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Broad brushstrokes must be used at this point. The callers all had signature Texas redneck accents. It is possible they could have all been the same man. The callers used phrases such as "doggone it" and quoted Solomon and "Cyrano duh Burgerack." Commercials during the show advertised BootTown, Channel 2 News and Discount Vinyl Siding. The topics ranged from why Bill Clinton visited the USSR in the 1960s (sounds fishy to me), to why "they" won't disclose his blood type, to his tendency to have communist leanings (later corrected to collectivist). Finally, as if he couldn't stand to hide it anymore, one man suggested our Commander-in-Chief is a sleeper.

What to make of all this? It was funny, and they had some good points (i.e., arrogance is bad; you should know who your enemies are), but it was also not surprising. The ad hominem attacks on Bill Clinton and his wife were standard, as were the ominous predictions of them receiving their comeuppance from the Starr Independent Counsel. One guest even complained that Clinton had never really worked in his life, that he had always been provided for with government salaries and scholarships: "Well, how'd he go to Oxford? A scholarship!"

I was reminded of the listeners of the left-wing radio station, KPFT-FM, in how this group of individuals so single-mindedly and vehemently agreed on an issue and that there was not even the consideration that a caller would have called in to criticize Newt Gingrich. The tone, however, was much nastier, much cruder, and quite a bit more ignorant and less charitable on that AM show.

It showed the common man pissed off at how he gets left behind, how bureaucrats "in Washington" and eggheads at universities with their "scholarships" can get rich and famous and sleep with beautiful women while these people who do the grunt work, who change your oil, drive your trucks and patrol the farms get less money, less credit and -- I think quite importantly -- no longer have TV shows made about their lives, exalting them wth the one true arbiter of where we stand in relation to our neighbors: television.

Where are the Hazzards, the Mama's Families, the Houses on Prairies, the Hees and the Haws and even the Enoses and Cletuses of our existence? Lifetime, the 700 Club and The Family Channel are just not enough. Middle America burns to stand in the spotlight again, and TNN and the sidelined religious channels will not hold together a national fabric any longer. It's all "Murder One," "Friends," "Seinfeld," "The Single Guy," "NYPD Blue" and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper:" blithering urbanites, anguished yuppies and hardened criminals in an aging country.

While some may see a tenuous link there, radio and television both reflect the widespread disenchantment felt in our country's heartland -- a heartland not so much in a geographical sense but rather connoting a class-based and ideologically conservative distinction. If television will not serve as a vehicle to serve their grievances, the frustrated can still turn to talk radio.

Little wonder radio callers are turned off and tuning out. Do freewheeling fornicators and white collar layabouts share their core values? These TV shows, the "Frasiers" and the "Martins," they mock the heartland when they're not actually ignoring it. The elites in New York City and Hollywood are trying to impose their values on a segment of the population that is struggling mightily against it.

Never before have there been as many urban and suburban television shows as there are now. Since the 1950s, important trends have marked television's development. The frontier shows like "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" gave way to rural family sagas and comedies involving the Waltons, the Dukes, the Clampetts and others, which were in turn supplanted by urban comedies starring the Bunkers, the Jeffersons and the Huxtables.

But while the evolution of television programming has been shaped mostly by the changing demographics of America, modifying audience tastes in the process, an alarming trend has recently become very prominent: the urbanization of TV shows.

With cable services available to all and new networks emerging in this era of deregulation, television stations are scrambling to exploit niche markets.

The loser in this case is the community of American television watchers. Sad as this may seem, Americans get much of their contact with fellow citizens through that solitary medium.

It served admirably for a time, giving us edifying looks at poverty, miscegenation, violence and bigotry through such comedies as "All in the Family," "Good Times" and "The Jeffersons." Now, however, television is an instrument of alienation to a large segment of our society. We no longer connect through its shared experience, we only disconnect.

In a society where physical needs are taken care of, other factors come into play. Deep psychological needs for approval, respect and attention require fulfillment, and when the networks have gotten too big for their britches, it will be time to form a people's militia. At least "20/20" will pay attention then.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the April 11, 1997 issue.