Posted on 06/12/2021 3:06:57 PM PDT by SamAdams76
I have mosquito bites all over my arms and legs. I'm thinking because I've been out camping, sitting by the campfire and doing a lot of cast iron based cooking over said fire. Which is some of the best kind of cooking if you are to be camping.
Then I go into my tent and roll myself into a "sleeping bag" but even then, I'm thinking mosquitoes are still able to get through.
So a lot of mosquito bites and it's only mid June. Lot of camping left to go this season.
Nothing better though then sleeping under a tent and hearing all the noises of nature, especially pit-pattering rain and crickets and tree frogs. Then you get the birds in the morning waking you up as the sun gains strength in the east.
Then you get the campfire going again in put some "cowboy coffee" on as you prepare the eggs and bacon to get your next camping day off to an acceptable start.
But I digress.
I'm old enough to remember back when "rural" themed TV shows ruled the day. You had "Hee Haw" which was such an incredible institution that I might need several posts to fully describe it. You had "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Petticoat Junction", "Mr Ed", "Andy Griffith", "Jim Nabors Show", and "Lassie" just to name a few.
Oh yeah, and "Gunsmoke" and "F Troop" just to name a couple more.
All these shows (and more!) had respectable to great ratings on TV and presented good American values to the general public.
But along came this douchebag named Fred Silverman who took over CBS around 1970 and felt that rural values were not conducive to how he felt America should be and the "rural purge" was on.
In came more "urban" based shows like "Mary Tyler Moore", "All In The Family", "The Jeffersons", "What's Happening", "James at 15", and "Sanford & Son."
Certainly not all Fred Silverman creations but Fred did kill the rural-based TV shows in order to cater to more urban and suburban audiences (though those audiences did appreciate the rural shows as even "Hee Haw" got decent ratings in NYC and Boston.)
Fact is, rural shows basically disappeared in the early 1970s with the notable exceptions of "The Waltons" and "Little House On The Prairie."
Basically from then on, you had the urban-suburban TV shows with their loud voices, their canned laughtracks and their more liberal values dominating the airwaves.
MASH was good when Hawkeye and Trapper John/BJ stopped being preachy and sparred with the obnoxious Hot Lips, Frank Burns and Charles Emerson Winchester III.
****Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons ***
Best new cartoons at that time.
All the others came from the Hanna-Barbara garbage factory. And Hanna-Barbara used to be so good when they worked for MGM.
The only problem is, no one with any sense would think that the adulterous weasel Frank Burns was a Christian.
I haven’t seen it in years, but I seem to remember “The Waltons” skewing a bit left, especially toward the end. John Boy seemed awfully liberal despite his rural upbringing.
But maybe I’m misremembering.
Also on that show as a young boy growing up in the 1960s knowing Hungarian it was one of the few places on American tv where on rare occasions it was spoken. :)
***..most male FReepers love Petticoat Junction for 3 obvious reasons.***
actually four. One girl quit later in the season was replaced with no fanfare. I also remember when the original matron suddenly died.
Great story.
I have a wooden Green Acres sign at the top of my driveway.
It’s been there since I moved out of the city 40 years ago.
Benny Hill was a hilarious, ribald show, loved it!
It is a gift at my age! My book will come out in a few months..If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll send you the data. It will be unique! 65.000 words and 42 pictures.
Betty Jo is definitely my favorite.
And it only took her 10 years to do it.
Of course, she also had to get another dig in because he once praised ‘The Osbournes”... ...the vile hag.
Barney Miller was hilarious! I still catch it on one of the oldies television stations late at night sometimes
*** and there’s a famous image of Chuck Connors giving Brezhnev a bear hug.***
I remember when Brezhnev visited the US and Oklahoma. Gov David Hall had him wear a Plains Indian headdress and he looked ridiculous in it. Photo was in either one of the Tulsa newspapers at that time.
The planet of the apes cartoon wasn’t bad for the time and being kiddie-died.
My sibling, my parents, friends, cousins and grandparents loved the first westerns, law and order type of shows and the few good comedy shows on early evening tv.(1952-56).
Later, many of my college dorm mates ate early on Saturday evening and Sunday to watch the great weekend Western and detective evening shows. We oftenplanned travel to and from our away homes to our dorms to enable us to watch those shows at home or in the dorm. (1956/57/58).
My second semester junior year at college, I spent at home.
The crud was starting to come through on the tv, Monday evening thru Thursday. My Dad still got to watch his favorite westerns and my mom, her comedy shows and Perry Mason, Friday-Sunday.
We actually spent a lot of time talking, playing cards and other games. Sometimes reading. My mother was a reading teacher and was a great reader. If tv got boring, she would read one of Dad’s books or hers. My sister would often come out of her room to hear the reading and the discussions.
During the week, my mom didn’t want national tv news on. So we only watched the semi local news and weather. I agreed with her and later never really watched much national news on tv. My grandfather cracked the code on the national fake news by 1956/57. He called them communists. My mother and her sisters thought that he was miss pronouncing columnists.
My cousins and I knew better. He described the “communists” in very clear and descriptive terms when not around women.
My roommates and I in our college senior year didn’t have a tv in our exclusive basement. If we weren’t studying together, we often had a group of classmates over to study and cram for tests/exams. Many of us had Saturday morning classes. I didn’t see my family except on holidays and between semesters. After graduation, most of us had jobs and went all over America or into the military. One room mate has continued to be a good friend over the decades.
My wife as a student nurse, never had a tv in a dorm room or in the dorm. We had a tv in our first apartment and had other things to do in our first year of marriage besides tv.
After an active duty hitch in the navy, we bought our first home and put our one tv down in the basement/floor/game room. Many people in those town houses had several tvs throughout their homes, and most of their tvs were on most of their waking hours.
A few years ago we cut our cable and basically never watch news or today’s crud posing as entertainment. We are mildly addicted to the many Brit detective shows.
Now, my wife is reading another Kindle book, and I am here. There has been zero tv on today as normal.
Watched Ed Sullivan with a babysitter when the Beatles 1st made American TV.
She didn’t stop screaming. LOL!
Love the songs.
The original book wasn’t half bad-a lot less left-wing BS.
‘Richard Hooker’ (Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr.) then wrote 2 more followup books that were worse, then he somehow aquired a ‘co-writer’ and the rest of the books went downhill fast!
While I was in Vietnam with the Marines, the only movies we got to see were projected onto the side of our GP Medium tents and we got Combat! (!) and Batman, that idiotic TV series.
There was an alternate to “The Waltons” which did not last long. It starred Glen Ford as a rural preacher and tried to show how bad life “really” was in opposition to the Waltons.
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