One of CBS' longest-running situation comedies, this was the slapstick treatment of the Clampetts, an Ozark hillbilly family who struck it rich (an oil well sprouted in their front yard) and moved to a Beverly Hills mansion. They deposited the $25 million given them by John Brewster, of the OK Oil Company, for drilling rights to their land, in Milburn Drysdale's Commerce Bank. As Drysdale's biggest depositors, they received special treatment. The banker, concerned about their naivete and ignorance of "big city ways," moved them into the mansion next door to his own home, in hopes of keeping an eye on them and helping them become more civilized.

The Clampetts were quite a group, Jed was the patriarch of the clan, a widower, with much more common sense than anyone else in his slightly scatterbrained family. Jed's mother-in-law, Granny, spent most of her time concocting potions and trying to find a husband for Elly May. Elly May was a gorgeous young thing who loved "critters" (from cats and dogs to skunks and goats) and was incredibly naive. Many viewers put up with the inane stories just to see her in a pair of jeans that looked like they were painted on. Cousin Jethro Bodine was a hulking giant of a man, as stupid as he was strong, always chasing any attractive lady he saw. The Clampetts' encounters with corrupt politics, unfamiliar fashions, indoor plumbing, and the other trappings of modern life provided grist for years of comedy.

Mrs. Drysdale, the banker's wife, could not stand living next door to the Clampetts. A socially prominent, status-conscious lady, she could never civilize them and, at one point, suffered the indignity of having her prize poodle Claude bear a litter fathered by Jed's lazy bloodhound, Duke. Despite her constant efforts, she could never get the Clampetts to move away. That her husband fawned over them, and indulged them as his best customers, only made matters worse. To help him with the monumental task of dealing with the Clampetts, Mr. Drysdale had the able help of his highly efficient assistant, Jane Hathaway.

In its first season, The Beverly Hillbillies spent much time in the hill country, as well as in Los Angeles. Jethro's mother, Cousin Pearl Bodine, was a prominent member of the cast, and there was a running story line covering the romance of Jethro's sister, Jethrine, with Jasper DePew. In later years, when Petticoat Junction was on the air, the Clampetts would travel to Hooterville around Christmastime to spend the holidays with their friends "back home." They were even there in the fall of 1970, after Petticoat Junction had been canceled as a regular series.

In June of 1966 Jethro finally got his grade-school diploma and began a succession of schemes to become successful in business and, more important, as a playboy. None of his schemes worked but, since the oil kept flowing (By the last season the Clampett fortune had swelled to $95,000,000), it really didn't matter. In the fall of 1964 Mr. Drysdale purchased controlling interest in Mammoth Studios for the Clampetts, who spent the next several seasons giving studio boss Lawrence Chapman fits. Elly May even found a long-term, but unsuccessful, suitor in movie star Dash Riprock, who tried to help Jethro in his quest to become a playboy. There was also an extended running battle between Mr. Drysdale and John Cushing, who ran the Merchant's Bank in Beverly Hills, since the latter was always trying to get the Clampetts to move their funds to his bank. In the last season The Beverly Hillbillies was in production Elly May had a serious beau in Mark Templeton, a navy frogman, something Granny never quite understood. Interestingly, during the previous season, the same actor had played a backwoods hillbilly named Matthew Templeton during a story line in which Granny returned home to Bug Tussle with Elly May to find her a husband.

The Beverly Hillbillies was an instantaneous hit, and during its first two seasons ranked as the number-one program on television, attracting as many as 60 million viewers per week. It entertained audiences for nine years in prime time but was finally canceled because its ratings declined gradually and its audience was too heavily concentrated in rural areas to suit Madison Avenue advertisers.

The theme song, "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," was specially composed for the program by blue-grass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and was on the national hit parade in early 1963. Not only did they sing the theme song, but Flatt and Scruggs made annual appearances on the show, playing themselves as friends of the Clampetts. These annual appearances, which ran until 1968, included actress Joi Lansing in the role of Gladys Flatt, Lester's wife, an ambitious but untalented singer and actress.

CBS aired reruns of The Beverly Hillbillies weekday mornings from September 1966 to September 1972.

Series summary from The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present

Did You Know?

The Drysdale's bank was The Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills.

The Clampetts' bloodhound name was Duke.

The theme song was #44 on the charts in 1962.

The 1971 cancellation of the series resulted from CBS' desire to erase its image as a "rural network." In process, other rural shows (including "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction") were canceled as well.

Rose to #1 in the ratings faster than any other show within the first three weeks since its debut, a feat still unmatched to this day, where it remained for two years. The following eight episodes that aired during the wake of JFK's assassination are the most watched half-hour shows ever.

Future Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne appeared in the first episode.

Buddy Ebsen was offered the role of Jed Clampett on the strength of his playing a similar role in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).

Jed Clampett was originally written as a rather stupid hick but Buddy Ebsen would only agree to take the role if it was rewritten to make Jed smarter. The character of Jethro was written in to give all of Jed's old lines to.

The mansion in Beverly Hills where the Clampett's lived was actually the Kirkeby mansion in Bel Air.

An agreement was made between Filmways Productions and Arnold Kirkeby to film the exterior of the Kirkeby mansion. The agreement stipulated that the grounds had to be cleaned up after filming, and the address of the Kirkeby mansion was never to be divulged to the public.

Just before the fourth season got underway, Mrs. Kirkeby broke the agreement her late husband had made with Filmways Productions since the mansions address was leaked, causing an endless stream of tourists to come to the mansion looking for Jed and Granny. Filmways was not allowed to film the mansions exterior or film any long shots of the mansion grounds after that.

As well as serving as animal trainer, Frank Inn actually provided the animals used on the show as Elly May's "critters".

The Clampett's truck was a 1921 Oldsmobile.

Even though "Petticoat Junction" (1963) had been cancelled at the end of the 1969-1970 season, the cast from that show reunited for their annual Christmas crossover in the 1970-1971 season of The Beverly Hillbillies.

The only payment 'John Wayne' asked show producers for his guest role in the February 1, 1967 episode "The Indians Are Coming" was a bottle of Bourbon whiskey.

The name of the Clampetts' hometown was Bugtussle, Tennessee.

Did You Know facts from The Internet Movie Database

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh

“This is the Guinness Book of World Records . . . The Encyclopedia Britannica of television!” –TV Guide

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• Annual program schedules at a glance for the past fifty-seven years • Top-rated shows of each season • Emmy Award winners • Longest running series • Spin-off series • Theme songs • A fascinating history of TV

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Books:

Granny's Beverly Hillbillies Cookbook

Granny was always cooking hogback, gizzards, or crawdad, and anyone who looked at Jethro or Elly Mae knew Granny's cooking was nutritious. To capture the humor and spirit of the show, this book has possum, squirrel and groundhog, but also the hearty traditional recipes of the stars, photos, profiles, trivia, and more.

For more information and to purchase from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558532714/ref=nosim/happydaysonline

Collectors Guide to TV Toys and Memorabilia : 1960s & 1970s (2nd Ed)

Classic TV fans, collectors, and lovers of nostalgia will experience a blast from the past when they flip to this new second edition. With hundreds of new photos and updated values, this guide includes information on collectibles from over 50 of the most beloved shows from the 1960s and 1970s. 1,300 color photos.

The following shows are included: Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Bionic Woman, Brady Bunch, Bugaloos, Charlie's Angels, CHiPs, Donny & Marie, Eight is Enough, Family, Family Affair, Fantasy Island, Flipper, The Flying Nun, Gidget, Gilligan's Island, Good Times, Green Acres, H.R. Pufnstuf, Happy Days, Hardy Boys Mysteries, I Dream of Jeannie, Josie & the Pussycats, Julia, The Krofft Supershow, Kung Fu, Land of the Lost, Laverne & Shirley, Lidsville, Life & Times of Grizzly Adams, Little House on the Prairie, The Love Boat, Mod Squad, Mork & Mindy, Nancy Drew Mysteries, Nanny & the Professor, New Zoo Revue, Partridge Family, Patty Duke Show, Sigmund & the Sea Monsters, Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky & Hutch, That Girl, Three's Company, The Waltons, Welcome Back Kotter, Wonder Woman.

For more information and to purchase from Amazon.com:

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DVDs/Videos:

Purchase The Beverly Hillbillies DVDs

The Beverly Hillbillies: 5 Pack (DVD)

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The Beverly Hillbillies: 10 Video Box Set

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Best of Granny

3 episodes: Giant Jack Rabbit, Race for Queen, Elly's First Date

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Best of Jed

3 episodes

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Best of Jethro

3 episodes: Jethro Goes Back To School, Girl From Home, A Man For Elly

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The Beverly Hillbillies Go Hollywood

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A Man for Elly/Robin Hood and the Sheriff

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Classic Christmas Card - Christmas in Hooterville (1992)

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Beverly Hillbillies Vol. 1 (1962)

episodes: The Clampetts Strike Oil / Getting Settled

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Beverly Hillbillies Vol. 2 (1962)

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Beverly Hillbillies Vol. 3 (1962)

episodes: Jed Buys Central Park / The Clampetts In New York

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Beverly Hillbillies Vol. 4 (1962)

The Indians Are Coming / The South Rises Again

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Flatt, Clampett and Scruggs/Cousin Roy (1965)

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The Giant Jackrabbit and The Big Chicken (1964)

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Jed Buys the Freeway and Jed Becomes a Banker (1963)

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Elly's Animals and The Critter Doctor (1963)

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The Beverly Hillbillies: The Psychiatrist Gets Clampetted/Hair Raising Holiday (1999)

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Christmas with The Beverly Hillbillies

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Join in the Fun W/ The Clampetts

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The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies

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The Beverly Hillbillies: The Clampetts Meet the Dodgers/Start to School

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The Beverly Hillbillies: The Clampetts Are Overdrawn/The Garden Party

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The Beverly Hillbillies: Granny's Garden/Elly Becomes a Secretary

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The Beverly Hillbillies: The Clampett Look/Turkey Day

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The Beverly Hillbillies: Duke Steals a Wife/The Family Tree

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The Beverly Hillbillies: No Place Like Home/Jed Rescues Pearl

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The Beverly Hillbillies: Back to California/Jed's Dilemma

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The Beverly Hillbillies: Jethro's First Love/The Great Feud

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The Beverly Hillbillies: Jed Cuts the Family Tree/Elly's Animals

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Timeless Television: The Beverly Hillbillies

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The Beverly Hillbillies (1993 movie)

Perhaps too many fans of the famous tv show expected an actor with more of Buddy Ebsen's characteristics to play the part of Jed Clampett. True, Jim Varney really can't be compared with the veteran actor Buddy Ebsen, and Varney's portrayal of Jed Clampett is markedly different to Ebsen's; but overall, Penelope Spheeris did a better than adequate job of updating the Clampett clan to the Beverly Hills of the nineties. If comparisons of the characters in this movie are not made to those in the TV show, you'll find this film very funny and entertaining. The cameo appearance of Buddy Ebsen as his Barnaby Jones private investigator character added a nice touch to the film.

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Also available is the film's soundtrack:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000299I/ref=nosim/happydaysonline

Message Board:

Have a question about The Beverly Hillbillies, comment, trivia question, update on the cast members, etc.? Then post your message on the:

The Beverly Hillbillies Message Board

Links:

The Beverly Hillbillies episode titles and original airdates list

The Beverly Hillbillies episode guide (TV.com)

The Beverly Hillbillies episode list (epguides.com)

The Beverly Hillbillies episode guide (The Classic TV Archive)

The Beverly Hillbillies page (Tim's TV Showcase)

The Beverly Hillbillies (TV Party)

The Beverly Hillbillies (ClassicTVHits.com)

Yahoo links for The Beverly Hillbillies

Internet Movie Database entry for The Beverly Hillbillies

Wikipedia entry for The Beverly Hillbillies

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