h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the Chicago Tribune yesterday there was an advertisement from a rural advocacy group protesting CBS's planned reality-show update of "The Beverly Hillbillies": a multi-generational family from rural Appalachia gets chosen to live a luxurious Beverly Hills lifestyle for a year and America gets to watch. The group claims that CBS executives were demeaning the rural poor, quoting one executive who joked about watching the nouveaux riches interviewing household help.

Well. First of all, I grew up in the South, in suburban Appalachia. I've had opportunities to observe the poverty in some of those backwoods areas, and marvel at people's abilty to survive. Which leads me to propose a companion show to the reality-version of "The Beverly Hillbillies". A wealthy family from exalted socioeconomic circumstances and used to metropolitan life is transported to a small town in the rural mid-South on an income of $30K a year. Watch them explore Wal-Mart! Survive without cable! Do their own chores! at their reactions to people inviting them to church! There'll have to be an episode dealing with either hunting or ing ; watch Randolph and Caroline try to load a rifle! And so on.

Actually, I don't think either show will be/would be mocking their participants. They'd be funny, sure, but any -out-of-water situation is funny. But the real interest for me would be how everyone adapts to their new circumstances. And can you go home to either rural Kentucky or urban SoCal and truly fit in once more?

A thought had occured to me that the "Beverly Hillbillies" might do well to move next door to the Osbournes; they seem pretty down-to-earth. If it weren't for those pesky rumors of Satanism that follow Ozzy around, and the whole -eating thing. On second thought, they'd freak out. But I wouldn't mind living next to the Osbournes... if those f***ing MTV cameras weren't always there.