Heartland

Well, not really, for the Beverly Hillbillies, as silly as that sitcom was, actually had some good writing, good humor, and good acting. Shallow, silly, sophomoric? Perhaps. But not vulgar.

Heartland seemed simple a vehicle for some sicko screenwriter to unload his collection of crude manure jokes and bestiality innuendoes on the public. It lends credibility to my tendency to call sitcoms by a combination word that contains a synonym for manure and rhymes with sitcom. Get the picture?

I can't find the network info on IMDb but I think this was a CBS program. CBS is considering a "reality show" in which they plan to bring some residents of Appalachia to Los Angeles. Well, if if such schlock ever makes it onto the air, and the show treats rural people and themes anything close to the way they did it in Heartland, walk, don't run from the TV.

(I had forgotten the forgettable Heartland, but thought of it when I heard of the possibility of the new CBS show.)

Pleasant, brain-neutral summer replacement series featuring Brian Keith as a cheerfully crotchety farmer forced to move in with his daughter and son-in-law (Jason Kristofer). Interesting in being the only appearance of Keith's daughter Daisy, whose suicide in 1997 presaged Brian Keith's own suicide several weeks later.

I remember this show and if I'm not mistaken it was one of those summer shows that last only a few weeks. It was the first time I saw Richard Guilliam on TV. He went on tho the memorable role of J.D. Shacelford on Designing women. He met and married his wife Jean Smart on that show. I believe the premise of the show was a widowed son in law and his grandson moving in with Brian Keith on his farm. I also remember one funny line from the show that my wife and I still use.

Brian Keith sitting on the porch swing relates how his son came for a visit and wanted to borrow $1000.00 to join an ashram. The other person in the scene says "and what did you tell him." He replied "I told him that if he didn't clean up his act and get a job, I was gonna kick his ashram up and down my bean field"

As I recall, they lived near Pritchard, Nebraska, somewhere between Lincoln and Grand Island. Gus was a little dense in the head but lovable and liked farm life. The other boy wanted to be cool and hated farm life. The father wasn't too crazy about his father-in-law but put up with him. On one episode they went to Dodge City, Kansas, together to buy a bull calf. Brian Keith drove something like a 1959 Chevrolet or GMC pickup. Maybe it was the same one he had on Hardcastle and McCormick. Sometimes you wondered if the writer really understood farming. I remember one time they were going to harvest, and the father and his father-in-law got up early to get an early start, and they brought the whole crop in in one day!

It was one of the few shows on CBS that didn't have a chance as it should have had. It was well-written and I liked the cast including Brian Keith and his real-life daughter Daisy Keith (Both father and daughter committed suicide years later). I remember this show because it was rural and set in the Heartland of Nebraska. First, there are few shows set in Nebraska anymore. I always liked to see how other people lived in other states. The show also featured Richard Gilliland (husband of Jean Smart in real life). I thought the show had a lot going for it but obviously, I was wrong. The show got cancelled and I have nothing but my memories of it for now. It would be nice to see family oriented sitcoms like Heartland today on network television or on cable or in syndication. I have a feeling that Heartland would have done well in syndication like Mama's Family.