Writer: 'Hollywood Hillbillies' resembles 'Real Beverly Hillbillies' but won't cause much fuss

Ten years ago, the Center for Rural Strategies led the charge to keep CBS from airing "The Real Beverly Hillbillies," a proposed show that many feared would ridicule rural families. While reality-show producers have made a fortune on rural-based shows, no one has tried to replicate the idea of the old show starring the Clampetts—until now, with the introduction of the "Hollywood Hillbillies" on Reelz, Janney Lockman writes for the Daily Yonder. (Reelz photo)

But this time, the show—and any campaign to get it off the air—probably won't make the news, Lockman opines. "The closest we’ll be able to get to 'The Real Beverly Hillbillies' is here, and I’m not worried. You shouldn’t be either. Because I can’t imagine that the show will last longer than a season. Sure, someone turns his truck bed into a Jacuzzi, and there are some references to urinating outside. But aside from their accents, the family in 'Hollywood Hillbillies' could have come from almost any town in the United States."  

"Networks want a fish-out-of-water story, but the truth is, the pond’s gone dry," Lockman writes. "Rural America doesn’t exist in a vacuum from the rest of the world. It isn’t a land frozen in time, an innocent paradise depicted in a Norman Rockwell painting. We’ve had electricity and television for a long time now and Internet access at increasing rates." And since the family on the show gained limited success through Youtube, "It’s no surprise that moving them to Hollywood makes for unremarkable reality television. Hollywood Hillbillies may shock and offend, but who’s watching?" (Read more)