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Senator Byrd

Leadership.      Character.      Commitment.

Remarks by U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd

July 25, 2003

The "Real Beverly Hillbillies" Is Real Garbage

For more than a century now, national commentators of one type or another have stereotyped, mocked, and ridiculed the people of Appalachia.

They continued to do so even as the region and its people were savaged by Northeast industrialists, and as economic forces beyond their control resulted in massive gaps of poverty in the region.  The stereotyping of the Appalachian people as dim-witted, barefooted hillbillies who thrive on incest and moonshine allowed the Nation to laugh at and turn their backs on the plight of a people who were being robbed of their land and its resources.  It prompted the nation to perceive and dismiss Appalachians as the instigators rather than the victims of their plight. 

Television has certainly been a part of this Appalachian bashing.  "Green Acres" featured farming mountain folks conversing with a talking pig.  The "Dukes of Hazzard" featured stereotypical mountain folk jumping in and out of cars, without bothering to open doors, and a car horn that played Dixie.

Even "The Waltons", a series with numerous morally uplifting episodes and storylines that promoted hard work, love of family, honesty, patriotism, and spirituality, can be faulted for its beautifully romanticized version of poverty. It portrayed poverty as a way of life that nurtures, rather than inhibits, that builds character rather than denies opportunity.  Mr. President, I have seen poverty.  I have known poverty.  I can tell you that poverty is beautiful only if you are not poor.

In this day and age of political correctness, Appalachians may be the last remaining ethnic group that it is still socially acceptable to scorn, demean, stereotype, and joke about.  If Jay Leno told such cruel, bigoted, and slanderous ethnic humor about any number of minority groups that he does Appalachians, he would have more than the ratings of David Letterman about which to be concerned.

Now, incredibly, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) is planning to air a new program, "The Real Beverly Hillbillies."  For this program, the brainchild of CEO Leslie Moonves, CBS plans to pluck a poor, rural  family from the hills of Appalachia and plop them down in a mansion in Beverly Hills so the nation can laugh at them as they try to adjust to big city life.  I have read that CBS is already conducting so-called "hick-hunts" in which they are searching for the perfect stereotypical Appalachian family to amuse a national audience.

The insensitivity and mean spiritedness of this plan has already aroused protests and criticisms from many segments of American society including Appalachian social action groups, labor unions, and various state and national legislators. 

The United Mine Workers of America, the Steel Workers Union, and Communication Workers have all protested the network's intent to ridicule good people and make fun of their lifestyles.  In a joint letter to Mr. Moonves, 43 members of the House of Representatives objected to the proposed program, saying it would be "an insult to the millions of people living in Appalachia."

While I am outraged, I am even more curious about just what kind of brain power went into proposing this show.   I can't help but chuckle when I picture these highly paid, supposedly educated television corporate executives sitting around in a plush, ornate boardroom and thinking of such a stupid program.  I am sure most of these fellows earn at least a six-figure income.  Some of them probably went to Ivy League schools. And this is what they come up with?

It's not even original.  It's a plagiarization of an old program, only going a step further and using real people rather than actors.

Highly paid, highly educated televison executives sitting around in an ornate boardroom and thinking of low-grade garbage such as this -- if  this were my staff, I can tell you that I would be looking for some new staffers!

But these CBS executives think it will be funny for city folk to sit back and watch  country bumpkins try to blend into the culture of the "beautiful people" of Rodeo Drive.  Their anticipation is that Americans will tune in and watch and just howl and howl as they watch a poor family from Appalachia adjust to the glitz and glamor of Beverly Hills, to modern appliances, Gucci shoes and Rolex watches.  Boy, I can hardly hold back my laughter.

One CBS Executive remarked: "Imagine the episode where they have to interview maids."  Boy, I am sure that episode will be a real knee slapper. 

I have to ask, "Is this the best they can do?"  "Is this the best television has to offer?"

Unfortunately, it is.

Just when you think the television standards can get no lower, they do!

Just when you start thinking that these bottom feeders have cleansed the bottom, and might try to move up the food chain, they find more garbage at the bottom to keep them there.

Television has become more than the "vast wasteland" FCC chairman Newton Minnow labeled it 42 years ago, it has become a waste.

If these executives are looking for new ideas for televison reality shows, may I suggest a few.  We could take highly paid, well-groomed television network executives and relocate them to the sticks, where they'd have to try to find a job with health care and pension benefits and enough pay to support a family, and adjust to everyday life in rural America.  Now that would be funny!  And, as the president of the UMWA, Cecil Roberts, has suggested, we could put them to work digging coal from a 30-inch seam in a non-union coal mine.  That too would be funny!

I could suggest a program where Americans could watch television anchormen trying to get to work on time each day while driving on hilly, winding two-lane roads behind huge coal trucks going 5 miles an hour up steep hills.  We would watch their frustration build and build and could take bets on when they would blow their tempers.  We could watch them get their $2,500 made-to-measure suits dirty as they are forced to change tires flattened by huge potholes created by those trucks.  We could watch them pull their cars into garages and get the estimates for repairs to the damage those potholes have done.   Then we could laugh hysterically as they present "fleecing of America" awards to Senators who try to get those highways improved.

Televison could be such a positive tool in our society and culture.  It could be doing so much good.  It could be a powerful instrument to bring out the best in us, rather than appeal to our meanest and darker sides. It could be a creative instrument in elevating the standards and values of the American people rather than lowering them.   I strongly urge the executives at CBS to reconsider their plans for the "Real Beverly Hillbillies" in favor a program that is enlightening, educational, and beneficial.

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