Writing for First Things, K. E. Columbini points out the strong bias against rural life that dominates the media.
Examples of this [rural] purge abound, mostly between 1969 and 1975: Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Mayberry R.F.D., Lassie, Family Affair, Hogan’s Heroes, and My Three Sons; variety shows like Hee-Haw or those hosted by Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Jim Nabors, Andy Williams, and Glen Campbell; and westerns, such as The Big Valley, Virginian, Bonanza, and Gunsmoke. As the voice and character actor Pat Buttram said of 1970, the height of the purge: “It was the year CBS canceled everything with a tree.”
