The Rural Purge-1970’s Desilu

October 3, 1960-April 1, 1968

Star Trek -1966-1969

1968-1971 A series defining (The Purge)

Hogan’s Heroes-September 17, 1965-April 4, 1971

Lassie-1954-1973

That Girl- September 8,1966 to March 19,1971

The television revolution reached a turning point early in the decade of the 70’s. Classic hit TV series abruptly disappeared, despite strong ratings. An ideology swept the industry primarily lead by CBS executive Fred Silverman. Advertisers were interested in enticing younger urban professionals with more disposable income.

Network executives rolled the dice realizing popular hits that contained rural settings representing middle America were skewed to older audiences. Your television set was to change significantly, switching from farmlands and simpler times to the grips of big city life representations. Big cities replaced wide open spaces changing advertising demographics.

Like getting your wisdom teeth pulled for many of us, they didn’t foresee these shows would continue to be hits in the year 2026, 56 years later.

Enter Fred Silverman

He worked as a television executive at all of the “Big Three” television networks. He was responsible for such television shows as as All in the Family-1971-79, The Waltons-1972-81′ Charlie’s Angels 1976-81. Silverman orchestrated this “rural purge” for the baby boomer generation. Somehow-The Waltons was developed by CBS, a series that is…all things rural. The success of that series would prove not everyone wanted modern city life-but advertisers did.

Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Kojak and Sonny & Cher replaced all things purged. Spinoffs such as Maude, The Jeffersons, Rhoda and Bob Newhart led the way. Good Times was slotted against Happy Days and lowered the ratings for that ABC staple. But wait, there’s more. TV Game Shows sprouted like sunflowers-just what the doctor ordered.

The Price is Right and Match Game, produced by Mark Goodman and Bill Todman, partnered up with Fred for 5 day a week entertainment. The Gong Show and Tattletales would be on against reruns such as The Munsters and Gilligan’s Island. The purged vs.the unpurged. These were my typical TV options when I got home from school, all better choices than homework. Trespassing backlots was always my favorite after school option.

Saturdays are meant for cartoons, get the kids involved. They will pressure their parents into buying toys, cereal, comics etc…

Scooby Doo, Land of the Lost , and my favorite-Jonny Quest are examples of this or what insiders call –The Saturday Morning Phenomenon. I lived that I’m proud to say.

Side Effects

TV Landscapes forever captured on film were no longer needed, or so it was thought. Shows that were still pulling in high ratings – faced the guillotine. The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Mayberry R.F.D. were the first foreclosures. To refresh its brand, CBS axed over two dozen shows between 1969 and 1971.

A famous quote, spoken by actor Pat Buttram, (Mr. Haney on Green Acres) described this shift best…”It was the year CBS canceled everything with a tree-including Lassie”.

Shows like All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore replaced farm animals with city life problems as such as politics, race, women’s liberation and Vietnam. So much for Arnold The Pig…

Star Animal unemployment skyrocketed. From Mr. Ed to Lassie, to the German Shepherds that guarded Stalag 13. Many ended up doing gigs like the Animal Actor Stage at Universal Studios. “For the times they are a changin’ as Bob Dylan would say.

Some of the best episodes in all these cancellations almost always featured a variety of animals. Notable Shows disappearing overnight include these stalwarts;

The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Lassie, Lassie, Mayberry R.F.D., talk about a title you don’t want to have at this time and still a top 15 series, Hee Haw, Petticoat Junction, Hogan’s Heroes, Family Affair, and these shows that have nothing to do with the rural brand also ran their course: The Jackie Gleason Show, The Red Skelton Show, and the Jim Nabors Hour which replaced the series Gomer Pyle. Jim Nabors at this time was always Top 10 in everything he was involved with.

That brings us full circle, what happened to these iconic sets?

That’s where I step in…literally. Desilu Studios specifically became an abandoned historic movie ranch. After a long industrious movie history that included King Kong-1933, Gone With the Wind and The King of Kings to name a few, Desi Arnaz made this 40 Acre ranch the home for this burgeoning boom when television replaced going to movies. TV dinners on trays replaced the dining room table in many households. Not only did I watch these shows, I watched the News since Vietnam affected family and friends. The music of the time had passion and reflected our feelings as displayed at Woodstock and other “R.F.D.” concert venues.

Marcus Welby M.D., Here’s Lucy, Flip Wilson, Ironside, Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Medical Center, Bonanza and The F.B.I. were all at the top. Hawaii Five-O dodged The Hollywood chopping block hiding out in Hawaii for 12 seasons finally being washed away in 1980. That series for many of us was how we first experienced the Big Island. Magnum P.I. knew a good thing when they saw it, and Tom Selleck would become his own Jack Lord.

More than any other studio, Desilu-Culver City was the most severely impacted. A studio I adored for Batman, The Green Hornet, Andy Griffith, Lassie, Star Trek, Gomer Pyle and Hogan’s Heroes now became completely deserted and ghostly. Props, signs, and call sheets sit patiently for their next role. Most important to me was the German Shepherds who used to guard this lot also received their pink slip.

This backlot finally became mine to explore, build forts, and daydream all these cancelled shows that I watched daily as reruns. I watched -then explored, recreating in a childish way the scenes I just watched on TV. I had a radio that picked up television audio and would stand where the scenes where filmed listening to Gomer Pyle, Barney, Opie and Colonel Hogan executed all this history.

The Director most notable- TV wise to this property- to me was Bruce Bilson. I would see his name on all these credits starting with Andy Griffith as the assistant director to the lead director in Hogan’s Heroes. I envied this gentleman, not knowing him at all. Thanks to an anonymous contact, I was given his phone number and was fortunate to talk about his work through the 1960’s and 70’s.

Combine that with working on Apollo 13, then The Grinch, I was able to do a reflective trip down memory lane with Ron Howard, finding he still has a passion for the Desilu Backlot that we both grew up in. He was a star, I was a trespasser. I was so proud to tell “Opie” I took over the Taylor House upon this purge and built a fort upstairs, I was the last resident. Sadly in 1976, the big church and his home burned down in one of the many fires this backlot would experience.

One set that lasted until the bulldozers rolled in, late 1976, was the Mayberry R.F.D. farmhouse. I had a fort upstairs in that home also. For the record- I had two other forts totaling 4 in this 40 Acre property. The oldest set on this lot used in The King of Kings was the first one I built, directly next to the La Ballona creek, so almost all our adventures began at this original of all forts. The last fort- was a saloon on western street. Loaded up with whiskey casks, cots, explosive ammo boxes from Stalag 13, and to top it off…a rolling phone that when you dial 9, you get off- lot toll free anywhere in the USA.

The bill which must have cost a fortune, sent the production company into a tizzy, this phone line had to be confiscated. We even ordered a pizza delivery to this western street as a huge set was being built where stalag 13 had stood. The film was titled…(The Fortune), starring Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. You would think with that title they could afford the phone bill. I’ll never forget the looks on our faces when we were in a rush to go upstairs to our dialed in saloon to find every window and door covered with plywood, the phone line was no longer running through the buildings so no more-drinks on the house.

Just like the RKO ownership, this lot reclaimed itself for feature films and commercials, television production remained faded to black.

Right place-right time

A studio with a ghost town became completely “Ghostly”. This place became mine to bask in, rarely seeing security as ownership switched from Desilu, to Laird Studio, and The Culver Studios. After a couple years of private ownership-by me-the landscape became wild with trespassers of every age and size, The behavior of many was destructive and in my effort to preserve this kingdom, many fights occurred. Many of my friends were Marines…Real ones!

I would meet soldiers, mostly Recon Rangers and give tours of this lot. Gomer Pyle’s Camp Henderson was always our first stop, usually at night since we had limited off duty time. The reaction of several different groups was always the same, stunned astonishment!

Turns out, every guy lived this set on their TV’s prior to signing up for a real military commitment. Stalag 13 and the Hogan’s Heroes Bridge were where most those nights ended up. Marines don’t need much of an invitation to kick some ass, I can proudly say when we heard or saw vandalism taking place-I unleashed these dogs on the unsuspecting “white punks on dope in this -teenage wasteland”.

Without this 70’s purge, I never would have been able to own my own movie backlot. MGM was still a busy studio, Medical Center, Shaft, Hawkins-starring Jimmy Stewart and Movies of the Week kept MGM busy even after the famously sad MGM Auction in 1970. All the major studios carried on, adapting to series that conform to this aspiring decade of the 70’s.

The other backlot most affected by this epidemic was the Columbia Ranch- a studio we all grew up in- if you watched Dennis the Menace, The Monkees, The Partridge Family and Bewitched. Columbia Studios would serve TV and features 50 plus years more – keeping up with the evolution of what you would see on TV.

Desilu all but disappeared as I stumbled inside of this desolate environment of abandoned, iconic movie sets. Signs, call sheets and props remained-unknowingly never to be used again. This “Purge” affected the 40 Acre Backlot more than any other studio lot. Although filming would continue sporadically until 1976, commercials and feature films was all that kept the Arc lights glowing until finally when this backlot was…Gone With the Wind.

This is real.

Simulation…

I ended up spending a lot of time in these guard towers…

Studios can now live forever through -A.I. MAGIC

A recreation of a real life event I lived out in 1966. Desilu-Culver City. The set of Batman..

You can’t “Purge” Artificial Intelligence-The Future is here. Push Play to come alive…

Written and Lived by…Donnie Norden