NASCAR racing, country music, country cooking, and four wheel drive vehicles for the CIVILIAN consumer market would all be popular here in modern times!

Isn't that the OTL?

I suspect that this lack of "Rural purge" could go someways in preventing our current Redneckery fetish as a culture but wearing out interest.
 
To be honest, most of the rural shows like Beverly hillbillies and Andy Griffith had grown old anyways by then.

Some of the shows were canned due to the demographics and in the case of Andy Griffith, burn-out.

Griffith Left the show and the show ended prior to Silverman assuming power.

PhilKearny has it. The show that many of you may be thinking about is "Mayberry, R.F.D.", a direct continuation of "The Andy Griffith Show", and the highest-rated casualty of the Rural Purge, at #15 for the 1970-71 season. "Griffith" ended in 1968.
 

Flubber

Banned
Griffith Left the show and the show ended prior to Silverman assuming power.


That is an important point because it neatly illustrates that the "Rural Purge" was a label applied after the fact to describe a series of events which occurred over several years and for several reasons. As many variety shows were canceled during the &quot:winkytongue:urge" years as "rural" sitcoms, but Pat Buttram didn't observe that CBS canceled anything with singing and dancing in it because he was on the already failing Green Acres and not the steady The Andy Williams Show.

Demographic data in the ratings did play a role, but so did things like production costs, the loss of 30 minutes of &quot:winkytongue:rime time" every night to new FCC rules, and, perhaps more importantly, the feeling that certain genres had become stale.

I believe the new FCC prime time rules had as much effect as demographics because the networks lost seven 30 minute blocks per week in which relatively marginal or otherwise niche shows could have easily survived. I also believe that changes in the viewing audiences' tastes caused the "Rural Purge" more than the new FCC rules or demographics.

Television audience tastes go through periodic adjustments just as the fashion industry or any other heavily consumer-focused industry goes through periodic adjustments. Those here who are old enough have seen plenty of "sea changes" in network television programming like the "revival" of the 30 minute sitcom in the 80s, the appearance of so called "reality" programming in the 90s, or the reappearance of medical dramas at the turn of the century. At the end of the 60s, audiences wanted relevant TV shows and not escapist ones.

What's new turns old quickly enough. When an audiences have a surfeit of certain programming audiences get restless. Restless audiences then get bored and bored audiences turn off their TV sets.
 
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I've wondered if events like the "Rural Purge" and the demise of rural and western oriented entertainment contributed in part to the so called "Sage Brush Rebellion" in the west in which the western states turned sharply in favor of the Republicans and against the Democrats politically.

In other words perhaps it contributed to the wests sense of alienation from "eastern elites" (though strictly speaking Hollywood is of course in California).

in the Presidential elections of 1972, 76, 80,84, & 88, the west was solidly Republican.
 
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