 This is the SF Productions podcast network and so did 24 hours The 60s in the 70s dwelling place of the lost generation We who grew up in this era had no real heroes Our role models came from the imaginations of others our meager lives were formed by and revolved around Weekly installments of our favorite TV programs Welcome to a place that your parents didn't understand A place that exists somewhere between the forefront of Recollectible memory and the edge of everyday thought Welcome to the vast wasteland Welcome home and welcome to another exciting episode of vast wasteland. I'm your host Mark Schmidbauer with our other host Wilbert Neal and Marty Wiley. We're here to talk about 60s and 70s television Then as you probably guessed by all this stuff up here We're going to talk about one of the biggest Phenomenons of the 60s Beverly Hillbillies and not just Beverly Hillbillies, but we're going to discuss the entire Mayberry versus Hooterville controversy, which we know is very big right now Of course that when we refer to Mayberry and Hooterville, we're referring to Mayberry as the entire Tri-City Mayberry Mount Pilots and Raleigh area and Hooterville We're talking about Hooterville and Pixley and not to mention Bug Tussle or even Beverly Hills, but right Yeah, but that's so so to give you an idea what we're discussing We're Mayberry of course Sandy Griffith show and Mirabaya RFD and Gomer Pyle and is that it? They did take the character goober and put him on to he-haw. Yeah, but I don't think that's a very tenuous connection Yeah, that's a stringy spin-off kind of thing and then of course on the So that's the Mayberry side then there's the the Paul Henning universe side Of course Paul Henning was the one who created things like Beverly Hillbillies and and Green Acres and Petticoat Junction And I think that's it on that side. Yeah, unless I'm missing. That's pretty much. So Of course these were like the the mainstay of CBS's schedule in the 60s and Allowed them to pretty much vault ahead although the critics absolutely hated all these shows the public loved them So they were on the air for years and years and then in 1970 The the high ups at CBS decided well We don't want to do these rural comedies anymore because they're not making they're not getting the right demographics for audience and all this We're all getting all these old people so so they all got canceled all at once and ironically it Allowed shows like all in the family and Mastigan on the air because there was these huge holes in the schedule, but anyways But that's for another show today. We're talking about Mayberry versus Hooterville And I'll turn it right over to Wilbert with his first point for the evening. Well by golly when you look at these shows you look and there's Just the the characters involved here we can look at the the the camaraderie between Andy and And Bernie there's just they just work so well together as a team Although Bernie always felt like he should probably be the leader or the one to stand out It's always Andy who is well definitely the star So he always knows what's going on and how to figure out every problem, you know And like you can do it simply he didn't need to have his gun with him You know, he's the sheriff and all but yet and then he could go home and here's little Opie and Well something both shows Both types of shows had that they don't have really a lot on TV anymore is the The family matriarch you had it be who was definitely the cornerstone of Andy's household. Oh, yeah And you had granny You had Kate Bradley women that were the The cornerstone the focus of the family, you know Yeah And I don't think we really got that anymore You don't see that today you you saw a little bit in the 70s with stuff like Mod is the one I could think offhand mod is about mod. Well. Yeah, basically But yeah, you don't see that today really you don't see a woman being pretty much which is which is ironic considering all the This the strides that women's rights have made between the 60s in the 80s. Well, I mean it's there, but it's it's not as not as Blatant where these shows were I mean they they focused on the the males that were in the show and yet They were there the the ladies were there. I think that's what it is because now you do have shows that are Well Murphy Brown Those are those are like 80, you know, this is where the woman was home. That I mean, that's right That's the difference. She she was the rock of the show more or less Mm-hmm, and I don't think shows have that anymore, but it's interesting that all of these shows Because I mean granny was actually Jed's mother-in-law. Yeah, right. He's Ellie's grandmother. Mm-hmm You know Kate was actually Uncle Joe was actually the oldest member of the family But Kate was the one in charge. No, that's cuz Uncle Joe was moving When Kate went away and Joe had to run it boy, they had to bring in June Lockhart Interesting he just couldn't do it alone by golly. Okay, but um Then you've got your your definite Comical characters. You've got it. Well, well Barney was probably the comical character of the Andy Griffith thing, but then before And see Gomer was just so so darn comical that he got his own Just left Gomer there to run the gas station by himself. Hey, you've got your Well Otis Well, let's let's not forget Floyd for goodness sake Floyd he's But he had a business everybody I was an interesting thing to everybody just about had a business Except Otis, but I guess his oldest was to be the town drunk Back in the days when you had a town drunk, they probably advertised needed town drunk Right. He just had to give Andy something to do because they sure didn't go out in bustles moonshiners Right there. They didn't come into town that often I guess It's like Floyd Okay, and Howard what was Howard Howard spring. He was like the editor He still lives with his mother What was his Did he run the paper? The barbershop and wait for That was like the nerve center of the town, you know Barbers Like a periodical in a newspaper They were like Like a like a Warmity and that the word they use now for these shows that they're funny, but Gee, don't they just strike a nerve? Don't you just know everything's like that happen and everything where the petticoat junction Green Acres Beverly Hills was out and out comedy right because they were so outlandish And I think one of the reasons that those shows went off was people from the Hills Started becoming offended at the way they were portrayed on these shows. Yeah saying, you know, look, we're not idiots We know about the world we're not A general wouldn't an idiot he had his sixth grade He was he was what a brain going to be a brain surgeon a frog man Asteroid at one point astronaut at one point. Yeah, let's say he just wanted to be anything where they would be girls He directed the movies he was a he was he was JB. Yes, JB Elemy was his yes girl. He was a he was a secret agent. He was double-eyed seven You know that those situations were so far out and The Mayberry situations were Well, you know a little bit more realistic realistic. Yeah things that really happened I have I have an aunt who grew up in Kentucky and she says You can tell I have an aunt and I grew up near there because I don't say on And she says, you know, sometimes I just want to integrate with and cry because the dry wise be home so much So I guess that's how real that was Well, well, then you go to stuff like Green Acres, which is almost I mean of the of the three shows on that of that area That's like like the most surrealistic of all of them because it's like I mean I mean, it was it was so ahead of its time of like it's like they they made references to the credits Like like I was watching a show and they and it was like at Drucker's store and they're having an argument Just at the beginning of the show and the credits are still rolling, you know, like written by and all this and and one of them says wait a minute Wait a minute, they're not gonna listen to us till the names are done And so they just get there until the credits were done and then they started talking I mean, it's just like I mean You see that stuff like on on Gary Shandling or on moonlighting or something like that But this was like, you know in the 60s when nobody was doing that Actually George Burns had broken the third wall. Okay, that's that's that I will Funny with it on Green Acres We didn't pay any attention to the credits why did that? But it did I mean of course the thing is he in a lot of ways it was a You see show I show a lot like Green Acres as far as I'm because they're almost In a lot of ways the pretty much the same show when you bring it down to his basic Concepts is both of them of the Bob Newhart shows are very much like Green Acres of a guy It's like a guy who's normal in the middle of Just a whole world of insanity. I don't think mr. Douglas was all that He was pretty he was pretty normal live in that house for those years Well, he tried but who did he have to work with? Yikes Alf and Ralph Monroe Oh Gee mr. Douglas Gee what can we do he didn't want to feel like he was like so so he'd eat soft enough and then she would go Ralph would go and chase Hank Kimball down and they're getting things Never know what happened to Alf. Yeah, Alf just disappeared after a while, but they still had Ralph running around there and there Josephine the plumbers in people are gonna put up with those I mean if I had if I had to spend two three years of my life climbing up the phone pole to talk on the telephone No, no, well, I mean again the same thing. I mean you look at the the 80s Newhart show Compared to this and it's the same. It's very much the same thing as it's like Why does he put up with all this? And he just and it gets to the point after a while and it's the same thing that he just says okay I'm gonna take this as a given that these people do these things You know Then you wouldn't have a show You wouldn't have a show with just the crazy people and then not like the center of like the fall guy the straight man I mean you got to have the straight man in the middle to like Forever ready to play off of and then they did have the show on one time on Green Acres where they all the everybody else got together And decided well hey, mr. Douglas is always dressed up We'll put on our Sunday best to and it almost made him wreck the car People are out here all dressed up and got under good clothes He's driving all over the place gonna run into poles and things hit into the cornfield and everybody's all dressed up And he had to deal with mr. Haney Mr. Douglas any time he needed something mr. Haney always had it But I would convince him that he needed it That's true like you need a oh you're gonna send that boy to school without a raccoon Going to college kid Of course that's extra Mr. Douglas My but let's let's let's look back here. We got a While in the Gomer pile Show now that in itself is very unlikely because anybody who'd been to the Marines or something come back and they would laugh loud No, no, no, I've heard those diehard Marines complain about that one No, no, they wouldn't get a you know, they thought well, if we could get away with that stuff We'd have stayed in the Marines It's funny how Gomer never Never moved along he stayed there with all his buddies the same never got never got chipped off the nom or anything Well, these did a little bit duke or yeah Sergeant Carter like they do on dates with this bunny and everybody did all this training and they never went and fought anybody I mean, it's like They never mentioned war on that shit. That's true. They never ever mentioned that there was something going on Right. It was just always well. Here we are and we're training and we're training and we're training and In case we ever said which we never are but They got with those those weekend furloughs, you know And go out a little Gomer go out with Luanne and sergeant miss bunny and Duke with anything And there's no who was that was it is it well, I guess it's miss bunny and sergeant Carter's mother Those are there's there's your main stay of that show the rock that's at home on that one is well I guess but they never went there that much not often enough You did see her and when she weren't the yeah, she made an impact by golly. Well, miss bunny. I guess she's like the Stabilizing force there Luanne kind of too, but Kind of out in left field somewhere that's why she and Gomer got along so well Never find out where Luanne was from though. Yeah, she had that accent Sounds like something from a doctor I Don't know where Luanne came from and Duke don't know if Duke had last name and then there's the Who wasn't that other? Somebody else that was always there with sergeant Carter that helped him out remember what his name is his adjutant or something Yeah, but he was always usually just like it looks like he was in charge of telling sergeant Carter that some big official was coming That was a good job. How many come by they hide Gomer quick The generals coming Does anyone remember when they actually Put blended the Beverly Hill Billy's with petticoat junction Do you want to see though? I didn't I I know it happened, but I never win when Let me go through Betty Joe Bobby Joe Billy Joe Betty Joe had the baby Okay, they decided out of the blue to send granny to hell. Ah But the way they had granny explained to her family why she was going to Hooterville Was was like well you remember? Joe's aunt cousin Sue From way back so and so and they go through she go through this long story about all these People from bug tussle them where have you and then say well and Betty Joe had the baby Ah So it made no sense at all why granny was really going back except that bug tussle must lay somewhere near Hooterville Well, we assume the metropolitan area and where's that great are these places anyway ever never wonder where bug tussle bug tussles in Tennessee Granny always talked about she was from Tennessee, but where's Hooterville? We figure in Tennessee it must be Hicksley must be Well you figure it's not really deep south you never really you never really see that no deep south may bury into things we're actually right Right, right, yeah Right, but you figure so you figure it's not it's got to be like the middle south kind of kind of leaning toward the Ozarks That's pretty much where there are valleys between those mountains, okay, but um I Well, I guess they never really said where exactly they were going when he left, New York is just he's going to Green Acres It's not only the name of the country. It's not only the name of the stone the show. It's where they live They were on the cannonballs train line. Yeah, yeah on the line so they had to be somewhere between Hooterville and Picksley, Picksley. Yeah, but bug tussle must have been somewhere You already get the impression that bug tussle with a good distance away though Yeah, bug tussles in the hills, right? It was the hill that was the big city though That's what granny talked about going to bug tussle cuz they kept the lights on till nine o'clock And you know what went on in those back rooms after the lights went on at night after the lights went out at nine o'clock They played checkers They'd be playing checkers till the cows came home Of course not that they had cows up there in the hills necessarily, but then again Well, that's where we're talking. Beverly Hillbillies was my favorite out of all of them Out of the whole group except what you know I did like the petticoat junction. I think Beverly Hillbillies was my definite favorite because Ellie had all the critters and It was just I like the characters better, right? They they I can never understand why they didn't just let granny go back What she wanted to do, but they were so intent on keeping their little unit together in this big old house Well, and that was a show you truly had somebody, you know, it's like To a major extent the the straight man there, you know and the other shows that you kind of felt sorry for our Oliver Every once in a while, it's like Geez, how do you get into all this but then you know with Beverly Hillbillies you had Mr. Drysdale, which you could just absolutely hate, you know, it's like oh, yeah Cuz you know no matter what he was doing he was doing it for money and you knew he was trying to rip everybody off And it's like yeah, you got him I've about died because I felt like Miss Jane was like the top secretary for the top Insurance company and she left that job to work for mr. Drysdale and he made her do stupid Why she had this she had a triple Benefit fringe benefits great dental plan or something, you know, it's like come here And no you'll have to wear silly outfits and drive me around to be basically my personal Show for secretary You have to help me convince these hillbillies that that that I'm God And to listen to me, you know what happened? He must have some dirt on Jane I Don't know a cash a nude photo Since this was during the 60s, maybe mr. Drysdale was to represent the evil establishment and Beverly Hillbillies were to hit to for the back-to-earth people Point where they they went and you know when they met the hippies Oh Granny kept telling about smoke crawdads, and they were Of course, they were the there were the Hollywood Sanitized version of the hippies, you know It's made him more like Robin Hood's merry-man Yeah, because they thought the Jethro was robbing something like that at the time And the rangers were after me was all done on us at the stage though. That was pretty neat Anybody just kind of run back into each other after a while. It was it was kind of funny Kind of funny, but yeah, you're right of the things the mayberry whole thing where they were more Real list is effort going repel, but it kind of based more on right the gold house show I mean the character was fine. It was just the the whole show did there's like no When they come marching out it just looks like they're marching off the movie set doesn't it? I Think kind of buildings and everything But I yeah, there Was anybody I don't know if I'm right and remember if I'm thinking of the right show that seems like there was a show on On Mayberry where they put Gomer on the bus And yeah, yeah, yeah on Andy Griffith They there was a show that they sent him off and you actually and Andy Griffith went to the camp with them and With sergeant Carter's there and all this and And he's like he's like a last two days and yet he lasted all those seasons on his own show Well, it was just what was it that Gomer wanted to do it was drafted. No, he wanted to yell he wanted to be wanted to Oh Yeah, the Chris then you had the pale imitation of the Andy Griffith show me very RFD. Yeah, can vary by then it was just like there's no Floyd There's no Basically that was already long since gone. Yeah, yeah, he went to Mount Pilots dinner I think so I forget detective because I remember Barney coming back with a suit on who did they get who'd they get to replace him? Hmm. It was it was Jack Burns played the character Okay, it was like it was his second deputy deputy And it was really it was like it's like the whole show started suffering at that point That was pretty much the beginning of the end of the Andy Griffith show He's like Barney's gone, you know, and you don't see Floyd and he didn't come back to any appearances, right? Yeah Ain't be no ain't be So, yeah, that is kind of Claire's what's her last name Claire Edwards, okay, and Barney must have been like the Casanova because remember he always going out with Remember you always The Don want a Mayberry Yikes when Don Nats is the playboy Of course, they're there's still Howard, but he didn't go out much Remember that one where he caught that big fish Nobody could catch this fish. This was a you know, uh fish And no one could catch it so the first time they take Howard fishing he throws a line in and catches this giant fish And so everybody's like gee now what's you gonna do with it? So he puts it in an aquarium in in you know, Raleigh or so everybody's like Gee man, the fish ain't the pond no more. Yeah, they all got sad so he took it back and put it in the pond So nobody could ever catch it again That's all they really you know, it's all it really was it wasn't like, you know wasn't PBS here We're talking it was it was something real simple, you know It's like sit down and just shut off your brain for half an hour and watch this Well, I don't know if we want to get into that because I think we're we're running out of time believe it or not I know this exciting show How many more can we go there well We're about done for the show and next show we're gonna be having the exciting We're gonna go through we've already done a Trek show our Star Trek show now We're gonna do all science fiction other than trek in the 60s and 70s So we're just gonna I don't know how we're gonna cram it a half an hour But we'll try for all of us in vast wasteland Well, we'll see you later and and y'all come back now