The Beverly Hillbillies

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This article is about the television series. There is also an article about the motion picture of the same title.

Main cast of "The Beverly Hillbillies": Donna Douglas (Elly May), Irene Ryan (Granny), Max Baer, Jr. (Jethro Bodine), Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampett).

The Beverly Hillbillies is a TV sitcom about a hillbilly who strikes oil while hunting on his land, near the fictional Bugtussle, and moves his family to Beverly Hills, California, with the resultant wealth. A Filmways production, it aired on CBS from September 26, 1962 to September 7, 1971. Despite its being panned by critics, the series shot to the top of the Nielsen Ratings shortly after its premiere and stayed there for several seasons. It was high in the ratings throughout most of its run.

1 Background
2 Unusual storylines
3 Characters
4 One of a breed
5 Frequently used malapropisms and colloquial terms and phrases
6 See also
7 External links

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Background

The series starred Buddy Ebsen as the widowed patriarch, Jedidiah "Jed" Clampett; Irene Ryan as his mother-in-law, Granny (Daisy Moses); Donna Douglas as his daughter, Elly May; Max Baer, Jr. as his nephew, Jethro Bodine, (sometimes playing Jethro's twin sister, Jethrene, on early shows); Raymond Bailey as Jed's greedy banker, Milburn Drysdale; Harriet E. MacGibbon as Drysdale's snobbish wife, Margaret; and Nancy Kulp as Drysdale's secretary, Miss Jane Hathaway, who pined for the clueless Jethro. In the beginning, Jed's cousin, Pearl (Jethro's mother, played by Bea Benaderet), also appeared. The theme song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," was written by Paul Henning and originally performed by Bluegrass artists Flatt and Scruggs. It was #44 on the music charts in 1962. Flatt and Scruggs made several guest appearances as themselves, and as potential suitors for Pearl.

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Unusual storylines

Most storylines revolved around the clash between the "uncivilized" hillbilly culture the Clampetts represented and the "civilized" American culture the Drysdales represented. The Clampetts lived as they always had, even in their large, elegant mansion (750 Bel Air Rd., Bel Air), never changing their clothing or replacing the old rattletrap truck in which they moved to California. They continued to grow their own food; and Granny made lye soap and moonshine.

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Characters

Although having little formal education, Jed had good sense, but Granny, Elly May, and especially Jethro, were incredibly ignorant. Granny styled herself an "M.D." - "mountain doctor" - claiming to have a complete knowledge of herbs, potions and tonics. Elly May had a deep rapport with all animals and adopted a great diversity of them, including raccoons and a chimpanzee, as her "critters." Another running joke was her poor culinary skills; the results were not only inedible but, when the clan discreetly fed her meals to the backyard plants as so not to hurt her feelings, the plants died.

Elly May was as stunningly beautiful as she was naïve, and was squired about by eager young Hollywood actors with stage names like "Dash Riprock" and "Bolt Upright." Jethro called himself "Beef Jerky," imagining himself a playboy and sophisticated man-about-town. He was particularly proud of his education: he spent 12 years at school - before passing the sixth grade. After that, he decided to go to college. He managed to enroll late in the semester at a local secretarial school due to his financial backing, and earned his diploma by the end of the day because he didn't understand what was going on in class and was too disruptive.

The family called their swimming pool "the cement pond." They were fascinated by it, but never seemed to grasp its intended use. Another running joke was that they never discovered the source of the sound that took place a few times prior to someone showing up at the front door (the doorbell).

The Drysdales were also pretty foolish. Although Mr. Drysdale shared Mrs. Drysdale's disdain for their neighbors, he was willing to do anything to keep them next door so as to not lose control of their millions in his bank. Episodes in 1962 and 1966 featured his ne'er-do-well stepson, Sonny (played by Louis Nye), a Mama's Boy whose "career" was going to college. Sonny was at one point a potential husband for Elly May. When he jilted her, there was a feud. All the while, Mrs. Drysdale led outlandish campaigns to rid her city of the uncouth hillbillies.

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One of a breed

The show was never too serious. It was a farce, pure and simple, with a lot of slapstick. After its run, one TV critic had called the premise of the show simply, "One joke, nine years." It was still fairly popular when it was canceled after 274 episodes but the CBS network wanted to change its image as a "rural" network. This shift was mainly prompted by pressure from advertisers seeking a more sophisticated urban audience to market products to. Other rural themed comedy shows were also canceled, including Petticoat Junction (1963-1970) (starring Bea Benaderet and Edgar Buchanan), Green Acres (1965-1971) (starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor), and Hee Haw (1969-1971) (starring Roy Clark and Buck Owens), the latter then moving to "first-run" syndication, where it ran for another 21 years.