The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71, CBS) was the brainchild of Paul Henning, the cracker-barrel surrealist also responsible for Petticoat Junction, The Real McCoys, and, notably, Green Acres. Certainly the most popular sitcom in television history, and quite possibly the most successful network series ever, it ran for over 200 episodes, clocking in as the top-rated show of its premier season, and remaining in the top ten throughout its nine-year tenure. Individual episodes almost always placed in the Nielsen Top 20, and on occasion rivaled the ratings of Super Bowls.

    As explained in the opening montage and cadenced theme song, Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen) is an Ozarks mountaineer who, through epic fortuity and sheer ineptitude rather than the Protestant work ethic, falls into unfathomable wealth with the discovery of oil beneath his worthless Arcadian scrub oak. When a roving petrochemical concern gets wind, they buy him out for $25 million, whereupon town sophisticate Cousin Pearl (Bea Benaderet) convinces him fabled Beverly Hills might provide: (a) a suitable beau for his daughter Elly May (Donna Douglas) and (b) career opportunities for his wayward nephew Jethro Bodine (Max Baer, Jr.). Taking their cue from The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck via John Ford), they load up the truck and move to Beverly--replete with a rocking chair up top to house Granny (Irene Ryan), the family's reluctant matriarch.

    Despite his mystification at the newfangled trappings of luxury, and the craven depths to which almost everyone around him sinks, Jed remains a bastion of homespun wisdom--very much the Lincolnesque backroads scholar. Virtually recycling his George Russel character, the sidekick in Disney's Davy Crockett series from the mid-1950s, Ebsen eventually carried the Lincoln conceit over into his private life, authoring a stage play in 1966 titled The Champagne Generation, in which he starred as the late president. (When Nancy Kulp, the birdwatching Vassar grad Miss Jane Hathaway, ran for a Congressional seat from Pennsylvania in the early 1980s, she only lost when Buddy Ebsen, a lifelong Republican, stepped in to actively campaign against her.)

    Despite the silliness of much of its humor, The Beverly Hillbillies managed to bolster its credibility among its core audience with a kind of hillbilly authenticism. Bluegrass avatars Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were enlisted for the theme song, which quickly became a number-one hit on country-western charts, and they frequently appeared on the show as themselves (long before their music was spot-appropriated for its native exoticism by Bonnie and Clyde). Cousin Pearl was a textbook recreation of Grand Ol' Opry mainstay Minnie Pearl, and Roy Clarke was an occasional guest before inheriting the show's constituency with his 20-year stint as host of Hee Haw. Even the series name was taken from a bluegrass band of the 1930s. And of course, the characters of Jethro, Elly Mae, and Granny seemed to borrow more than casually from Li'l Abner, Daisy May, and Mammy Yokum, respectively.

    Yet turning up in the fall of 1962 as they did, the paradigmatic arrivistes, the Clampetts seemed to mirror almost perfectly another eccentric clan of uninvited backwoods arrivals, one which was thrust into the national spotlight--decisively and distastefully--with the Kennedy assassination. Suddenly, instead of glamorous Brahmins dictating the national agenda, we had Texas crackers straight off the farm (whose political fortunes could be traced back to Texas Tea of their own). And long before Lyndon Johnson was known for his consummate political savvy and rattlesnake ruthlessness, he entered the popular culture as a national embarrassment, remembered and endlessly ridiculed for turning off the lights in the White House to save electricity, or showing an incredulous nation his gall bladder scar.

    By extension, the show became in certain quarters something of a public embarrassment as well, emblematic of the nation's having slipped another notch into pandering anti-intellectualism--a pervasive "bubbling crude" which stained all in its wake. By the time television had caught up with the changing times--the fall of 1971--youth culture and its built-in consumer demographic looked far more appealing to advertisers on the professional rut, and The Beverly Hillbillies, while still vastly successful, was caught in the same network purge which claimed Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, and rural mainstays such as Mayberry RFD and Henning's own Green Acres. This is the same changing of the guard which ushered in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and, ostensibly, social realism and the death of the 1960s. A Made-for-Television movie appeared on CBS in 1981, without Baer, and the series was later remade as a feature film in 1993 by the makers of Wayne's World, but neither did justice to the original.

    -Paul Cullum

    CAST

    Jed Clampett......................................... Buddy Ebsen

    Daisy Moses (Granny)................................ Irene Ryan

    Elly May Clampett............................... Donna Douglas

    Jethro Bodine......................................... Max Baer,Jr.

    Milburn Drysdale................................ Raymond Bailey

    Jane Hathaway......................................... Nancy Kulp

    Cousin Pearl Bodine (1962-63).............. Bea Benaderet

    Mrs.Margaret Drysdale (l962-69)....... Harriet MacGibbon

    Jethrene Bodine (1962-63)...................... Max Baer, Jr.

    John Brewster (1962-66)..........................Frank Wilcox

    Edythe Brewster (1965-66)..................... Lisa Seagram

    Jasper DePew (1962-63)............................Phil Gordon

    Ravenswood, the butler (1962-65)..............Arthur Gould

    Porter Marie, the maid (1962-63)............... Sirry Steffen

    Sonny Drysdale (1962)................................ Louis Nye

    Janet Trego (1963-65)...............................Sharon Tate

    Lawrence Chapman (1964-67).................. Milton Frome

    Studio Guard (1964-66)............................. Ray Kellogg

    John Cushing (1964-67)............................Roy Roberts

    Dash Riprock (nee Homer Noodleman)(1965-69) .........................Larry Pennell

    Homer Cratchit (1968-71)......................... Percy Helton

    Elverna Bradshaw (1969-71)...................... Elvia Allman

    Shorty Kellems (1969-71)............ George "Shug" Fisher

    Miss Switzer (1969-70).............................. Judy Jordan

    Helen Thompson (1969-71).....................Danielle Mardi

    Miss Leeds (1969).............................. Judy McConnell

    Susan Graham (1969-71)....................... Mady Maguire

    Gloria Buckles (1969-71)...................... Bettina Brenna

    Shifty Shafer (1969-71).............................. Phil Silvers

    Flo Shafer (1969-71)........................ Kathleen Freeman

    Joy Devine (1970-71).............................. Diana Bartlett

    Mark Templeton (1970-71)....................... Roger Torrey

    PRODUCERS

    Paul Henning, Al Simon, Joseph DePew, Mark Tuttle

    PROGRAMMING HISTORY

    216 Episodes

    CBS

    September 1962-September 1964   Wednesday 9:00-9:30

    September l964-September 1968   Wednesday 8:30-9:00

    September 1968-September 1969   Wednesday 9:00-9:30

    September 1969-September 1970   Wednesday 8:30-9:00

    September 1970-September 1971   Tuesday 7:30-8:00

    FURTHER READING

    Marc, David. Demographic Vistas: Television in American Culture. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.

    _______________. Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.

    Marc, David, and Robert J. Thompson. Prime Time, Prime Movers: From I Love Lucy to L.A. Law, America's Greatest TV Shows and the People Who Created Them. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

    Story, David. America on the Rerun: TV Shows That Never Die. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol, 1993.

    Thumbnail of Paul Henning

    Paul Henning on ending cigarette ads on The Beverly Hillbillies

    01:56
    Thumbnail of Paul Henning

    Paul Henning on the idea for The Beverly Hillbillies

    06:36
    Thumbnail of Stanley Frazen

    Stanley Frazen on how he came to be the editor on The Beverly Hillbillies with Paul Henning

    40:24
    Thumbnail of Dann Cahn

    Editor Dann Cahn on editing The Beverly Hillbillies

    01:40
    Thumbnail of Roy Clark

    Roy Clark on guest-starring on The Beverly Hillbillies

    03:55

    Howard Anderson, Jr.

    Howard Anderson Jr. on creating the opening titles for The Beverly Hillbillies

    00:49

    George Barris

    George Barris on making cars for The Beverly Hillbillies

    04:27

    Dann Cahn

    Editor Dann Cahn on editing The Beverly Hillbillies

    01:40

    Roy Clark

    Roy Clark on being a guest performer on various series, including The Beverly Hillbillies

    01:50

    Roy Clark on guest-starring on The Beverly Hillbillies

    03:55

    Robert Dickinson

    Robert Dickinson on being in awe watching a special of The Beverly Hillbillies being taped

    00:46

    George Faber

    George Faber on why Max Baer of The Beverly Hillbillies was his least favorite person to interview

    00:52

    George Faber on working with Donna Douglas of The Beverly Hillbillies

    02:06

    George Faber on the process of publicizing a show like The Beverly Hillbillies in Japan

    04:43

    Stanley Frazen

    Stanley Frazen on how he came to be the editor on The Beverly Hillbillies with Paul Henning

    40:24

    Paul Henning

    Paul Henning on creating The Beverly Hillbillies

    09:08

    Paul Henning on creating the characters of and casting The Beverly Hillbillies

    10:26

    Paul Henning on shooting the pilot and early production on The Beverly Hillbillies

    03:09

    Paul Henning on producing, promoting, and audience reaction to The Beverly Hillbillies

    08:13

    Paul Henning on the writing process, a typical production week, and the laugh track on The Beverly Hillbillies

    07:53

    Paul Henning on ending cigarette ads on The Beverly Hillbillies

    01:56

    Paul Henning on color production, legal aspects, and his writing philosophy on The Beverly Hillbillies

    08:48

    Paul Henning on the theme songs to Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Petticoat Junction

    03:30

    Paul Henning on the cancellation of The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres  

    01:27

    Paul Henning on writing 1981's Return of the Beverly Hillbillies

    01:35

    Paul Henning on having no involvement with 1995's The Beverly Hillbillies movie

    00:53

    Paul Henning on a picture with writers and the cast from The Beverly Hillbillies

    01:21

    Paul Henning on a picture with the casts of The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction

    03:59

    Frank Inn

    Frank Inn on acting as animal trainer for The Beverly Hillbillies

    08:48

    Frank Inn on the cast of The Beverly Hillbillies

    04:03

    Frank Inn on The Beverly Hillbillies creator Paul Henning

    03:22

    Frank Inn on working with the various animals on The Beverly Hillbillies

    03:03

    Frank Inn on the bloodhound that is seen in the opening of The Beverly Hillbillies, and on how he came to work for Petticoat Junction

    04:18

    Julie Ann Johnson

    Julie Ann Johnson on working on The Beverly Hillbillies

    00:30

    Sheila Kuehl

    Sheila Kuehl on guest-starring on The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction  and appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show

    04:50

    Gene LeBell

    Gene LeBell on his stunt work for The Beverly Hillbillies

    01:14

    Carroll Pratt

    Carroll Pratt on providing laugh track for Green Acres, Bewitched, Beverly Hillbillies, My Three Sons, and I Dream of Jeannie

    04:26

    Joseph A. Wapner

    Joseph Wapner on appearing on Beverly Hillbillies

    00:29

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