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MulciberTenebras t1_iyd5c10 wrote

Reply to comment by secretmadscientist in The Decline of British Blue Collar Stories On Screen: 25 years since NIL BY MOUTH first hit screens, Gary Oldman’s film has become a relic of a time when working-class stories were major cinematic events. What happened? by Bullingdon1973

This started in the early 70s. They called it the "rural purge".

Shows with rural/country settings (or even had a tree on set, as actor Pat Buttram described it) were all immediately cancelled and replaced with city-focused sitcoms/dramas.

The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Lassie, Petticoat Junction, Hogan's Heroes, The Virginian, The High Chaparral, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C, Ed Sullivan, My Three Sons, Mayberry RFD, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Hee Haw... most were still hit shows, but they all got cancelled so as to eliminate the older demographic and skew more towards the lucrative younger audiences.

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Venture_compound t1_iyd7lpp wrote

One man is responsible for this and he's a complete tyrant at the BBC. Mews Frumpty. Thank God he was fired in the early 2000s for abuse of power.

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SmoreOfBabylon t1_iye8a19 wrote

The post-rural purge shift to shows with urban settings wasn't mutually exclusive with blue collar shows, though. Sitcoms like All In the Family, Sanford & Son, MASH, Laverne & Shirley, Welcome Back Kotter, Good Times, and Taxi were all blue collar shows that launched and flourished in the '70s, for example. In fact, sitcoms in general started to get edgier and more topical during that decade - All in the Family was fairly controversial in its time, especially to viewers who had become accustomed to the relatively tame and saccharine family comedies of the '50s and '60s.

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[deleted] t1_iydsw4y wrote

And nowadays, there’s nothing the new young generation loves more than the allure of millionaire grandeur.

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Dantheking94 t1_iyegtly wrote

I was an 11 year old kid that literally loved LOVED Green Acres. Used to have me laughing until tears came out of my eyes.

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