cultural imperialism

Dennis dperrin13 at mediaone.net
Sat Nov 17 16:15:42 PST 2001



> Yes, GA is much underrated, IMHO. I always loved the way patriotic music
> would well up in the background whenever Oliver Wendall Douglas starting
> waxing eloquent about the virtues of honest farming life, music that would
> mystify anyone he was talking to.
>
> Carl

The whole show was great, written by a bunch of old radio jokemeisters who played with the sitcom form at a time when it was at its conformist zenith. Even though GA had a laugh track, this added to its weirdness. And all the other characters were in a different universe than Oliver's, which fed his constant frustration. My other fav from that time, "Beverly Hillbillies," came from the same Paul Henning stable. A family of backwoods rubes discovers oil, moves to Beverly Hills, is taken in by a greedy banker who epitomizes all the worst traits of capitalism while the nephew, Jethro, tries to live out all the American fantasy archetypes from the era -- from a "double-naught" spy to a beatnik to a radical hippie. Absurdism like this is definitely not in Hollywood vogue.

DP



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