Did anyone else think Granny, Jethro and Mr. Drysdale became too extreme later in the series?

Granny starts out as somewhat grouchy but was way more laid-back in the early episodes.... She almost reminded me of Grandma Walton. But in the later episodes she explodes into a screaming rage if anyone so much as looks at her!

Jethro starts out as a loveable goofy guy. He is simple, but does actually have SOME sense, a few times he figured things out about Beverly Hills before the rest of the family. But later on he becomes this arrogant jerk who is practically void of ANY sense.

Mr Drysdale starts out as a greedy banker BUT he does have a shred of humanity and does actually seem to care SOMEWHAT about the Clampettes.... Later on he is practically CRIMINAL with his greed, and it seems pretty obvious he doesn't care anything about the Clampettes and if Jed lost his money or if Drysdale got a bigger depositor, he would tell Jed to GET LOST in a heartbeat. In the later episodes Mr Drysdale does talk rude to Granny, Elly and Jethro a few times and only kisses up to Jed. In the early days he would have never done that

I thought Elly, Jed and Miss Hathaway stayed pretty much the same

Devolve instead of evolve. To me the change was most noticeable in Jethro.

In the Frog Man arc, Granny crosses the line between naive and incredibly stupid. It just goes on too long.

In the Frog Man arc, Granny crosses the line between naive and incredibly stupid. It just goes on too long.

That whole thing was ridiculous. They were near the end and running out of gas.

Very crazy!!!

Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale) was beginning to show signs of Alzheimer's disease in the last season. Donna Douglas said that the script girl would often have to stand just off-camera and feed Bailey his lines. After the show ended in 1971, Bailey was frequently invited to make public appearances and address banking conventions in character as Mr. Drysdale. But by the mid-1970's his illness prevented him from making public appearances and he retired. He died in 1980.

In the Frog Man arc, Granny crosses the line between naive and incredibly stupid. It just goes on too long.

lol That story arc is silly but it IS an inspiration to a story I'm writing, which is a self-insert.

I've always been afraid of water also, so I sorta related to some of Granny's fears. I recently saw a documentary about Ocean Colonization so some day humans could colonize the oceans and people would live underwater in big dome cities, being aquaphobic that idea seemed very unsettling to me... SOOO.... I'm in the midst of writing a story in which ocean colonization has become a HUGE thing and I'm stressing because everyone seems to want to move underwater lol It is loosely inspired by these frogman episodes LOL

That whole thing was ridiculous. They were near the end and running out of gas.

It's funny even after those episodes they start recalling things from WAY early in the series.... like the very last episode, I THINK, is about Jethro trying to get out of marrying a girl he proposed to just before they moved to Beverly Hills... I just think it was funny how they were talking about things in the last episode that would have happened during the first season as if it were yesterday.... kinda tying the whole series together in a way

Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale) was beginning to show signs of Alzheimer's disease in the last season. Donna Douglas said that the script girl would often have to stand just off-camera and feed Bailey his lines. After the show ended in 1971, Bailey was frequently invited to make public appearances and address banking conventions in character as Mr. Drysdale. But by the mid-1970's his illness prevented him from making public appearances and he retired. He died in 1980.

I wasn't aware of this, sad end.

As the series goes on, I notice Granny hollers more. Sometimes I turn my volume down.

Mr Drysdale starts out as a greedy banker BUT he does have a shred of humanity and does actually seem to care SOMEWHAT about the Clampettes.... Later on he is practically CRIMINAL with his greed, and it seems pretty obvious he doesn't care anything about the Clampettes
I've been watching through all the seasons in order and I'm up to season nine now, and I've been looking for this. You are right, Mr. Drysdale makes a HUGE change, and I don't like it at all. As you say, he started out actually liking the Clampetts, and having some decency to him, but later he's just a hollow villain. Seems to me the real change started in season eight.

In an episode I recently watched, Jed had taken $500,000 out of the bank to give to Honest John. Mr. Drysdale was determined to get it back into his bank, and was even trying to get Miss Jane to threaten Jed with a gun if he resisted. Then he calls Jethro an idiot to his face (who is too stupid to realize it). Not cool at all.

Maybe with Mrs. Drysdale gone, they decided to have him make up for her absence by being more of a villain, but it seems more like sloppy writing to me.

I've been watching through all the seasons in order and I'm up to season nine now, and I've been looking for this. You are right, Mr. Drysdale makes a HUGE change, and I don't like it at all. As you say, he started out actually liking the Clampetts, and having some decency to him, but later he's just a hollow villain. Seems to me the real change started in season eight.

In an episode I recently watched, Jed had taken $500,000 out of the bank to give to Honest John. Mr. Drysdale was determined to get it back into his bank, and was even trying to get Miss Jane to threaten Jed with a gun if he resisted. Then he calls Jethro an idiot to his face (who is too stupid to realize it). Not cool at all.

Maybe with Mrs. Drysdale gone, they decided to have him make up for her absence by being more of a villain, but it seems more like sloppy writing to me.


In some of the very last episodes, I THINK Mr Drysdale gets very insulting with Jethro and Granny, and maybe Elly as well

In some of the very last episodes, I THINK Mr Drysdale gets very insulting with Jethro and Granny, and maybe Elly as well
I could believe it, the change has been startling.

I checked for writer changes, and found that Dick Wesson wrote a few episodes in seasons 1 and 7, but wrote all of seasons 8 and 9. Buddy Atkinson and Mark Tuttle, who wrote many episodes, were gone by the end of season 7 and the beginning of season 5, respectively.

Paul Henning almost always receives writing credit in the whole series; probably he was considered the head writer. But as time went on he probably became less involved--just a guess, of course. Probably Wesson changed the direction of the show.

With respect to Bailey's performance in the final season, there is always the possibility since we know what he was beginning to struggle with that we might be reading things into his performance that really aren't there. With that said, I think there's enough evidence to conclude that his struggles were definitely effecting his performance. Bailey's Drysdale is much less nuanced with Nancy's job now being split into two parts, one helping Raymond Bailey sell his character, and the second ascending to the role she would assume later in the season that of playing the de facto lead character Jane Hathaway. The show gradually morphs into Hathaway's Hillbillies with Bailey's part becoming less and less important and Jane Hathaway's interactions with the Hillbillies and the world surrounding them being the focus of the series.

With respect to Bailey's performance in the final season, there is always the possibility since we know what he was beginning to struggle with that we might be reading things into his performance that really aren't there. With that said, I think there's enough evidence to conclude that his struggles were definitely effecting his performance.
I don't doubt that is the case. However, I also think there is a definite change in the writing of Mr. Drysdale. Maybe some of that has to do with Bailey's inability to be more subtle with the character though.