(WEST WINDSOR, NJ) -- Owners of the new box set of the 1960s television comedy Green Acres will find a bonus during their nostalgic trip to Hooterville. In addition to Mr. Haney, Fred Ziffel, and Arnold the Pig, they will find a guest commentary that includes Steve Voorhees, Mercer County Community College (MCCC) associate professor in the Television, Digital Film, and New Media program.
Voorhees, co-producer of Inside the Box: The TV History Podcast, joins co-hosts Dr. Jonathan Bullinger and Andrew Salvati to provide bonus material for Green Acres: The Complete Series, which was released Oct. 17. The trio will recount the behind-the-scenes story of the fabled “rural purge,” when CBS – quickly followed by the other two major television networks – cancelled rural-oriented programing in favor of urban and more socially-aware offerings.
“We are excited to provide fans of this iconic series with such an unprecedented event in television history,” Voorhees said. “If not for the rural purge, it’s likely Green Acres and other rural programs would have endured longer runs.”
The “rural purge” was a series of cancellations of popular rural-themed shows in the early 1970s, starting with Petticoat Junction in 1970, quickly followed by iconic programs that includedGreen Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry R.F.D., and Hee Haw. Supplanting these programs in the primetime lineup included shows deemed to be more socially-aware and aimed at an urban audience, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, The Bob Newhart Show, and M*A*S*H.
In the words of actor Pat Buttram, who played Mr. Haney on Green Acres: “It was the year CBS cancelled everything with a tree – even Lassie.”
“This purge signaled a paradigm shift for the entire television landscape and ushered in a new era of programming in the 1970s,” Voorhees said.
In collaboration with media distributor Shout! Factory, the Inside the Box commentary on the rural purge will appear as an alternative audio commentary track to the last episode on theGreen Acres box set.
Inside the Box: The TV History Podcast was founded in 2014 and explores a wide range of topics – from scholarly to humorous – regarding the American television industry of the 20thcentury. Every two weeks the hosts discuss content, technology, policy, and programming from television’s past in relation to the present and the future.