"The Beverly Hillbillies," Big Hit of the 1960s

This was originally published October 5, 2012 as "The Beverly Hillbillies Made Great Points," but I slightly edited and updated it on January 21, 2015, especially to reflect the then recent passing of Donna Douglas, who played Elly May.* I then did a bit of an expansion to the article on January 7, 2018.

The early 1960s brought a new show to television, "The Beverly Hillbillies," which spawned or paved the way for a number of other shows with a "country" or "rural" theme. The show garnered high viewer ratings through the years, except for near the end of its run, which was for nearly a decade. In those times, virtually all regular shows were recorded in black and white ("Bonanza" was an exception), and it wasn't until the mid 1960s that color was used for all shows, and so it was with "The Beverly Hillbillies," which started out in black and white and then switched to color production. For those unaware, the general idea of "The Beverly Hillbillies" was that a poor family from way back in the hills struck oil on their property. They had led a life essentially isolated from (then) modern society and its devices, and when an oil company executive offered them money for the rights to their oil, they thought they were going to be paid in some sort of "new dollars," because he offered them "million" dollars, as "million" was a term beyond their vocabulary. When all was said and done, these formally uneducated folks moved to Beverly Hills, a wealthy suburb some ten miles from downtown Los Angeles. The family was headed by Jed Clampett, played by actor Buddy Ebsen, a widower with an attractive daughter, Elly May, played by Donna Douglas, and references during the series seem to indicate that the Ellie May character would have been in her late teens when the show started. She was sheer tomboy through and through, and she loved to climb trees and she had a natural gift with animals of all sorts, or "critters," as the Clampetts called them. Elly May was also not afraid to take on her cousin, Jethro Bodine, played by Max Baer, Jr., Jed's nephew, a tall strapping boy (supposedly also in his late teens), who was the "educated" one of the family, as he "gradgeeated" 6th Grade; the Clampett way of saying "graduated." The family's final member was "Granny," Jed's mother in law, unforgettably played by Irene Ryan. Granny was a little old woman, sometimes religious, sometimes sweet, and sometimes as cantankerous as a bunch of angry yellow jackets. She took care of the family when they were sick and she called herself an "MD," for "mountain doctor." Collectively they were called "the Clampetts," and they moved into a luxurious Beverly Hills mansion next door to the mansion of their moneygrubbing banker, one Milburn Drysdale, played by Raymond Bailey, and his snooty blue blood wife, Margaret, played by Harriet MacGibbon, who constantly tried to "rid the neighborhood" of what she considered the Clampett blight, although the Clampetts did their best to be friendly to Mrs. Drysdale and even to do things for her. The Clampetts always referred to Mrs. Drysdale as "Miz Drysdale." Mr. Drysdale was ably served at the bank by his secretary, Jane Hathaway, played by Nancy Kulp, an unmarried woman who took a strong liking to Jethro. Drysdale often took Miss Hathaway's ideas, claiming them as his own when they worked, but blaming her for his own failed schemes.**

The writers for this show did such a great job in contrasting the lifestyles of the Hillbillies and their Beverly Hills' neighbors. Banker Drysdale was consumed with moneymaking, and with tens of millions of Clampett money deposited in his bank, he was forced to go along with some of the family's beliefs and practices out of fear of losing their account. Drysdale and others couldn't understand why the Clampetts didn't just settle down and let their oil contracts and investments bring in the money, like many of their wealthy neighbors did, and they could then conform to the social ways of Beverly Hills high society. Instead, the family's values didn't really change with their newly acquired wealth, and in fact, their values dictated they had to keep busy and earn a living, as well as help others, for FREE, a concept totally lost on Drysdale, who called it "un-American." When Jed learned that the government needed money, he offered to pay more in taxes, an idea that astonished the money loving Drysdale, who claimed that it was the American way to try to avoid paying taxes, although Jed told him he didn't mind paying the taxes, because "I can afford it." The family refused to have servants and Granny cooked their "vittles" (victuals; that is, food) every day, a diet of things like groundhog, possum, hog jowls, turnip greens, hawk eggs, and gopher gravy. Granny made her own lye soap in a big "kittle" (kettle) out by the "cement pond" (pronounced "ceement" pond=swimming pool). She also kept a still (shortened form of "distillery") for making her "rheumatiz medicine," which was really booze, "white lightnin'," and as she told one lady with rheumatism as she handed her a glass of "medicine," "I've had rheumatiz for about forty years... Loved every minute of it."  

In one episode, in an effort to keep busy, the Clampetts decide to convert their mansion into a boarding house, a practice against the zoning laws in their "exclusive" neighborhood. In an absolutely hysterically funny scene, they place signs along the street to lure in potential boarders (also against the law there). As Drysdale and his secretary approach the Clampett mansion, they see all of these signs, one of which says something like, "Just a little bit more, keep on comin'," then followed by another sign saying, "Outdoor swimmin' and indoor plummin'." All efforts by Drysdale and Miss Hathaway only manage to move the Clampetts a little toward modern times, but their timeless decency and practicality remain the same. In another episode, Drysdale tries to get Jed to take up a hobby instead of pushing a dilapidated cart around the neighborhood with a sign offering to fix things for people, FOR FREE. He shows Jed a boat in a bottle, a project which took the owner several years to complete. Jed promptly tells him how much easier it would have been to build the boat outside the bottle. When Drysdale tells him the man wanted to build the boat inside the bottle, Jed calmly notes that he won't be able to float it inside the bottle. The banker then tells Jed it isn't for sailing, it is just for viewing, which brings the response from Jed, "Why?" followed by a comment about people needing to do useful things, including helping others. Drysdale changes the subject to stamp collecting, pointing to one Hawaiian stamp and telling Jed that it cost thousands of dollars. When he asks Jed if he would like to own it, Jed responds that he doesn't know anyone in Hawaii to write to, and that it obviously costs too much money to send a letter there anyway. In a final effort, Drysdale brings out a coin collection and shows Jed a dime that cost the owner several thousand dollars. Jed then wants to know why the guy would pay that much for a dime, since it's only worth ten cents. When Drysdale tries to explain, Jed asks something like, "If your friend puts that dime into a candy machine, will he get thousands of dollars worth of candy?" It's tough to argue with common sense.

There were so many hilarious episodes, I can't begin to go into all of them, but.... you're not getting off this easy, so here are some comments about other episodes. In one great episode, Mrs. Drysdale has a gardener begin flower beds for the Drysdale backyard, but Elly May's chimpanzee keeps taking his gardening tools. Mrs. Drysdale believes Granny is stealing the things, and the situation sets off a feud between Mrs. Drysdale and Granny. In another episode, back at their property in the hills, there is a minor property boundary dispute with a neighboring Indian tribe. The chief of the tribe and his son are highly educated individuals, but Granny hears of the dispute by telephone and she assumes that there is a pending Indian attack, an attack Granny is so insistent will take place, Drysdale has to organize an Indian raid, just to keep Granny happy. In a couple of the very highly rated episodes, the Clampetts went to England to care for Jed's ailing English relative. Well.... ah, the Clampetts and American English and societal customs were not exactly on super close terms, but the Clampetts trying to understand the English spoken in England and English society made for some great laughs. In what I believe Buddy Ebsen later said was his favorite episode, Drysdale wants the Clampetts to consider buying a yacht. Jethro gets Jed a uniform for when they go to the yacht, but it's an admiral's uniform, and the Clampetts get the dock number mixed up and end up aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer! When the ship's officers and crew see Jed's uniform they think he's a real admiral there for an inspection, while Granny is upset that if they buy the "yacht," she'll have to cook and look after the couple hundred men of the crew! In a somewhat touching episode, actress Gloria Swanson appears as herself and the Clampetts see an article that Miss Swanson is moving from her California home. She is having an auction conducted for many of her belongings to raise money for charity, but the Clampetts misunderstand and they think the star of silent pictures is being evicted from her home and her belongings are being sold off to help pay debts. The Clampetts go to the rescue of Gloria Swanson, an effort much appreciated by the famous actress, who finds out she still has quite a following in a little rural town called "Bugtussle." 

Like part of the show's main subject, "The Beverly Hillbillies" was not a beloved show to some who feared Americans, under the strong influence of television, would all begin speaking "Clampett," instead of English and these folks must have been inwardly, if not outwardly, furious that the public LOVED the show, as demonstrated by its strong numbers in the viewing audience ratings. When the show ended, it only really ended in new episodes, because the existing episode catalog was replayed on a continuing basis on stations all over, which was a way of fans telling the show's critics to go jump in the "ceement pond!"

For fans of the show, check out, "The Beverly Hillbillies," by Stephen Cox, Cumberland House Publishing, Inc. Initial publication 1988, then in 1992 and 2003.       

* For more about Donna Douglas, this is the link to my January 3, 2015 post:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2015/01/elly-may-cant-be-gone.html
 
** To give proper credit, the show's catchy theme song was played by bluegrass duo Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and sung by Jerry Scoggins. All three have passed on, with Earl Scruggs just passing away in 2012 at the age of 88. Flatt and Scruggs made several appearances on the show over the years. Irene Ryan, who in real life was much younger than the "Granny" character she played on television, died only a couple of years after the show ended. She was 70. Buddy Ebsen died in 2003 at the age of 95, but he had successfully transitioned from playing "Jed Clampett" to a private investigator in the hit CBS drama "Barnaby Jones" in the 1970s. Raymond Bailey died in 1980 just a couple weeks shy of turning 76. Harriet MacGibbon died in 1987 at the age of 81. Nancy Kulp died in 1991 at age 69. After the end of the "Beverly Hillbillies," Kulp became part of the cast of NBC's hit comedy, "Sanford and Son." She later ran for Congress as a Democrat in her native Pennsylvania, but lost to the Republican. Buddy Ebsen, a Republican, recorded an ad against Kulp, a deed which split the two veteran performers until not long before Kulp died. See note one, above, for Donna Douglas' information. Max Baer Jr. is now 81 years of age (as of December 2018). He had a rough go as an actor after the show ended, as Hollywood saw him as too tied to the character of Jethro, but he successfully got into producing and directing.

Photo is from the 2016 CBS Studios/Paramount DVD for Season One

WORD HISTORY:
Hill-This word is distantly related, through Indo European, to "excellent," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French, and it is much more closely related to "holm" (as in "Stockholm"), a word from Germanic borrowed by English from Old Norse; perhaps at least, in its main meaning of "small island," but English "may" have already had its own form of the word. "Hill" goes back to Indo European "khel/khol," which had the notion of "height, elevation." This then produced Indo European "kholiz," with the same meanings. This gave Old Germanic "hulniz," which seems to have meant "top rocks, elevated land or rocks." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "hyll," which later became, "hyl," and finally "hill." Low German had "holm," meaning "hill, elevated piece of land, small island in a river or sea," and this passed into German in the 1600s, but its use has been mainly literary, not in every day speech. Icelandic has "hóll, meaning "hill." Others had, or still have, forms that meant/mean "island;" that is, "land elevated above water," or "rock," from the idea of "elevated above ground or sea level," as Danish has "helle," with both meanings. Dutch "hil," is an old form meaning, "elevated land, hill."