Mike Moser "I Say" Published March 14, 2003

Hillbillies kicking up quite a brouhaha

I don't get into these so-called reality shows that seem to be flooding the airwaves. Sure, I did view a few episodes of "Survivor" when that show first aired, but it soon appeared to me that watching that show week after week would require more of a survivor countenance than I wanted to have.

"Fear Factor" has no appeal to me; I tried to watch it once and never made it through the second commercial. "The Bachelor" and "Married by America" seem to me just plain dumb.
But my curiosity has been peaked by the ruckus over a reality show proposed by CBS called, "The Real Beverly Hillbillies." If there is one thing us Southerners enjoy more than a scandal, it is joining in a ruckus.

I once attended a weekend writing conference and was lucky to come under the tutalege of a junior college English professor named Nelle McFather from Waycross, GA. I found her to be a very fun teacher and can only imagine the kick she is getting out of the Hillbillies brouhaha.

McFather has published at least three dozen books which by any measure is quite a successful run. My curiosity got the best of me and I ordered one of Nelle's books ... it was so steamy I cannot even remember the title. Wow!

During one of our sessions we discussed as a class the great Southern writers and what makes their stories great. Nelle told us the ingredients of good writing: family, food, religion, smells, the land, traditions and human conflict over these.

Think of Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote or Harper Lee and you will see these themes intertwined again and again.

That is why I was not surprised at the plans for a Hillbilly reality show, nor was the resulting outcry such a shock.

Those of us who have lived in the South know that it is quite acceptable for us to laugh amongst ourselves, and even relish a good scandal. We particularly love good political outrage and disgrace. Throw in a little "who is doing who," and we have a grand time in the aisles of Wal-Mart or Kmart on a Sunday afternoon after church.

But, let an outsider come in and point at our social warts and you better get ready take on mom and them in a best, two-out-of-three fall rasslin' match.

The proposed show would move a poor, rural family into a fancy Beverly Hills mansion while the nation tunes in weekly to see what will happen. Gosh, that is a novel idea.

Poor Harper Lee couldn't go home to Monroeville, AL, for years after writing To Kill a Mockingbird because the townspeople were so angered over her classic. Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof left Southerners with their hands over their mouths in feigned horror, even though privately we in the South clamored for more.

Much to some's chagrin, Sling Blade and Steel Magnolias were smashing hits.

Like it or not, we in the South live interesting lives because of our penchant for public displays and it is OK if we expose ourselves, but woe be to them who dare come in and expose us.

The reality of it all is that it will be the Hillbillies who will laugh all the way to the bank.

· · ·
Mike Moser is the editor of the Crossville Chronicle. His column is published periodically on Fridays.