TV stereotypes Ozarkers? Bet your moonshine jug they are

OK, I guess this will be a continuation of Wednesday’s column. To recap, there’s a new Discovery Channel show called “Clash of the Ozarks” about two “clans” at Hardy locked in a generations-long feud. It’s the latest in the redneck/hillbilly “reality” TV genre.

I watched the show, trying to go into it with an open mind and to be fair, even after seeing the promo clips that appeared to make folks at Hardy look like refugees from an Erskine Caldwell novel, minus the racy parts. I said I’d withhold my verdict until after seeing it, and I had wondered if it would be more “Deadliest Catch” or “Amish Mafia.”

It’s much closer to “Amish Mafia,” which happened to follow “Clash of the Ozarks” with an episode featuring a dwarf Amish enforcer riding a miniature horse (sadly, I’m not kidding).

The people in “Clash of the Ozarks” are real people, but they’re sure presented as characters, and if it’s not scripted, then the producers definitely have an outline they’re following and guiding “events” in the show. It could be that’s the way those folks are, and people around Hardy who know them would know for sure, but it seemed to me the cast has some fairly decent acting skills.

Is it stereotyping Ozarks residents with Crowbar Russell, Kenny Wayne Evans and their respective “clans”? Well, Kenny Wayne’s the more sophisticated, forward-thinking of the two, who is introduced to the audience bowfishing from a railroad bridge in all his Vladimir Putin bare-chested glory. Most of the time, though, he was shown wearing a tie, and secretly meeting someone in a white stretch limo in Hardy. (Sure, nobody would notice a white stretch limo in Hardy.)

Then there’s Crowbar getting all upset because someone was poaching on his land, leaving deer entrails on the ground (he explains everybody in the Ozarks knows you bury deer guts). More importantly, they’ve found his moonshine stash and smashed it all, which sends Crowbar looking for help from Marty Terrell, who happens to be a moonshiner and whose clan has the property next to his. Together, they find the poachers, threaten them with firearms and scare them off after learning that Kenny Wayne had given them permission to hunt on the property.

Oh, I forgot, the bank is trying to foreclose on Crowbar’s property that’s been in his family for generations, and Kenny Wayne is planning to snatch it up as he has much of the land around Hardy and already acts as if it’s his. At the end of the episode, it foreshadows Marty apparently planning to betray Crowbar.

Add to the mix possibly psychic, potion-making grandma Sevella Terrell, who sits on her front porch cleaning her shotgun, and Jimmy Haney, who lives in a tent, wears no shoes and apparently has no shirt to go with his overalls that he wears with one strap dangling.

So much for wondering if Ozarks residents would be stereotyped. The only thing missing was a corncob pipe for Sevella.

When we watched “Clash of the Ozarks,” Amelia’s comment was that it made the folks at Hardy look “dumber than a box of rocks,” and Kim noted that for Jimmy Haney to be living alone in the woods all the time, his overalls sure looked new and clean, as did his hat. Neither were particularly impressed. A few friends had less kind remarks about the show, with some saying they had to change channels after a couple of minutes.

However, according to some reports I’ve read, folks at Hardy are, indeed, hoping this show boosts interest in the town and that it will bring more tourists to Hardy, which generally caters to tourists. In this economy, a community’s got to do what it can to boost local revenues, and this is what Hardy seems to be banking on.

It’s not the first time the hillbilly image has been promoted to bring tourists to the Ozarks (Dogpatch USA comes to mind), and probably won’t be the last. And I’ve seen one comment that perhaps the image may help protect the sanctity of the Ozarks. Still, it can be a little painful seeing our Ozarks folks portrayed as backward, barefoot and even buffoonish, even if there are some who fit that bill. I’m trying to imagine what would happen if someone proposed a “reality” show in an urban wasteland featuring rival gangbangers in all their stereotypical glory and how it would be received.

As a writer, I appreciate the plot points and characters “reality” has provided the Discovery producers, or that the producers have provided for Hardy. I have to admit that in the right hands these would be fantastic characters for a novel, and even an intriguing plot. But, that’s fiction, which to a large degree is what “Clash of the Ozarks” is, in my opinion. My problem is it’s being presented as real, as the truth and as representative of the Ozarks, and that’s how viewers elsewhere in the country likely will view it. A fictional story can be presented realistically, but that doesn’t make it real.

Will I watch “Clash of the Ozarks” again? To be honest, I probably will out of the same curiosity that compels people to slow down and view a car wreck. Actually, I like the theme song, and some of the scenic shots were good. Plus, there’s a new character coming up according to the show’s website, “The Baroness,” a Hardy businesswoman with fingers in lots of pies. I’ve got to know if she’s going to be a heroine or a femme fatale, will she side with progressive Kenny Wayne or protectionist Crowbar? Maybe Hardy will become the next “Dallas.”