The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top 20 most-watched programs on television for eight of its nine seasons, ranking as the No.1 series of the year during its first two seasons, with 16 episodes that still remain among the 100 most-watched television episodes in American history.[2] It accumulated seven Emmy nominations during its run. It remains in syndicated reruns, and its ongoing popularity spawned a 1993 film adaptation by 20th Century Fox.[3]
Premise
The series starts with Jed Clampett, a poor, widowed hillbilly who lives with his daughter and mother-in-law near an oil-rich swamp in Silver Dollar City in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri.
The opening sequence shows Jed discovering oil while shooting at a rabbit, although the first episode shows the oil being discovered by a surveyor for the OK Oil Company. The company pays Jed many millions of dollars for the right to drill on his land. Jed's cousin Pearl Bodine prods him to move to California now that he is wealthy and pressures him into taking her son Jethro along. The family moves into a mansion in upscale Beverly Hills, California, next door to Jed's banker, Milburn Drysdale, and his wife, Margaret, who is appalled by the hillbilly Clampetts.
The Clampetts bring an unsophisticated, simple, moral lifestyle to the wealthy and sometimes superficial community. Double entendres and cultural misconceptions are the core of the sitcom's humor. Plots often involve Drysdale's outlandish efforts to keep the Clampetts' money in his bank and his wife's efforts to rid the neighborhood of "those hillbillies". The family's periodic attempts to return to the mountains are often the result of Granny feeling slighted by the "city folk".
Characters
Three of the main characters – Jed, Granny and Elly May – appear in all 274 episodes. Jethro (272 episodes) is not in the last two episodes of the series, having gone into hiding to avoid an anticipated marriage proposal.
Jed Clampett
Good-natured patriarch Jed Clampett (portrayed by Buddy Ebsen) has little formal education and is naive about the world outside the rural area where he lived but has a great deal of wisdom and common sense. His forebears are revealed in series 1, episode 25, to have come to America before the Mayflower arrived. However, he later denies this to avoid offending Mrs. Drysdale. He is the widower of Granny's daughter, Rose Ellen (Buddy Ebsen was only 5 years younger than Irene Ryan). He is the son of Luke Clampett and his wife and has a sister called Myrtle. In episode 13, it is revealed that Jed's grandfather was 98 when he married Jed's grandmother, who was 18. In an early episode, Jed tells Elly May that she is the spitting image of her mother. He is usually the straight man to Granny and Jethro's antics. His catchphrase is, "Welllllll, doggies!"[4]
Granny
Daisy May Moses (portrayed by Irene Ryan in all 274 episodes), called "Granny" by all, is Jed's mother-in-law, so is often called "Granny Clampett" in spite of her last name and despite the fact that in the pilot episode Milburn Drysdale refers to her as Jed's mother. She is a descendant of the Moses clan, who feuded with another family, the Bodkins, and drove them out of Napoleon, Tennessee. In Season 9, Episode 23, Granny states that she is "from Limestone, Tennessee".
Granny has an abrasive personality and is quick to anger but is often overruled by Jed. She is a devout Confederate and fancies herself a Baptist Christian ("dunked, not sprinkled"). A self-styled "M.D." ("mountain doctor"), Granny uses her "white lightning" brew as a form of anesthesia when performing painful treatments such as leech bleeding or tooth pulling. She often refers to the concoction as "rheumatize medicine". Like the other Clampetts, she is known to take things literally, having thought Mrs. Drysdale had turned herself into a bird using black magic (astrology) and mistook an escaped kangaroo for a giant jackrabbit (but failed to convince anyone of its existence).
Paul Henning discarded the idea of making Granny Jed's mother, which would have changed the show's dynamics, making Granny the matriarch and Jed her subordinate.
Elly May Clampett
Elly May (portrayed by Donna Douglas in all 274 episodes), the only child of Jed and Rose Ellen Clampett, is a mountain beauty with the body of a pin-up girl and the soul of a tomboy. In a very early episode, Jed tells Elly May that she is the spitting image of her mother. She can throw a fastball and "wrassle" most men to a fall, and she can be tender with her friends, animals, and family. She says once that animals can be better companions than people, but as she grows older, she allows that "fellas kin be more fun than critters." In addition to the family dog, Duke (an old Bloodhound), a number of pets live on the Clampett estate thanks to Elly May's love of animals. In the 1981 TV movie, Elly May is the head of a zoo. She is a terrible cook, and family members cringe whenever she takes over the kitchen. Elly May is easily in her 20s, but Granny usually promotes her age as "14" since an unmarried mountain woman as old as Elly May is considered an old maid.
Jethro (portrayed by Max Baer Jr. in 272 episodes) is the dim-witted son of Jed's cousin, Pearl Bodine (in a customary practice, he addresses Jed – his once-removed elder cousin – as "Uncle Jed", just as his second cousin, Elly May, addresses Jethro's mother as "Aunt Pearl"). Pearl's mother and Jed's father were siblings.[5] Jethro drives the Clampett family to their new home in California and stays on with them to further his education. In the first series, he is in the fifth grade, having spent three years in the fourth grade and two years in the first grade. The others boast of Jethro's "sixth-grade education". Jethro often speaks enthusiastically of his abilities in "cipherin'" (1 and 1 is 2, 2 and 2 is 4), and "gazintas" (4 gazinta 8 2 times, 3 gazinta 12 4 times), and he is ignorant about nearly every aspect of modern California life. In one episode, he attends a local secretarial school and is so disruptive that he is given a diploma at the end of the day to keep him from returning. In real life, Max Baer Jr. has a bachelor's degree in business administration, minoring in philosophy, from Santa Clara University.[6][7]
Many story lines involve Jethro's endless career search. He considers becoming a brain surgeon, a fry cook, a millwright, a street car conductor, a spy, a telephone lineman, a soda jerk, a chauffeur, a USAF general, a sculptor, a restaurant owner, a psychiatrist, a bookkeeper for Milburn Drysdale's bank, a talent agent for "cousin" Bessie and "Cousin Roy" (see below), and a Hollywood producer. More often than not, his goal is merely to meet pretty girls. Miss Hathaway has a crush on him, but he is oblivious to this. Of all the Clampett clan, he is the most eager to embrace city life. Jethro has a huge appetite — in one episode, he eats a jetliner's entire supply of steaks, in another he tries to set himself up as a Hollywood agent for cousin "Bessie" the chimpanzee – with a fee of 10,000 bananas for Bessie and 1,000 for him. When "Cousin Roy" (Roy Clark) comes from "the hills" to Beverly Hills to become a country music star, Jethro refuses to be his agent when Roy becomes a success. Jethro does not appear in the third- or second-to-last episodes, but Baer remains billed in the title credits.
Mr. Drysdale (portrayed by Raymond Bailey in 247 episodes) is the Clampetts' banker, confidant, and next-door neighbor. He is obsessed with money, and to keep the Clampetts' $96,000,000 (in 1969; equivalent to $797,618,875 in 2023) in his Commerce Bank, Mr. Drysdale will go to great lengths to cater to their wishes. He often forces others, especially his long-suffering secretary, to help fulfill their outlandish requests. He is a descendant of the Bodkins family from Tennessee. It is revealed in the first season that Granny's clan, the Moses family, feuded with the Bodkins family and drove them from Napoleon, Tennessee. A recurring comedic scene shows Drysdale angrily answering his phone only to find Jed on the other end of the line, at which point Drysdale's demeanor instantly changes to one of good humor and accommodation.
Jane Hathaway (portrayed by Nancy Kulp in 246 episodes), whom the Clampetts address as "Miss Jane", is Drysdale's loyal, well-educated, efficient secretary. She is genuinely fond of the family and tries to shield them from her boss's greed. Miss Hathaway frequently has to "rescue" Drysdale from his schemes, receiving little or no thanks for her efforts. The Clampetts consider her family; even Granny, the one most averse to living in California, likes her. Jane has a crush on Jethro for most of the series' run. In 1999, TV Guide ranked Jane Hathaway number 38 on its list titled "50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time".[9]
Recurring characters
Margaret Drysdale
Margaret Drysdale (portrayed by Harriet MacGibbon in 55 episodes) is the snobbish wife of Milburn Drysdale. She is appalled by the Clampetts and their hillbilly lifestyle. She touts herself as a "blue-blooded Bostonian" and repeatedly tries to drive the Clampetts out of Beverly Hills, without success.
Pearl Bodine
"Cousin" Pearl Bodine (portrayed by Bea Benaderet in 23 episodes) is Jethro's mother and Jed's first cousin. Pearl encouraged the Clampetts to move to Beverly Hills and is envious of their wealth. She attempts to achieve success through various schemes, including wooing oil man John Brewster and finding a wealthy husband for her daughter Jethrine (Jethro's sister, also portrayed by Max Baer Jr.).
Shorty Kellems
Shorty Kellems (portrayed by Shug Fisher in 17 episodes) is Jed's best friend who occasionally visits from back in the hills. In one story line, Drysdale mistakenly believes Shorty is richer than Jed and goes to great lengths to win his business.
Janet Trego
Janet Trego (portrayed by Sharon Tate in 15 episodes) is a secretary at Drysdale's bank. She assists Jane Hathaway and is often the object of Jethro's romantic overtures.
John Brewster
John Brewster (portrayed by Frank Wilcox in 14 episodes) is an oil executive from Tulsa, whose company made Jed a millionaire after leasing Jed's land for oil production.
The show's theme song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", was written by producer and writer Paul Henning[12] and originally performed by bluegrass artists Foggy Mountain Boys, led by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. The song is sung by Jerry Scoggins (backed by Flatt and Scruggs) over the opening and end credits of each episode. Flatt and Scruggs subsequently cut their own version of the theme (with Flatt singing) for Columbia Records; released as a single, it reached number 44 on Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart and number one on the Billboard Hot Country chart (the lone country chart-topper for the duo).
As was customary in the 1960s, the show's advertising sponsors were woven into bumpers involving the cast. To this end, the show sometimes included extra verses of the theme song about Winston cigarettes and Kellogg's cereals.[13]
Perry Botkin composed many songs for The Beverly Hillbillies. Botkin's upbeat tune from Murder by Contract, played during scenes of sunny LA, signaled scenes at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills.
The six main cast members participated on a 1963 Columbia soundtrack album, which featured original song numbers in character. Additionally, Ebsen, Ryan, and Douglas each made a few solo recordings following the show's success, including Ryan's 1966 novelty single, "Granny's Miniskirt".
The series generally features no country music beyond the bluegrass banjo theme song, although country star Roy Clark and the team of Flatt and Scruggs occasionally play on the program. Pop singer Pat Boone appears in one episode as himself, under the premise that he hails from the same area of the country as the Clampetts, although Boone is a native of Jacksonville, Florida.
The Beverly Hillbillies received generally poor reviews from contemporary critics. The New York Times called the show "strained and unfunny"; Variety called it "painful to sit through".[14] Film professor Janet Staiger writes that "the problem for these reviewers was that the show confronted the cultural elite's notions of quality entertainment."[14] The show did receive a somewhat favorable review from noted critic Gilbert Seldes in the December 15, 1962 TV Guide: "The whole notion on which The Beverly Hillbillies is founded is an encouragement to ignorance... But it is funny. What can I do?"[15][16]
Regardless of the poor reviews, the show shot to the top of the Nielsen ratings shortly after its premiere and stayed there for several seasons. During its first two seasons, it was the number-one program in the U.S; during its second season, it earned some of the highest ratings ever recorded for a half-hour sitcom. The season-two episode "The Giant Jackrabbit" also became the most-watched telecast up to the time of its airing and remains the most-watched half-hour episode of a sitcom, as well. The series enjoyed excellent ratings throughout its run, although it had fallen out of the top 20 most-watched shows during its final season.
The show was canceled in the spring of 1971 after 274 episodes. The CBS network, prompted by pressure from advertisers seeking a more sophisticated urban audience, decided to refocus its schedule on new urban-themed shows and, to make room for them, the two remaining series of CBS's rural-themed comedies were cancelled.[20] This action came to be known as "the Rural Purge". Pat Buttram, who played Mr. Haney on Green Acres, famously remarked, "It was the year CBS cancelled everything with a tree – including Lassie."[21]
Reunions
1981 CBS film
In 1981, Return of the Beverly Hillbillies television film, written and produced by series creator Henning, was aired on the CBS network. Irene Ryan had died in 1973, and Raymond Bailey had died in 1980. The script acknowledged Granny's passing, but featured Imogene Coca as Granny's mother. Max Baer decided against reprising the role that both started and stymied his career, so the character of Jethro Bodine was given to another actor, Ray Young.
The film's plot had Jed back in his old homestead in Bugtussle, having divided his massive fortune among Elly May and Jethro, both of whom stayed on the West Coast. Jane Hathaway had become a Department of Energy agent and was seeking Granny's "White Lightnin'" recipe to combat the energy crisis. Since Granny had gone on to "her re-ward", it was up to Granny's centenarian "Maw" (Imogene Coca) to divulge the secret brew's ingredients. Subplots included Jethro playing an egocentric, starlet-starved Hollywood producer, Jane and her boss (Werner Klemperer) having a romance, and Elly May owning a large petting zoo. The four main characters finally got together by the end of the story.
According to viewer consensus, though filmed a mere decade after the final episode of the series, the movie lacked the series' original spirit on many fronts, among them being the deaths of Ryan and Bailey and Baer's absence, leaving only three of the six original cast members to reprise their respective roles. Further subtracting from the familiarity was that the legendary Clampett mansion (the Sumner Spaulding-designed Chartwell Mansion) – was unavailable for a location shoot as the owners' lease was too expensive. Henning himself admitted sheer embarrassment when the finished product aired, blaming his inability to rewrite the script due to the 1981 Writers Guild of America strike.[22]
1993 special
In 1993, Ebsen, Douglas, and Baer reunited onscreen for the only time in the CBS-TV retrospective television special, The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies, which ranked as the fourth-most watched television program of the week — a major surprise given the mediocre rating for the 1981 television film. It was a rare tribute from the "Tiffany network", which owed much of its success in the 1960s to the series, but has often seemed embarrassed by it in hindsight, often downplaying the show in retrospective television specials on the network's history and rarely inviting cast members to participate in such all-star broadcasts.
The Legend of The Beverly Hillbillies special ignored several plot twists of the television film, notably that Jethro was now not a film director but a leading Los Angeles physician. Critter-loving Elly May was still in California with her animals, but Jed was back home in the Hills, having lost his fortune, stolen by the now-imprisoned banker Drysdale. Nancy Kulp had died in 1991 and was little referred to beyond the multitude of film clips that dotted the special. The special was released on VHS tape by CBS/Fox Video in 1995 and as a bonus feature on the Official Third Season DVD Set in 2009.
Controversy
In 1974, CBS made a reportedly large cash payment settlement to employee Hamilton Morgen after Morgen sued the network. Morgen claimed CBS appropriated his submitted ideas and script for a show called Country Cousins to form The Beverly Hillbillies.[23][24]
MeTV airs The Beverly Hillbillies Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., on Sundays at 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. and weeknights at 9 p.m. (all Eastern/Pacific Time)
The show is distributed by CBS Media Ventures, the syndication arm of CBS Television Studios and the CBS network. It was previously distributed by CBS Enterprises, Viacom Enterprises, Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Paramount Domestic Television (all through corporate changes involving TV distribution rights to the early CBS library). The repeats of the show that debuted on CBS Daytime on September 5–9, 1966, as "Mornin' Beverly Hillbillies" through September 10, 1971, and on September 13–17, 1971, as "The Beverly Hillbillies" lasted up to winter 1971–72. It aired at 11:00–11:30 a.m. Eastern/10:00-10:30 a.m. Central through September 3, 1971, then moved to 10:30–11:00 a.m. Eastern/9:30–10:00 a.m. Central for the last season on CBS Daytime.[citation needed]
Fifty-five episodes of the series are in the public domain (all 36 season-one episodes and 19 season-two episodes), because Orion Television, successor to Filmways, neglected to renew their copyrights. As a result, these episodes have been released on home video and DVD on many low-budget labels and shown on low-power television stations and low-budget networks in 16-mm prints. In many video prints of the public domain episodes, the original theme music has been replaced by generic music due to copyright issues.
Before his death, Paul Henning, whose estate now holds the original film elements to the public domain episodes, authorized MPI Home Video to release the best of the first two seasons on DVD, the first "ultimate collection" of which was released in the fall of 2005. These collections include the original, uncut versions of the first season's episodes, complete with their original theme music and opening sponsor plugs. Volume 1 has, among its bonus features, the alternate, unaired version of the pilot film, The Hillbillies Of Beverly Hills (the version of the episode that sold the series to CBS), and the "cast commercials" (cast members pitching the products of the show's sponsors) originally shown at the end of each episode. The alternate version is also the version seen on Amazon Prime Video.
With the exception of the public domain episodes, the copyrights to the series were renewed by Orion Television. However, any new compilation of Hillbillies material will be copyrighted by either MPI Media Group or CBS, depending on the content of the material used.
For many years, 20th Century Fox, through a joint venture with CBS called CBS/Fox Video, released select episodes of Hillbillies on videocassette. After Viacom merged with CBS in 1999, Paramount Home Entertainment (the video division of Paramount Pictures, which was acquired by Viacom in 1994) took over the video rights.
In 2006, Paramount announced plans to release the copyrighted episodes in boxed sets through CBS DVD later that year. The show's second season (consisting of the public domain episodes from that season) was released on DVD in Region 1 on October 7, 2008, as "...The Official Second Season". The third season was released on February 17, 2009.[26] Both seasons are available to be purchased together from major online retailers. On October 1, 2013, season four was released on DVD as a Walmart exclusive.[27] It was released as a full retail release on April 15, 2014.[28] On April 26, 2016, CBS/Paramount released the complete first season on DVD.[29] The fifth season was released on October 2, 2018.[30]
DVD title
No. of episodes
Region 1 release date
The Beverly Hillbillies (Ultimate Collection)
26
September 27, 2005
The Beverly Hillbillies (Ultimate Collection Volume 2)
27
February 28, 2006
The Beverly Hillbillies (The Official First Season)
36
April 26, 2016
The Beverly Hillbillies (The Official Second Season)
36
October 7, 2008
The Beverly Hillbillies (The Official Third Season)
34
February 17, 2009
Return of the Beverly Hillbillies (TV Movie)
—
March 12, 2013
The Beverly Hillbillies (The Official Fourth Season)
32
April 15, 2014
The Beverly Hillbillies (The Official Fifth Season)
30
October 2, 2018
With so much work that has to be done to remaster the seasons, and a limited public appeal after 60 years, future remastered, unedited DVD releases are in doubt.[citation needed]
Spin-offs and associated merchandise
Theatrical adaptation
A three-act stage play based on the pilot was written by David Rogers in 1968.[31]
The Deadly Hillbillies, an interactive murder mystery, was written by John R. Logue using the core cast of characters as inspiration. This Gypsy Productions Murder Mystery Parody features characters such as Jed Clumpett, Daisy May Mostes, and Jane Hatchaway.
Comics
Dell Comics adapted the series into a comic book series in 1962. The art work was provided by Henry Scarpelli.[32] The comic ran for 18 issues, ending in August 1967.[33]
Feature film
In 1993, a film version of The Beverly Hillbillies was released starring Jim Varney as Jed Clampett and featuring Buddy Ebsen in a cameo as Barnaby Jones, the lead character in his long-running post-Hillbillies television series.
Computer game
Based on The Beverly Hillbillies movie, a PC computer adventure game for operating system MS-DOS was developed by Synergistic Software, Inc. and published in 1993 by Capstone Software.
^Ward, Alan (August 21, 1960). "On second thought: Max Baer's son gets movie pact". Oakland Tribune. p. 34. Retrieved March 16, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Max graduated from Santa Clara with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
^"Ex-boxer's son: Video actor aims to write, direct". The Morning Call. Allentown, Pennsylvania. July 26, 1964. p. 9. Retrieved March 16, 2018 – via Newspapers.com. Baer received a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce from Santa Clara University, a Jesuit school in Santa Clara, Calif. He minored in philosophy, which he admits is his favorite subject, and began work on a master's degree in that field before going into the acting profession.
^Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present (Ninth ed.). Ballantine Books. pp. 1683–1685. ISBN978-0-345-49773-4.
