‘Call Off Your Hillbilly Hunt,’ Senator Tells CBS About Show

The furor over the prospect that CBS will resurrect “The Beverly Hillbillies” television show -- but with real people from Appalachia as the cast -- reached Congress on Tuesday as Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) accused the network of “bigotry, pure and simple.”

“Call off your hillbilly hunt,” Miller said in speech on the Senate floor.

The proposed show -- “The Real Beverly Hillbillies” -- has prompted a controversy in the Appalachian region, where television producers have been scouting for a family to move into a Beverly Hills mansion. Advocacy groups, such as the Kentucky-based Center for Rural Studies, have sought to persuade CBS not to approve the show. High school students have waged a letter-writing campaign against it.

Miller, who was born and still lives in an Appalachian mountain town in north Georgia, said he took personal offense at the proposed show and added that it would serve only to humiliate poor, rural Americans.

“My neighbors and I have lived with this ridicule and overdrawn stereotype all our lives, as did our parents and their parents before them,” he said. Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio), who grew up in the Appalachia region of southern Ohio and represents the area, is drafting a letter to circulate among his colleagues urging CBS to cancel plans for the show and inviting CBS President Leslie Moonves to visit Appalachia.

Strickland said negative stereotypes take a toll on the Appalachia region.

“These false images drive away investment and business,” he said. “They subtly prejudice policymakers and they make it difficult to win needed government assistance for education infrastructure. And they burden our precious young people with an unearned sense of shame.”

CBS spokesman Chris Ender said the network hasn’t committed to producing the show.

“We think it’s very unfortunate that some are forming conclusions about a project before it has been cast or a stitch of film has been shot,” he said. “But it’s certainly not our intent to offend anyone.”

The reaction from Capitol Hill was the latest criticism of Hollywood from lawmakers -- conservative and liberal alike -- who have assailed the entertainment industry over the years on a variety of issues, including marketing violence to children. At the same time, Congress remains reluctant to pursue legislation for fear of trampling on 1st Amendment rights.

Miller took aim at Moonves, whom he said “obviously believes that network television is an ethics-free zone and that it’s acceptable for big profits to always come ahead of good taste.”

“They will deny it,” Miller said. “They will say it is just harmless humor. But they know better.”

The situation comedy that inspired the reality-based proposal had its first telecast in 1962 and aired for nine seasons. The fictional family in that show hailed from the Ozarks.