I watch this show every day in reruns on WGN and it is a great way to start the day. I know Max Baer later resented and even later embraced the role of Jethro, but I just get the vibe watching it that all the actors enjoyed playing their roles. Irene Ryan played Granny with such gusto and Buddy Ebsen's Jed Clampett just seems so natural. Anybody else ever feel this way?

"It was a funny idea, a good gamble, and we were all determined to give it our best, then see what happened. And this is how I acquired the most diverting and enjoyable family I have ever known outside of my own."
-- Buddy Ebsen (from the foreword to The Beverly Hillbillies, by Stephen Cox; 1988)

It seemed like they enjoyed themselves.

"It was a funny idea, a good gamble, and we were all determined to give it our best, then see what happened. And this is how I acquired the most diverting and enjoyable family I have ever known outside of my own."
-- Buddy Ebsen (from the foreword to The Beverly Hillbillies, by Stephen Cox; 1988)

Thanks for sharing that!

I think the cast brought something special to the show. While I often hear the success of sitcoms is all in the writing, I don't entirely agree. You have to have good actors, the right actors, who bring life to the written word. Irene Ryan and Nancy Kulp were the two comedic geniuses in TBH. They took their characters and ran with them. I think the cast genuinely got along too.

"It was a funny idea, a good gamble, and we were all determined to give it our best, then see what happened. And this is how I acquired the most diverting and enjoyable family I have ever known outside of my own."
-- Buddy Ebsen (from the foreword to The Beverly Hillbillies, by Stephen Cox; 1988)
As far as Max bear, it's a double edge sword. When he got the roll he was out of work and on unemployment so he was more then happy to have a steady job and income every week, especially for 9 years. And he had fun play the part of jethro and making people happy with the charactor. But after he left the show, he couldn't get work for 3 years because he was type cast. Nobody wanted to hire a 35 year old Jethro. He went on to produce a few movies and has a hillbillies casino in Thunder Valley CA but even after all these years people still think of him as Jethro and not Max because that's all they know. People are too stupid to know it's just a person playing a charactor and he isn't really like that in real life.

"It was a funny idea, a good gamble, and we were all determined to give it our best, then see what happened. And this is how I acquired the most diverting and enjoyable family I have ever known outside of my own."
-- Buddy Ebsen (from the foreword to The Beverly Hillbillies, by Stephen Cox; 1988)
Yea they were all very nautural and maybe that's one reason the show lasted so long.