Culture of The Southern United States - Television

Television

Network television shows set in the Southern United States:

1950s–1971:

Following the boom of television in the 1950s, many shows were set in the South and/or became very popular with Southerners. They included:

• The Real McCoys (1957–1963)
• The Andy Griffith Show (1960–1968)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971)
• Petticoat Junction (1963–1970)
• Flipper (1964-1967)
• Green Acres (1965–1971)
• Hee Haw (1969–1992)

1976–present:

By 1971, sponsors had grown weary of this formula, and CBS consequently cancelled all of its Southern shows. (Only Hee Haw survived, in syndication.) However, in 1976, Jimmy Carter was elected as the first President of the United States from the Deep South (or arguably only the first since the Civil War). The election resulted in reporters swarming into Carter's small southern town of Plains, Georgia, speculation about his lifestyle and Southern Baptist faith, and renewed interest in Southern culture.

A new crop of television shows followed within the next decade, such as:

• Dallas (1978–1991)
• The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985)
• Mama's Family (1983–1990)
• The Golden Girls (1985–1992)
• Matlock (1986–1995)
• Designing Women (1986–1993)
• In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995)

In addition, network television shows set in the South since 1990 include:

• Evening Shade (1990–1994)
• Walker, Texas Ranger (1993–2001)
• Reba (2001–2007)
• King of the Hill (1997–2009)
• One Tree Hill (2003–present)
• The Riches (2007–present)
• True Blood (2007-2008)
• Justified (2010–present)
• Friday Night Lights (2006–2011)
• Hart of Dixie (2011–present)

However, critics point out that most of these shows, and most films in general, stereotype Southerners as "hapless hicks" or "a universally simple and often silly group of inhabitants", especially in contrast to the far more complex literary portrayals, and argue that they do not fairly represent Southerners' culture.