The 'Beverly Hillbillies' at 50 -- how would Jethro vote in 2012?

Fox News ^ | September 26, 2012 | Robert Thompson

[2ndDivisionVet]

Fifty years ago today CBS introduced a new TV series that sharply divided American cultural opinion. Critics and intellectuals hated it, and it became for them a symbol of how far television had fallen since the so-called “golden age” of live, New York-based programs in the early days of the medium. Most everybody else felt differently, however.

The show became an instant hit of mammoth proportions. It spent its first two seasons at the very top of the Nielsen ratings. At its peak, it was being watched by 60 million viewers per week. As late as 1982, eleven years after it had left the air at the end of its ninth season, nine of this show’s episodes could still be found on the list of the top fifty highest-rated broadcasts of all time, alongside Super Bowls, blockbuster miniseries, and special event programming. "The Beverly Hillbillies" was, without question, one of the most popular television series in the history of American television.

In the first episode, aired on September 26, 1962, we were introduced to Jed Clampett, his mother-in-law Granny, his daughter Elly May, and cousin Jethro, all poor mountaineers scraping out a happy but subsistence living in some remote location in the Ozarks.

The now-classic opening theme song elegantly sums up the premise of the show. Jed shoots at what he hopes will be the evening’s meal, but misses. His errant bullet pricks the surface of the rich American soil, and oil (“black gold, Texas tea”) commences gushing out of the ground. With his new found riches, his cousin Pearl convinces him that “Californy is the place you oughta be” (in the pithiest phrasing of American Manifest Destiny since “Go West, Young Man”), so he loads up three generations of his family and moves to Beverly Hills...

[2ndDivisionVet]

I was a 2 year old toddler in Santa Ana at the time, but I enjoyed the show later on. A true classic.

[atc23]

I remember having my dad fill the Ford station wagon with canned food and blankets one night during the missile crisis. We were almost headed to Arizona but the newscasters advised the traffic very heavy out of Los Angeles. Yes, we got reality in big doses in those days.

[Henchster]

Interestingly enough, Nancy Kulp/”Miss Jane” later ran for political office as a Democrat and Republican Buddy Ebsen/"Uncle Jed" campaigned against her. If memory serves me correctly, she lost the election to her opponent.

The liberal commie b!tch got trounced AFTER Buddy Ebsen took out a full-page ad in the L.A. Times telling everyone what a nanny-state-do-gooder she was and how she held up production of the show for days because she was unhappy with this or that. God Bless Buddy for doing everything he could to keep the commie whore as far from a voting seat as possible.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Hell yeah.I remember that.

[ReformationFan]

Great story. Thanks. And I agree, God bless Buddy.

It’s fascinating to me that a supporting cast member would have the influence to hold up shooting for days and still keep her job. I can understood studio execs putting up with that kind of behavior from a Marilyn Monroe-type lead star but from Nancy Kulp? :?

[ReformationFan]

Fascinating story. Where Ebsen, Baer and Misses Ryan and Douglas as nice off-screen as they were on-screen? The ultimate appeal of the show was the fact that the characters were all nice and unpretentious which is why the American heartland loved them while the snooty critics hated them. In a way, the Mrs. Drysdale character probably resembled their real-life critics.

I loved shows like this that the whole family could watch, they didn’t preach at their viewers and they provided some badly need relief from the stress of their times. Shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Green Acres”, “Gilligan’s Island”, “Get Smart”, etc., live on because they provided folks with the unpretentious entertainment they needed and still needed.

[Conservative4Ever]

Me too...although I never really liked the show.

[dfwgator]

I heard they are going to adapt a new version of the show, but this time incorporating Muslims:

Come listen to a story ’bout a man named Ahmed
Poor Bedouin barely kept his family fed.
Then one day- he was shootin’ at some Jews
When up through the ground comes a bubblin’ ooze
Oil that is… Saudi soda.... Persian Perrier

Now the first thing ya know, Ahmed’s a millionaire
Kin folk said: Ahmed, Move away from there!
said: Californy is the place that you’d do fair
So the loaded up their camel and they moved to BelAir
swimmin pools…movie stars…...Jews....
The Bel Airabs! -From Saturday Night Live, circa 1979

[hulagirl]

Except for maybe Gilligan’s Island.....

[Ken H]

In a way, the Mrs. Drysdale character probably resembled their real-life critics.

Her hibiscus was ailing.

[RPTMS]

So can I. I can also sing Weird Al’s parody of it, to the tune of Money for Nothing!

[nutmeg]

Fascinating post! Thanks...

[Bernard Marx]

Yes, the cast members were great. Ebsen was quite reserved in person but very responsive to questions and extremely polite. It was hard for me to believe he got his start in show business as a hoofer. He and his sister had a vaudeville act named The Baby Astaires and he went on to dance in many of the later big Hollywood production musicals.

Irene Ryan was a complete crack-up. I didn't get a chance to eat much dinner that evening -- I was laughing too hard. I was saddened when she passed away from a brain tumor. She, too, had her beginnings in vaudeville.

Douglas and Baer in person seemed very much like their Hillbillies characters -- not in a hillbilly way but in the warmth and friendliness they projected. Their series characters drew a lot from their own personalities. It was a good show from a troubled time. I wish we had more like it today, along with Carol Burnett, Andy Williams who just died (RIP Andy) and many more from that less culturally-conflicted time.

[jmacusa]

I dunno. I think “Miss Jane’’ would have voted for Obama, (Nancy Kulp) was a lesbian.

[Sivad]

U dun fal in th Cment pond? Yooz aw wet if u thinkun Jethro
goin to b drivin a volt. He ain’t goin ta b messin wit al em
stenshun kords. Now mis jane shez yur Obamma voter. Y’all
think she waz chasin Jethro round but she had th cortin an
sparkin noshun fo miss Eleemay kuz she got her wires crost
somware round Beverly hils.

[Squawk 8888]

Hogan's Heroes was my all-time fave.

[boop]

Ellie Mae (Donna Douglas) is a very Christian woman, and she talks openly about how much she "hated" being a sex-symbol.

C'mon Donna, you KNEW what you were doing in them tight clothes!

[Liberty Valance]

(Nancy Kulp) was a lesbian.

Shazam!

[screaming eagle2]

I can

[Daaave]

My favorites lines from the show, that I'll never forget. Season 6, Episode 5, Robin Hood and the Sheriff,

Tony: Want to come with us Granny?
Granny: I can't. I'm going down to the lake to smoke some crawdads.
Fred: Smoke some what?
Granny: Crawdads. But first I need a little pot.