Televising the South: Race, Gender, and Region in Primetime, 1955-1980
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TELEVISING THE SOUTH: RACE, GENDER, AND REGION IN PRIMETIME, 1955-1980 by PHOEBE M. BRONSTEIN A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2013 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Phoebe M. Bronstein Title: Televising the South: Race, Gender, and Region in Primetime, 1955-1980 This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English by: Carol Stabile Chairperson Priscilla Ovalle Core Member Courtney Thorsson Core Member Meslissa Stuckey Institutional Representative and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research and Innovation; Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded September 2013 ii © 2013 Phoebe M. Bronstein This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Phoebe Bronstein Doctor of Philosophy Department of English September 2013 Title: Televising the South: Race, Gender, and Region in Primetime, 1955-1980 This dissertation traces the emergence of the U.S. South and the region’s role in primetime television, from the post-World War II era through Reagan’s election in 1980. These early years defined, as Herman Gray suggests in Watching Race, all subsequent representations of blackness on television. This defining moment, I argue, is one inextricably tethered to the South and the region’s anxiety ridden and complicated relationship with television. This anxiety was rooted in the progress and increasing visibility of the Civil Rights Movement, concern over growing white southern audiences in the wake of the FCC freeze (ended in 1952), and the fear and threat of a southern backlash against racially progressive programming. From the short-lived drama Bourbon Street Beat to the success of Andy Griffith, these concerns structured and policed the content of television, producing puzzling and often contradictory visions of the South. The representational maneuvers enacted by these shows attempted to render that threatening South safe for national consumption, while simultaneously invoking southern manners and downhome southern living as emblematic of all that is good about America. That is, the South was both the threat to the democratic nation and the cure for all that ailed a nation in crisis. In returning to the South during the formative years of primetime and at a moment where the region visibly and visually contested narratives of a iv democratic nation, my dissertation provides a foundation for thinking through a contemporary landscape saturated in problematically post-racial southern imagery. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Phoebe M. Bronstein GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene University of California, Los Angeles University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, English, University of Oregon, Summer 2013 Master of Arts, English, University of Oregon, Spring 2009 Bachelor of Arts, History and English, University of California, Los Angeles, Fall 2004 AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Television and Film Studies Theories of Race and Gender PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon September 2007-June 2013 Education Coordinator (Intern), The Global Film Initiative, July-October 2009 Corporate Communications Assistant, Draft New York, August 2005-May 2006 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS Travel Grant, Center for the Study of Women and Society, University of Oregon, 2012 Travel Grant, Center for the Study of Women and Society, University of Oregon, 2011 PhD Oral Exam, Passed with Distinction, University of Oregon, 2011 Graduate Research Award, Department of English, University of Oregon, 2010 PUBLICATIONS Bronstein, Phoebe. “Man-Made Martyrs in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Disturbing Manufactured Martyrdom in Paradise Now.” Jump Cut 52 (Summer 2010). Web. 14 May 2013. Bronstein, Phoebe and Sam Kaplan and Keith Riegert. When Ninjas Attack, A Survival Guide for Defending Yourself Against the Silent Assassins. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 2009 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I feel extraordinarily lucky to have had such an incredible network of support, both in graduate school and beyond, without which writing this dissertation would certainly have not been possible and definitely not as fun. I wish to thank my committee: Priscilla Ovalle, Courtney Thorsson, and Melissa Stuckey. I’ve appreciated your support, enthusiasm, and criticism throughout this project. It was such a pleasure and a privilege to work with all of you. Carol, you are nothing short of amazing and I can’t really express how grateful I have been and continue to be for your support, honesty, and criticism throughout this project. I owe so much of this project to your help and guidance. Beyond my committee, I also want to thank Sangita Gopal, Michael Aronson, Mark Quigley, and the English department faculty and staff for your continued support over the last many years. To my incredible friends at the UO, and especially Chelsea, Sarah, and Melissa: you have been supportive, funny, and kind throughout this project. You’ve offered me wine, walks, and humor when I needed it and you’ve lent me your proofreading skills on crazy deadlines. Your support means the world to me. Thank you to my incredible parents for listening, reading, and copy-editing this project (not to mention, your general amazing support) and especially to my mom, who has patiently read every chapter and every version of this dissertation (and there have been many). You are both truly incredible. Lastly, thank you to Theodore for listening as I read out loud, for reading and proofreading at the last minute, reminding me that I liked my dissertation, and for your patience and amazing support of me this last year (and the years before). vii For my grandparents: Arthur, Elsa, and Lucy viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Watching American: TV, Race, and Broadcasting to a Nation, 1950-1968 .... 5 Television’s New Old Souths: The Waltons and Roots, 1968-1980 ............... 12 The 1980s and the Conservative Backlash ...................................................... 18 II. SOUTHERN BACKLASH: NAT KING COLE, HARRY BELAFONTE, AND SOUTHERN ECONOMICS .............................................................................. 22 “Vintage Black Glamor:” Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, and Re-Scripting Blackness .............................................................................. 25 The Nat King Cole Show ................................................................................. 31 Harry Belafonte, Revlon, and Petula Clark ..................................................... 36 Veiled Racism and the Southern Excuse ......................................................... 40 Southern Economics and Consumer Citizens .................................................. 43 Conclusion: Small Shifts in I Spy and Julia .................................................... 47 III. FAILED SOUTHS: RACE, GENDER, AND REGION IN YANCY DERRINGER AND BOURBON STREET BEAT ........................................... 51 Southern Cops and Cultural Contexts ............................................................. 53 Yancy Derringer and Reviving Rhett Butler ................................................... 57 Rex Randolph and Cal Calhoun ...................................................................... 61 Inferential and Overt Racism ........................................................................... 65 Yancy Derringer ............................................................................................. 66 ix Chapter Page Bourbon Street Beat ....................................................................................... 70 The Plantation Home and the Southern Belle ................................................ 74 Conclusion: Southern Schizophrenia and the Nation’s Region ...................... 79 IV. COMIC RELIEF: ANDY GRIFFITH, SOUTHERN SHERIFFS, AND REGIONAL REHABILITIATION ............................................................................. 83 Bad Press: Civil Rights and Southern Sheriffs ................................................ 86 Comic Revisions to the Southern Lawman ..................................................... 92 Barney Fife: Hillbillies, Rednecks, and Comic Relief .................................... 98 Preserving (a White) Mayberry ....................................................................... 101 Integrating Mayberry: Mr. Carp, Flip Conroy, and the “Civil Rights Subject” ................................................................................. 102 Conclusion: Images of a New (Old) South ...................................................... 108 V. TALES OF TWO SOUTHS: THE WALTONS, ROOTS, AND PERSPECTIVES ON SOUTHERN HISTORY ......................................................... 111 CBS and the Move Towards Social Relevance ............................................... 114 Progressive Politics and New Roles for Women ............................................. 118 Waltons’ Masculinities and Telling White Stories .......................................... 121 Telling African American