As I was traveling down Milledge Avenue yesterday I was taken by surprise by eight hay bales decorated for Halloween. It’s part of the Cattleman Association’s Halloween Havoc contest. Various groups buy the bales and decorate them for a chance to win a prize. My family looks forward to seeing them every year because they are so creative and usually hysterical. There was a Batman this year as well as a pig from Angry Birds. One year someone depicted the swine flu. There are always some expected ones and always at least one or two unexpected ones. This year Willie Robertson caught my eye.
The Robertsons are everywhere. When I’m working at the school, kids are wearing the shirts. When I go to Wal-Mart, the merchandise is all over the store. There are Halloween costumes of the bearded family. Last Friday night, my hubby and I were watching Last Man Standing, and there were Willie and Si on network television. Not only were they guest starring on the show, Willie was actually quoting scripture to one of the characters. Quite scandalous these days!
Personally, I’m not a fan of reality television, but my entire family loves Duck Dynasty. Why is it that we are so captivated by the Robertson family? Their season premier in August broke all cable records with 11.8 million viewers. Everyone has their own opinion about the reason for the show’s success and it has its critics as well, but I think the heart of the show is it’s about family and faith and it’s funny.
In the eighties, we had Cosby and Family Ties. My mom grew up with Leave it to Beaver. We also had shows like Happy Days and The Brady Bunch. These were all clean, family shows where we were able to laugh at the mundane. The children respected their parents. The dads weren’t depicted as idiots. People went to church. These shows were not life changing or provocative, but they were fun. They depicted family as a good, solid force.
I know times change and vampires and werewolves apparently draw ratings and that’s okay. But it seems to me, that television executives might want to take notice. A Gallup poll in 2012 found that 77% of Americans consider themselves Christian. An ABC poll found the number to be 83%. That’s a lot of Americans. Maybe Duck Dynasty’s success is these Christians saying that we would like to see more family friendly programming. Maybe these Christians are saying that we are perfectly fine with family sitting around a table at dinner and saying a prayer of thanks. Maybe these Christians are thrilled with being depicted as smart, funny and well-educated.
I certainly can’t speak for everyone who watches the show, but I love that the Robertsons love each other and they love Jesus. They have strong faith and a strong family and they have fun. In the end, what else matters? What do you think?
Have an awesome day and Happy Halloween!
Wendy 🙂