The Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It featured an ensemble cast including Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor backwoods family from the Ozark Mountains who move to posh Beverly Hills, California, after striking oil on their land.
The show was produced by Filmways in association with CBS Productions and was created by Paul Henning. It was followed by two other Henning-inspired series on CBS: Petticoat Junction and its spin-off Green Acres, which reversed the rags-to-riches, country-to-city model of The Beverly Hillbillies.
The Beverly Hillbillies ranked among the top 20 most-watched programs on American television for eight of its nine seasons, ranking as the number-one series of the year during its first two seasons, with 16 episodes that still remain among the 100 most-watched television episodes in American history. It accumulated seven Primetime Emmy nominations during its run. It continues to be aired in syndicated reruns and its ongoing popularity spawned a media franchise, including a 1993 film adaptation by 20th Century Fox.
Premise The series starts with Jed Clampett, a poor, widowed hillbilly who lives with his daughter and mother-in-law near an oil-rich swamp in the Ozark Mountains.
The opening sequence shows Jed discovering oil while shooting at a rabbit, although the first episode shows the oil being discovered by a surveyor for the OK Oil Company. The company pays Jed many millions of dollars for the right to drill on his land. Jed's cousin Pearl Bodine prods him to move to California now that he is wealthy and pressures him to take her son Jethro along. The family moves into a mansion in upscale Beverly Hills, California, next door to Jed's banker, Milburn Drysdale and his wife, Margaret, who is appalled by the hillbilly Clampetts.
The Clampetts bring an unsophisticated, simple, moral lifestyle to the wealthy and sometimes superficial community. Double entendres and cultural misconceptions are the core of the sitcom's humor. Plots often involve Drysdale's outlandish efforts to keep the Clampetts' money in his bank and his wife's efforts to force them to leave. On several occasions, the family attempts to return to the mountains after Granny feels slighted by the citizens of Beverly Hills.
Characters Jed, Granny and Elly May appear in all 274 episodes. Jethro (272 episodes) does not appear in the last two episodes of the series.
Jed Clampett Good-natured patriarch Jed Clampett (portrayed by Buddy Ebsen) has little formal education and is naive about the world outside the rural area where he lived, but he has a great deal of wisdom and common sense. His forebears are revealed in Season 1, Episode 25 to have come to the United States before the Mayflower arrived. However, he later hides the fact in order to avoid publicity and possible obligations.
Jed is the widower of Granny's daughter Rose Ellen (Ebsen was only five years younger than Irene Ryan). He is the son of Luke Clampett and his wife and has a sister named Myrtle. In Episode 13, it is revealed that Jed's grandfather was 98 when he married Jed's grandmother, who was 18. He is usually the straight man to Granny's and Jethro's antics.
Granny (Daisy Moses) Daisy May Moses (portrayed by Irene Ryan in all 274 episodes), called Granny by all, is Jed's mother-in-law, although in the pilot episode, Drysdale names her as Jed's mother. She is a descendant of the Moses clan, who feuded with another family, the Bodkins, and drove them from Napoleon, Tennessee. In Season 9, Episode 23, Granny states that she is from Limestone, Tennessee.
Granny has an abrasive personality and is quick to anger but is often overruled by Jed. She is a devout Confederate and fancies herself a Baptist Christian ("dunked, not sprinkled"). A self-styled "M.D." ("mountain doctor"), Granny uses her "white lightning" brew as a form of anesthesia when performing painful treatments such as leeching or tooth-pulling. She often refers to the concoction as "rheumatis medicine". Like the other Clampetts, she is known to take things literally, having thought Mrs. Drysdale had turned herself into a bird using black magic and mistook an escaped kangaroo for a giant jackrabbit.
Paul Henning discarded the idea of making Granny Jed's mother, which would have changed the show's dynamics.
Elly May Clampett
Elly May (portrayed by Donna Douglas in all 274 episodes), the only child of Jed and Rose Ellen Clampett, is a mountain beauty with the body of a pin-up girl and the soul of a tomboy. In an early episode, Jed tells Elly May that she is the spitting image of her mother. She can throw a fastball and "wrassle" most men to a fall, and she can be tender with her friends, animals and family. She says once that animals can be better companions than people, but as she grows older, she allows that "fellas kin be more fun than critters." In addition to the family dog, Duke (an old bloodhound), a number of pets live on the Clampett estate thanks to Elly May's love of animals.
She is a terrible cook and family members cringe whenever she takes over the kitchen. Elly May is easily in her 20s, but Granny usually promotes her age as 14, as an unmarried mountain woman of Elly May's true age is considered an old maid.
In the 1981 reunion television movie, Elly May is the head of a zoo.
Jethro Bodine
Jethro (portrayed by Max Baer Jr. in 272 episodes) is the dimwitted son of Jed's cousin Pearl Bodine (in a customary practice, he addresses Jed, his once-removed elder cousin, as Uncle Jed, just as his second cousin, Elly May, addresses Jethro's mother as Aunt Pearl). Pearl's mother and Jed's father were siblings.Script, season 4 Episode 13 Jethro drives the Clampett family to their new home in California and stays with them to further his education. In the first season, he is in the fifth grade, having spent three years in the fourth grade and two years in the first grade. The others boast of Jethro's "sixth-grade education". Jethro often speaks enthusiastically of his abilities in "cipherin'" (1 and 1 is 2, 2 and 2 is 4) and "gazintas" (4 gazinta 8 2 times, 3 gazinta 12 4 times), and he is ignorant about nearly every aspect of modern California life. In one episode, he attends a local secretarial school and is so disruptive that he is given a diploma at the end of the day to prevent him from returning. In real life, Max Baer Jr. has a bachelor's degree in business administration, minoring in philosophy, from Santa Clara University. He also is the son of former world heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer (boxer)
Many storylines involve Jethro's endless career search. He considers becoming a brain surgeon, a fry cook, a millwright, a street car conductor, a spy, a telephone lineman, a soda jerk, a chauffeur, a USAF general, a sculptor, a restaurant owner, a psychiatrist, a bookkeeper for Drysdale's bank, a talent agent and a Hollywood producer. His goal is often merely to meet pretty girls. Miss Hathaway has a crush on him, of which he is oblivious. Of all the Clampett clan, he is the most eager to embrace city life. Jethro has a huge appetite.
When Donna Douglas died in 2015, Baer became the last surviving cast member.
Milburn Drysdale Milburn Drysdale (portrayed by Raymond Bailey in 247 episodes) is the Clampetts' banker, confidant and next-door neighbor. He is obsessed with money and to keep the Clampetts' $96 million (in 1969; equivalent to $ in ) in his Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills, Mr. Drysdale will go to great lengths to cater to their wishes. He often forces others, especially his long-suffering secretary, to help fulfill their outlandish requests. He is a descendant of the Bodkins family from Tennessee. It is revealed in the first season that Granny's clan, the Moses family, feuded with the Bodkins family and drove them from Napoleon, Tennessee. A recurring comedic scene shows Drysdale angrily answering his phone only to find Jed on the other end of the line, at which point Drysdale's demeanor instantly changes to one of good humor and accommodation.
Jane Hathaway
Jane Hathaway (portrayed by Nancy Kulp in 246 episodes), whom the Clampetts address as "Miss Jane", is Drysdale's loyal, well-educated, efficient secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. She has a degree from Vassar College, is fluent in French and knows Latin. She is genuinely fond of the family and tries to shield them from her boss's greed. Miss Hathaway must frequently rescue Drysdale from his schemes. The Clampetts consider her family, and even Granny, the one most averse to living in California, likes her. Jane has a crush on Jethro for most of the series' run. In 1999, TV Guide ranked Jane Hathaway number 38 on its list titled "50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time".
Recurring characters Margaret Drysdale (portrayed by Harriet MacGibbon in 55 episodes) is the snobbish wife of Milburn Drysdale. She is appalled by the Clampetts and their hillbilly lifestyle. She touts herself as a "blue-blooded Bostonian" and repeatedly tries to drive the Clampetts out of Beverly Hills, without success. "Cousin" Pearl Bodine (portrayed by Bea Benaderet in 23 episodes) is Jethro's mother and Jed's first cousin. Pearl encouraged the Clampetts to move to Beverly Hills and is envious of their wealth. She attempts to achieve success through various schemes, including wooing oil man John Brewster and finding a wealthy husband for her daughter Jethrine. Jethrine Bodine (portrayed by Max Baer Jr., voiced by Linda Kaye Henning in 11 episodes) is the sister of Jethro and the daughter of Pearl. Shorty Kellems (portrayed by Shug Fisher in 17 episodes) is Jed's best friend who occasionally visits from back in Silver Dollar City. In one storyline, Drysdale mistakenly believes Shorty is richer than Jed and goes to great lengths to win his business. Helen Thompson (portrayed by Danielle Mardi in 17 episodes) is a British secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. Janet Trego (portrayed by Sharon Tate in 15 episodes) is a secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. She assists Jane Hathaway and is often the object of Jethro's romantic overtures. John Brewster (portrayed by Frank Wilcox in 14 episodes) is an oil executive from Tulsa whose company made Jed a millionaire after leasing Jed's land for oil production. Elverna Bradshaw (portrayed by Elvia Allman in 13 episodes) is Granny's rival from Silver Dollar City. Dash Riprock (portrayed by Larry Pennell in 10 episodes) is a conceited macho movie star employed by Mammoth Pictures. He often tries to win Elly May's affections to no avail. Mark Templeton (portrayed by Roger Torrey in nine episodes) is a frogman and the brother of Matthew Templeton who Granny thought was an actual frog. Ravenswood (portrayed by Arthur Gould-Porter in 8 episodes) is the Drysdale family's butler. Lawrence Chapman (portrayed by Milton Frome in 8 episodes) is the head of Mammoth Pictures that Jed owns. Parkins (portrayed by Barney Elmore in seven episodes) is the Drysdale family's chauffeur. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (portrayed by themselves in seven episodes) are a music duo who are longtime friends of the Clampett family. John Faversham (portrayed by Richard Caldicot in seven episodes) is the majordomo of Clampett Castle in Kent, England. Gloria Buckles (portrayed by Bettina Brenna in six episodes) is a secretary at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. She is not to be confused with the earlier secretary that appeared in "Granny's Spring Tonic". Shifty Shaffer/Honest John (portrayed by Phil Silvers in six episodes) is a con artist who the Clampetts often encounter. Homer Cratchit (portrayed by Percy Helton in six episodes) is a bookkeeper at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. Shad (portrayed by Lloyd "Shad" Heller in six episodes) is a blacksmith in Silver Dollar City, and later its mayor.