March 23, 1971: CBS' Rural Purge

The Clampetts of The Beverly Hillbillies

March 23, 1971: The last episode of The Beverly Hillbillies airs on CBS. It was followed on March 29 by the last episode of Mayberry R.F.D., and on April 27 by the last episode of Green Acres.

A month earlier, on February 23, Hee Haw, the country-music-themed variety show, aired its last episode on CBS. It was saved by a syndication package, on which it ran until 1993. The other shows mentioned weren't so lucky: They fell victim to what became known as "The Rural Purge."

The Beverly Hillbillies was one of the most-watched shows of the early 1960s. In fact, aside from The Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, it was the most-watched show on television in 1964. But times had changed.

Indeed, at a time when "Middle America" seemed to be reasserting itself -- the backlash against the Vietnam War and civil rights abuses had begun to receive its own backlash -- CBS was getting more innovative. Two months earlier, it had debuted All In the Family, skewering the perceptions of stereotypes and breaking taboos about what could be shown or discussed on TV. Four months before that, "The Tiffany Network" debuted The Mary Tyler Moore Show, with a 30-year-old never-married "career woman" as its main character. In a year and a half, it would debut M*A*S*H, the 1st "dramedy," although that term wouldn't come for another generation.

And yet, just 3 days before the premiere of M*A*S*H, CBS premiered The Waltons, set in rural Virginia during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It became very popular -- or maybe it just picked up all the viewers that the previous rural shows had.

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March 23, 1971 was a Tuesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. Only 1 game was played in the NBA: The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 114-112 at the Cleveland Arena.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The New York Nets lost to the Memphis Pros, 117-110 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. And the Utah Stars beat their arch-rivals, the Denver Rockets, 124-117 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. The Stars would go on to win the ABA Championship that season. But they would not survive the mini-merger with the NBA in 1976. The Rockets would, although, anticipating this, and knowing that the NBA already had the Houston Rockets, changed their name to the Denver Nuggets.

There were 3 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 7-2 at Madison Square Garden. 

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Denver.