The Beverly Hillbillies Episode: Military School

"The Beverly Hillbillies" was a highly popular television show on the CBS network from 1962 until 1971. During those years, a few of the episodes of the weekly series recorded some of the highest number of viewers in television history. The basic idea to the show was that oil was discovered on the land of a poor family, the Clampetts, from back in the hills of rural America. The family's newly found wealth took them to Beverly Hills, in suburban Los Angeles, and one of the wealthiest communities in the country. The family had been so poor and so removed from much contact with modern outside influences, the new people around them found it impossible to get the Clampett family to adjust to a high society lifestyle, which led to many a hilarious situation. This episode was first broadcast in December 1965.

 

Cast for this episode: 

 

Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett (widower, father of Elly May)

Irene Ryan as Granny (mother-in-law of Jed; thus, grandmother of Elly May)

Max Baer, Jr. as Jethro Bodine*

Donna Douglas as Elly May Clampett

Raymond Bailey as Milburn Drysdale (head of the Commerce Bank, where the Clampett money is deposited and he's also their next door neighbor)

Nancy Kulp as Jane Hathaway, Drysdale's secretary (the Clampetts call her "Miss Jane")

John Hoyt as Colonel Hollis

John Reilly as Captain Hogan

 

Jethro tells Jed and Granny that he wants to become a five star general in the army, to which Granny replies, "Not ours, I hope." He wants to start by attending West Point. Jed and Jethro go to see Mr. Drysdale at his bank office and tell him the plan. Drysdale talks Jethro into staying home and attending a local military school called Havenhurst, which is a boys' school. When Jed and Jethro leave, Drysdale puts his secretary, Miss Hathaway, onto making sure that Havenhurst will accept Jethro, but Miss Hathaway fails to persuade the school's commandant to accept Jethro without Jethro passing an entrance exam and then meeting him for a personal interview. Drysdale heads to the school himself to get Jethro accepted. Meanwhile, Jethro is excited about going to school, and his Uncle Jed is happy for him, but Granny is against Jethro going to school again, as in her opinion, he's already got too much education. Granny's attempts to convince Jed to keep Jethro from going to Havenhurst are unable to accomplish that task. 

 

Mr. Drysdale arrives at the office of Colonel Hollis, the commandant of Havenhurst Military Academy, where the Colonel has been meeting with Captain Hogan, a young student, to plan a defense of Beverly Hills in a military exercise with Havenhurst as the "Blue army," and another school, Lexington Academy, as the "Red army." Hollis steps out of the office to get some maps, and Drysdale only sees the kid behind the desk, so his courage is bouyed, and he strides up to the desk and begins lecturing the kid captain about accepting Jethro without an extrance exam or an interview. Hollis is just reentering the office, hears everything and he introduces himself to Drysdale, who has become much less boisterous now that he's facing an adult. Drysdale is fearful of telling the Colonel Jethro's real age and he bluffs along until Hollis finally tells him to bring Jethro in. 

 

Drysdale gets Jethro some old type school clothing for kids, complete with a hat, and he has Jethro change into the clothing at the bank, where he also has Jethro practice squatting down to walk so that he'll appear smaller and younger. Off they go to Havenhurst where Jethro meets with the commandant who then wants to see Drysdale alone in his office. It turns out the Colonel learned from Jethro that the Clampett mansion occupies some high ground right where the military exercises will take place. Hollis explains to Drysdale that Lexington has beaten Havenhurst nine years in a row in the military exercises, but that if the school can occupy that Clampett land, the referees will likely give Havenhurst the win just based upon their strategy. Drysdale, now sensing he's in the stronger position, begins bossing around the commandant. 

 

The day of the military exercise arrives and the Clampetts await the arrival of Jethro and the soldiers, for the ever resourceful Granny wants Elly May to meet some of the men with hopes of a possible romance developing for her granddaughter. A school bus pulls up in front of the mansion, with two more expected, and a bunch of 8 and 9 year old boys in uniform line up under the command of nine year old Captain Hogan. As Jed and Granny look on, they are surprised at the small size of the men in the military unit. Jed talks with the captain briefly, and he is told how these "soldiers" are about to defend Beverly Hills against the Red army, an item of news that puts a worried look on Jed's face, as he believes Beverly Hills is in actual military danger. (NOTE: In those times, many Americans saw communism as THE major threat to the country and to the world. Communism was most prominently and powerfully represented by the Soviet Union, the army of which was known as the "Red Army," and by mainland China, commonly known in the U.S. as "Red China" back then.) Jed and Granny go into the house to tell Elly May that the soldiers are too young for her, with Jed adding, "them youngins are goin' to have their hands full." (NOTE: 'Youngins' is a pretty common word for "young ones" in English, but it's not a proper form.) Out at the front ... ah, I mean, outside, the Havenhurst boys get the Red army on the run, and they follow up with a pursuit attack. Jethro is in charge of passing out "ammo;" that is, rolls of caps for the cap guns they are using. Jed and Granny come out and Jed fires one of the guns and sees it's only a cap gun, bringing him to tell Granny in the southern dialect of the Clampett family, "... we don't have to worry about the U.S Army. They is little but uncommon spunky. Them youngins is whippin' the whole Red army with nuthin' but cap guns."

         

* Jethro was the son of Pearl Bodine, who was played by Bea Benaderet for a number of episodes early in the series (she then joined the cast of "Petticoat Junction"). The parents of Pearl and Jed were brother and sister; thus, Pearl and Jed were first cousins (Jed often refers to Pearl as "Cousin Pearl"); so, this made Jethro and Jed first cousins, once removed, a term not always understood by people up to this very day. The use of "removed" simply refers to the people being from different generations. Jethro calls Jed, "Uncle Jed," seemingly the writers' way of conveying the misunderstanding of the relationship by the family, but perhaps simultaneously also a way of openly displaying respect toward the much older Jed by Jethro. When I was a kid, I called my oldest cousin "Aunt," because I didn't understand these things back then, but I finally learned; of course, by then I was 29, but hey, I'm a slow learner.   

 

 

Photo is of the 2014 CBS/Paramount "The Beverly Hillbillies" Fourth Season DVD

WORD HISTORY:

Tall-The history of this common word is difficult, mainly in the meaning development. "Tall" goes back to Indo European "del/dal/dol," which had the meaning of  "to count, to count off (recount) events of a story." This gave Old Germanic "getala," but what its meaning was is tough to tell. Its Old English (Anglo-Saxon) form was "getæl," which meant "quick, ready," and its Old High German cousin at that time, "gizal," also meant "quick." English then dropped the prefix and the word became "tal," meaning "handsome, fitting (that is, appropriate), valiant, lively in speech, big," and the word then became "talle" and finally "tall," seemingly with many of the meanings developing into "lofty of character," but then used in the more literal sense of "lofty;" that is, "high in height;" thus, "tall." Almost all sources cite other adjectives that move further and further from their original meanings, with "pretty" once meaning "crafty, skillful, clever," far from its modern meaning of "pleasing to look upon," and the German cousin of English "clean" is "klein," and it too meant "clean" until a few hundred years ago when the meaning became "little, small." "Tall's" use in "tall tale" for a made up story or exaggeration came about in American English in the mid 1800s.