Following the success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the series' production company MTM Productions would develop the popular The Bob Newhart Show.
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The "rural purge" of American television networks (in particular CBS) was a series of cancellations between 1969 and 1972 of still popular rural-themed shows with demographically skewed audiences, the majority of which occurred at the end of the 1970-71 television season.
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Beginning in 1970, incoming network vice president Fred Silverman orchestrated the rural purge, in which these shows would be canceled in favor of shows targeting younger, suburban viewers with more disposable income.
The two shows mentioned in the title and throughout the song—Hee Haw, a CBS series on which Clark was a co-host; and The Lawrence Welk Show, which aired on ABC—were among those shows canceled by their networks in 1971 as part of the rural purge; demographics (a rural audience for Hee Haw, an elderly-leaning audience for Lawrence Welk) was the most cited reason.