 The Beverly Hillbillies
1 9 6 2 - 1 9 7 1 (USA)
274 x 30 minute episodes
The adventures of the hillbilly Clampett
family who discovered oil on their Ozark Mountains ranch and then
buggered off to a luxurious thirty-two room mansion at 518 Crestview
Drive in Beverly Hills, CA, to live the high life.
Unfortunately, the Clampett's attempt to
live the life of millionaires was doomed from the very start because; a)
they still yearned for Hicksville, and, b) they may have had 25
million dollars but they did not have a clue what to do with it.
Granny even had trouble telling the TV set from the washing machine
for Christ's sake. . .
At best The Beverly Hillbillies
was an attack on consumer culture and at worst it ridiculed rural
folk. It was universally tarred as definitively lowbrow but jumped to
the top of the ratings within weeks of premiering and stayed there
until 1964 (I guess that says something). Anxious to capitalize on
their success, CBS commissioned two other rustic sitcom spin-offs, Petticoat
Junction and Green Acres.
Critics, of course, hated all three
shows, and, because it was the first, reserved their strongest vitriol
for The Beverly Hillbillies. The public was having none of it:
they loved the show and watched it in record numbers. Remarkably, the
eight most-watched half-hours in the history of US television are all Beverly
Hillbillies episodes. It's a safe bet though, that a good
proportion of the viewing audience were young males tuning in to catch
an eyeful of blonde bombshell, Elly May Clampett in the tightest
jeans around (yum yum).
But in 1971 CBS pulled the plug - and not
just on this show but on Petticoat
Junction and Green Acres
too. All may have been past their prime but audience ratings remained
high, and the network's only valid reason for canceling was a
commercial one: polls indicated that the shows were attracting the
wrong type of viewers for the advertisers. So that was that until ten
years later, when three of the original cast (Ebsen, Douglas and Kulp)
came together for a witless two-hour reunion special, The Beverly
Hillbillies Solve The Energy Crisis, screened by CBS on 6 October
1981.
Ray Young replaced Max Baer Jr to play
Jethro while Irene Ryan (Granny) had died in 1973 and Raymond Bailey
(Milburn Drysdale) in 1980. Harriet MacGibbon (Margaret Drysdale) was
around 75 years old by this time and was not cast. Twelve years
further on again, in 1993, 20th Century-Fox made a feature film of The
Beverly Hillbillies (directed by Penelope Spheeris, with Jim
Varney as Jed Clampett) that also failed to hit the mark, with only
Lily Tomlin (cast as Miss Hathaway) outstanding.
That same year (on 24 May 1993), CBS
presented The Legend Of The Beverly Hillbillies, featuring
surviving members of the original cast linking old clips and
explaining what happened to the Clampetts and their acquaintances
since it ended.
But here's a question for you; Was Elly
May a lesbian? Look at the circumstantial evidence . . . She
always wore jeans, never had much luck with boys and spent most of her
time hanging around with Miss Hathaway. You be the judge!
HISTORICAL NOTES
Actress Sharon Tate, later to be infamously murdered by the Manson
Family, appeared in the Beverly Hillbillies as Janet Trego
(Mr Dysdale's secretary).
The real mansion used for exterior shots
in the series was also the location for the Jerry Lewis movie Cinderfella.
The house (which is actually in Bel-Aire, not Beverly Hills) was owned
by Mrs. Arnold Kirkeby, widow of a hotel magnate. Her favorite charity received a donation in exchange for its use in some drive-up
shots and occasional establishing views. All the other exterior scenes
used a recreated set piece.
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