Rube Tube: CBS and Rural Comedy in the Sixties. By Sara K. Eskridge. (University of Missouri Press, 2018, Pp. 242)

Reviewed by Tim G. Nutt

Some of the most fondly remembered television shows in syndication today are the rural comedies which aired on the Columbia Broad-casting System (CBS) during the mid-late 1960s. In Rube Tube: CBS and Rural Comedy in the Sixties, Sara K. Eskridge examines the popularity of these shows, the disconnect between the shows amid shifting social changes, and their abrupt cancellation.

Beginning in 1960 with the premiere of The Andy Griffith Show, the comedic lives of residents of rural communities of Hooterville, Mayberry, and Kornfield Kounty, as well as the fish-out-of-water story of the Ozarks “hillbillies” in Beverly Hills, became staples of the CBS television lineup. This slew of country-oriented shows in the 1960s was a drastic shift from the programming that dominated CBS’s lineup in the 1950s, which centered around shows set in urban or suburban locales.

What was the reasoning behind such a sharp pivot? Eskridge adeptly explains that CBS executives in the 1950s focused programming on more thought-provoking, erudite, and even diverse casting and topics. I Love Lucy, which aired on CBS from 1951-1957, featured real-life couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Arnaz was one of the first Latino actors to headline a network television show and portray a successful career man. While Black representation was present on CBS in the 1950s—with shows such as Amos ‘n’ Andy—stereotypes were heavily utilized in plots and characters. Even with these stereotypes, executives worried about finding sponsors for shows featuring Black actors, as well as offending Southern viewers.

Although slavery had been abolished for nearly a century, Blacks in the southern United States still found themselves denied rights through segregation policies and Jim Crow laws. Beginning in 1954 with the U. S. Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, laws segregating Blacks from white society were challenged. In 1957, the integration of Central High School in Little Rock by nine Black students resulted in a stand-off between Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and the Federal Government. Faubus’ defiance of an integration order was broadcast around the country. The era of Civil Rights had arrived and, as Eskridge writes, CBS executives erased much, if not all, of the earlier diversity in favor of shows that were “inoffensive yet entertaining to a broad swath of the population. . . .” (9).

The shift in programming resulted in a rash of rural-centered, farcical shows written to display the antics of hillbillies and other rural folks in all their perceived uncouth, simple, and folksy ways. While these new programs played to the stereotypes associated with rural or hill folk, they were meant to connect Southern audiences with the television characters and to be inoffensive to sponsors and to the audience. Most of these new shows rarely featured a Black or Latino character. As Eskridge notes, these programs “served as a peacemaker between CBS and the public” (9). They also became money-makers for the network, and many are considered classics and remain on the air nearly sixty years after their first airings.

The Andy Griffith Show led the transformation of CBS from the “Communist Broadcasting System” (which many called it because of its diversity and liberal bent in the 1950s) to the “Country Broad-casting System” (93). A list of the “rural comedies” selected by CBS executives in the 1960s can still be found on the television dial today, including The Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Hee Haw. All of these shows relied on comedy resulting from misunderstandings, cultural differences, sight gags, or physical pratfalls. Hee Haw, probably the most ridiculous in this grouping, was built on cringe-worthy jokes and hokey skits, but it also gave a venue to some of America’s biggest country stars.

CBS found success in this programming because the shows were popular throughout the country, not just in the South. These shows ruled the Nielson ratings because of their universal popularity. Eskridge proposes that the popularity of this programming, especially outside of the South, was because it made “viewers feel better about themselves” (141). The escapist element of the shows also triggered a sense of nostalgia among viewers.

Despite the high profitability and popularity of the shows, those still on the air in 1971 were abruptly cancelled. CBS executives in the 1970s purged the schedule of the rural comedies, greenlighting edgier, more diverse, and socially conscious shows, such as All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Eskridge provides an excellent, insightful look into 1960s society through the screen of the television set. With research conducted at prestigious archives like Performing Arts Special Collections at UCLA, National Archives, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Eskridge has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of media history, particularly in the “rural” era of CBS. I highly recommend this book.

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Tim Nutt is director of the Historical Research Center at the Uni-versity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Previously, he was Head of Special Collections at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville and founding Deputy Curator of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System. He also served as the founding Managing Editor and Staff Historian of the award-winning online Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. A native of Bigelow, Arkansas, Nutt received a BA in history from the University of Central Arkansas and a master’s in library science, with an emphasis on archives, from the University of Oklahoma. He is a past president of the Arkansas Historical Association and a certified archivist.