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Message started by Andyfan on Feb 1st, 2012 at 4:11am

Title: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Andyfan on Feb 1st, 2012 at 4:11am
Was TAGS offensive to rural people?
Did its characters often seem like "hicks" and "rednecks"?
I'd be especially interested in what people who live in small towns or in the countryside think about this. It does seem to me that, all too often, the media will slide into negative and demeaning stereotypes of small town and country people.

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by uncle nat on Feb 1st, 2012 at 6:43am
I live in a small town and I'll guarantee you one thing I'll take small town living over the hustle and bustle of the big city any day of my life! I'm about as laid back as you get and the only time I get excited is when I'm in traffic in the city. >:( So yes I'm thankful for the Seth Taylor's of the world for swindling people into keeping the major highways and big cities out of my daily routine! I only wish the big city media could hear what I think about them! :-X I'm proud to say I like the aroma of manure over factory smoke and car emissions!  :)

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Puddingtame on Feb 1st, 2012 at 7:35am
Being a lifetime "hick" (as you put it), I could care less how others view me. My issue is when they try to impose their "enlightened ways" on the rest of the world.

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Andy Paul Lawson on Feb 1st, 2012 at 9:38am
  I sure didn't think was offensive to us people of the earth. I mean the Darlings were a bit stereotypical, but not in a mean way. I thought is worse when in later episodes Mayberry started to grow up and get citified.

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Thelscuz on Feb 1st, 2012 at 11:58am
If you'll recall, in Mayberry, the "hicks" usually got the best of the city slickers when all was said and done.

  Some of the smartest (and richest) people in our Middle Tennessee county wear bib overalls and drive ole wore-out pickup trucks.  You can't judge a book by its cover--and Andy and the folks in Mayberry knew that.

No, us "country dwellers" didn't get offended by TAGS.  We loved it!

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by KC on Feb 1st, 2012 at 12:04pm
We lived in rural America - had crank telephones until about 1966.  We never thought we were being made fun of.

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Pierre on Feb 6th, 2012 at 9:18am
Living in the country and / or in a small town doesn't make one a hick or red neck any more that living in a big city makes one a drug user or gangstah.

I am from a small town and think TAGS portrayed small town folk in an honest fashion.  Time and again big city folk wandered or stumbled into Mayberry with preconceived notions about small town folk.  Usually that notion was that they were backwards and ignorant (hicks).  By the time they left our friendly little town, they knew better. 

What some big city folk assume is ignorance or backwardness is simply that small town folk don't go in for the latest and greatest fads just because they are the latest and greatest fads.  Small town folk know how to work hard and how to relax. 

Small town folk may be 'taken in' by a big city huckster once and thought to be a rube.  But not twice.  :-[ And.... you won't do to my neighbors what you did to me.  >:(

TAGS was as real as they come.  And, honestly, I had one of every character in TAGS in my life.  All wonderful people with different attributes and failings.  I wouldn't trade growing up in my Mayberry for anything in the world.



Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by widow bradshaw on Feb 7th, 2012 at 9:52pm
If it was, I don't reckon I never had enough brains to know I was being offended! :-/ ;)

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Pierre on Feb 8th, 2012 at 8:08am
My Great Aunt had a saying, "You are about as happy in life as  you allow yourself to be."

I suppose this applies to being offended, "You are about as offended as you allow yourself to be."

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Lake Loon on Feb 8th, 2012 at 8:27am
I don't think TAGS was demeaning at all to rural people.  I think that the writers made a great effort to show that while perhaps less educated and less traveled than some city folk, the people of Mayberry had other redeeming qualities. Patience, common sense, country wisdom, kindness, and a sense of fair play among other qualities that are often lacking in city dwellers.  We all have gifts and weaknesses, I think TAGS portrayed these fairly and honestly.

Lake Loon

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Al Becker on Feb 12th, 2012 at 12:19pm

I agree wholeheartedly with you, Lake Loon.

Let me stop here and note this is the first time I've ever agreed with a target I've literally tried to kill whilst hunting.  ;D

But no, I did not feel demeaned. Not at all. It takes a lot to demean us Bitter-Clingers.  ;)


Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Pierre on Feb 13th, 2012 at 8:40am

Al Becker wrote on Feb 12th, 2012 at 12:19pm:
Bitter-Clinger



What's that?

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Briscoe Darling on Feb 15th, 2012 at 3:05am

Andyfan wrote on Feb 1st, 2012 at 4:11am:
Was TAGS offensive to rural people?
Did its characters often seem like "hicks" and "rednecks"?
I'd be especially interested in what people who live in small towns or in the countryside think about this. It does seem to me that, all too often, the media will slide into negative and demeaning stereotypes of small town and country people.



Uh..NO and NO! 

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by widow bradshaw on Feb 15th, 2012 at 5:47am

Al Becker wrote on Feb 12th, 2012 at 12:19pm:
Bitter-Clingers

better 'tread lightly'!  ;) 8-)

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Al Becker on Feb 16th, 2012 at 5:57pm


widow bradshaw wrote on Feb 15th, 2012 at 5:47am:
better 'tread lightly'!  ;) 8-)


I will. Got my gun and bible within clinging distance, wb.  ;)

adios, amigos!  8-)


Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Andyfan on Feb 16th, 2012 at 7:30pm
Since I started the thread, I should probably say that I don't believe TAGS demeaned rural people. I was wondering what other people thought.
It often seemed to me that the show demonstrated that rural people are not the fools some urbanites stereotype them to be as the many con artists who came to Mayberry believing they could clean up always got caught.

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by widow bradshaw on Feb 18th, 2012 at 7:22pm

Al Becker wrote on Feb 16th, 2012 at 5:57pm:
Got my gun and bible within clinging distance

ah, that's a good one Al...

Title: Re: Was TAGS demeaning to rural people?
Post by Briscoe Darling on Feb 19th, 2012 at 5:25pm

Al Becker wrote on Feb 16th, 2012 at 5:57pm:
I will. Got my gun and bible within clinging distance, wb.  ;)

adios, amigos!  8-)



Me too, Al!!!   ;)

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