The American South is full of lore and stories. The nature of the United States is such that every region is unique, and that means every region has its own legends and history to draw from. Over the years, television has tapped into that rich culture of the South with some of the best shows of all time. This is dedicated to those shows and those stories, the TV shows of the American South.
Atlanta
The city of Atlanta has been called “the capital of the South,” so it only makes sense that the show named for the town, Atlanta, starring (and created by) Donald Glover, should feature on this list. The show won a slew of awards for its storytelling in the modern South of a music manager (Glover) helping his client, played by Brian Tyree Henry, navigate the music industry, and America, for that matter.
Matlock
There isn’t a more classic Southern show than Matlock. We’re talking about the original here, of course, the one set in Atlanta starring Andy Griffith as Ben Matlock. It’s a stone-cold classic show (and frequent butt of jokes, especially on The Simpsons), and no list about shows about the South would be complete without it. The modern remake is great too, but alas, it is set in New York City.
Friday Night Lights
High school football is a huge part of modern Southern culture, and Friday Night Lights tells that story better than anything else. Over five seasons, following a small town high school football team led by Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chadler), which is based on a book (and a movie that followed) by Buzz Bissinger, the show did a deep dive into the culture and brought it to life in inspiring fashion.
Treme
New Orleans is the most unique city in America. It’s truly like no other place on this continent. Treme brings the city to life like no other show ever has. Like creator David Simon’s other famous HBO show, The Wire, the city is the main character here. The people who live in the city are what make it New Orleans, and in Treme, we see every aspect of life in the Crescent City.
A Different World
While the show that A Different World was spun off from, The Cosby Show, was set in New York City, A Different World follows Huxtable’s daughter Denise (Lisa Bonet) as she goes off to college at the fictional Hillman College in Virginia. Bonet left after just one season, but the show still went on to become an iconic Black sitcom.
Bad Monkey
There’s an old saying that the further south you go in Florida, the more north you get, but author Carl Hiaasen, who wrote the book that Bad Monkey is based on, has the great ability to show the Southern side of all of Florida. The show, which you can watch with an Apple TV+ subscription, is just a wonderful and hilarious look into life in the Sunshine State that you don’t see on the tourism ads.
Dallas
There’s nothing like the drama of a rich Southern oil family to get people excited, right? Dallas captivated audiences for 14 seasons and included one of the most celebrated cliff-hangers of all time with “Who Shot J.R.?”
Eastbound & Down
Danny McBride has really figured out how to tap into the humorous side of Southern culture. With shows like The Righteous Gemstones, Vice Principals, and perhaps his best example, the over-the-top-but-wonderful Eastbound & Down. The show, which is available with an HBO Max subscription, is one of the funniest shows about the South ever, even if it strayed in the later seasons. That first season will always be pure comedy gold.
Designing Women
In the 1980s, no sitcom defined Southern charm than Designing Women. Yet another movie set in the great city of Atlanta, the show about the all-female team of a design firm had one of the best casts of any sitcom from the era. A cast that included Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, Jean Smart, and Annie Potts. In the later seasons, Jan Hooks got in on the fun as well.
The Walking Dead
Though The Walking Dead is a story that could happen anywhere, almost all of it takes place in the South. The show starts in Atlanta (including an early mission to the CDC in the capital of Georgia), and ends with the crew mostly living outside of Washington, DC, in the Virginia suburbs.
Nashville
Well, as the name says, Nashville is set, of course, in the capital of Country Music. In recent years, starting around when this show debuted in 2012, Nashville, TN, has become the place to live in the South. Everyone from recent college graduates to big stars is flocking to the city with one of the richest music histories in the United States.
The Golden Girls
You might not think of Miami as the South, and to be fair, it doesn’t have a ton in cultural common with say, Birmingham, but it’s right there on the map, as far south as you can get in the continental U.S., so Golden Girls counts here! The show, which has lived on for decades in syndication, is famous for its zingers and, in the end, its heartfelt message of friendship. It really needs no introduction, does it?
The Waltons
Even if you’ve never seen The Waltons, a show about a Depression-era family living in the Virginia Appalachian Mountains, you probably know how each episode ended with the tight-knit family saying good night to each other. It oozes Southern sensibilities.
The Dukes Of Hazzard
One of the most popular and most controversial shows on this list has to be The Dukes of Hazzard. Beloved for its daredevil driving scenes and the humorous relationship between cops and bandits, the show was a staple of ’70s and ’80s TV. In more recent decades, the show has been criticized for its use of the Confederate flag painted on top of the General Lee (which is still a really cool car, regardless).
Tyler Perry’s House of Payne
Tyler Perry is a proud resident of Atlanta, and he’s invested heavily in developing what has become one of the movie-making capitals of the world. It makes perfect sense that the first sitcom he ever created, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, would be set in the city. The show, which balances silly moments with serious themes, has had a remarkable run on TBS first, and later on BET. It’s gone well over 300 episodes, making it one of the most successful sitcoms with a predominantly Black cast.
The Righteous Gemstones
From the demented (and wonderful) mind of Danny McBride, The Righteous Gemstones is simply brilliant. The show, which aired on HBO for four seasons, has a fantastic cast, including McBride, alongside John Goodman, Adam DeVine, Edi Patterson, and some sublime supporting work from Walton Goggins.
The Andy Griffith Show
There may be no show on this list that espouses the gentile way of life in a small, southern town like The Andy Griffith Show. The name of the fictional town in North Caroline, Mayberry, has even become a noun to describe wholesome small towns all across the United States. The legendary show aired a total of 249 episodes over eight seasons on CBS. It also helped launch the career of Ron Howard, of course.
Army Wives
While not strictly a show about life in the South, Army Wives is set on a naval base in Charleston, SC. The popular Lifetime show didn’t have the broadest appeal, to be sure, but it had a dedicated fanbase for the seven seasons it was on.
Dexter
Like some others on this list, we’ll admit that Dexter doesn’t always feel like a “Southern show” since it is set in Miami, but Florida, even South Florida, should definitely count here, right? How much really needs to be said about the now-iconic Showtime show about a serial killer hunting serial killers? At least we can acknowledge that Jon Lithgow plays one of the most ruthless villains in TV history.
Justified
There aren’t a ton of shows set in Kentucky, but Justified would probably be the best, even if there were others. This is a show that has shown incredible legs over the years, remaining as popular–if not more popular–than it was when it first aired on FX.
NCIS: New Orleans
NCIS has had a whole lot of spinoffs. NCIS: New Orleans was the second in the franchise when it was spun off in 2014. Though it was surprisingly canceled after it’s seventh season on CBS, it still ended up a very successful show in the popular franchise.
CSI: Miami
One of the most popular TV franchises of the early 21st Century is, without a doubt, the CSI group of shows on CBS. The original, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (set in Las Vegas), first hit the airwaves in 2000, and just two years later, David Caruso returned to TV as Horatio Cane in CSI: Miami. For many, including myself, Miami was just as good as its parent show, and ratings showed that. The show aired for 10 seasons and more than 200 episodes.
True Blood
Anne Rice may be the most famous teller of vampire stories to hail from Louisiana, but Charlaine Harris, who wrote the books upon which HBO’s True Blood was based, is a close second these days. True Blood is set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, LA, but it is anything but “good times” for the residents, as this neo-gothic classic show highlights again and again.
In The Heat Of The Night
Based loosely on the book and the 1967 film starring Sidney Poitier of the same name, In The Heat Of The Night followed a small town police chief (Carroll O’Connor) and his top detective, Virgil Tibbs (Howard Rollins). The show, which aired first on NBC before moving to CBS, was set in Sparta, Mississippi, and it was unafraid to tackle complex subjects like racism and police corruption.
One Tree Hill
For nine seasons, One Tree Hill transported fans to Wilmington, North Carolina, in the CW TV show. One of the more popular shows among many Millennials, the show still has its die-hard fans today, more than a decade after ending its nine-season run.
Reba
Reba McEntire first entered our hearts as an actor in the cult classic Tremors. She’s wonderful in it, and after another decade of parts here and there in movies and TV, the country music legend landed her own sitcom, appropriately called simply Reba. The hard-working McEntire was born and raised in Oklahoma, but the show was set in Houston. In fact, it’s weirdly one of the few shows ever set in the Texas metropolis.
Fresh Off The Boat
ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat is a unique take on the Southern show, as it features an immigrant family from Taiwan working to make the American Dream happen for them in Orlando, Florida. Constance Wu gave her breakout performance on the show as the hard-charging daughter, Jessica.
Ozark
I get it, some people might push back on Missouri being in the South. I’m from the Show Me State, so I understand. That said, southern MO, especially in the area around Lake of the Ozarks, definitely has more Southern influence than Midwest, so I just have to include the brilliant Netflix original, Ozark.
I Dream Of Jeannie
“The South” might not be the first thing you think of when you think of I Dream of Jeannie, but it was set in Florida. Tony Nelson, Larry Hagman’s character who lives with Jeannie (Barbara Eden), is an astronaut, if you remember, living where so many other NASA pilots lived, Cocoa Beach, FL.
True Detective
When I talk about True Detective, I’m usually talking about that brilliant first season. Other seasons of the anthology show have been set in California and Alaska (two states that are definitely not The South), but the first season was set in that most southern of states, Louisiana. The third season was also set in the South, in the hills of Arkansas.
Hart of Dixie
Any show called Hart of Dixie can’t be left off this list. It’s also one of the few TV shows set in Alabama, so we just had to squeeze in the popular show from The CW, starring Rachel Bilson as a fish-out-of-water New York doctor living in small-town Alabama.
Saving Grace
One place that doesn’t feature in a lot of TV shows or movies is Oklahoma City. Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter, bucks that trend. The TNT show, which aired for three seasons in the late ’00s. The show often featured famous spots in the town, and, honestly, it’s one of my favorite Holly Hunter roles. The show is underappreciated for that alone, never mind the rest of the excellent cast.