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The Beverly
Hillbillies -
DVDs

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The Beverly Hillbillies - The 1 Season
When the clampetts strike oil behind their ozark
mountain shack they move to beverly hills. Cultures
collide hilariously as jethro advertises for a wife
for jed and another woman posing as elly mays
etiquette teacher schemes to marry jed for his
money. |

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The Beverly Hillbillies: The Second Season
He Beverly Hillbillies's second season is "funnier than a hog on
ice" as the Clampetts continue their adjustment to life in tony
Beverly Hills. Not for nothing was the clan honored with Favorite
Fish Out of Water at the TV Land Awards. They are shocked for
example, that the community does not observe Possum Day, and it is
up to their banker and next door neighbor, Mr. Drysdale, who will do
anything to keep the Clampetts' $35 million in his bank, to convince
the mayor to stage a parade. |

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The Beverly Hillbillies: The Third Season No. 1 in the ratings its first two seasons, The Beverly Hillbillies
fell out of the Top Ten in season three, which is curious because
this is arguably its best season yet, with several memorable story
arcs, beginning with Jed's foray into the movie business as head of
Mammoth Pictures. The season opener, "Jed Becomes a Movie Mogul,"
contains an interesting early instance of crossover marketing as the Clampetts
watch scenes from an upcoming Rock Hudson and Doris
Day comedy, Send Me No Flowers. |

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Beverly Hillbillies Season 4 |
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Main Cast
Jed Clampett
Although he had received little formal education, Jed Clampett had a good deal
of common sense. A good-natured man, he is the apparent head of the family.
Jed's wife (Elly May's mother) died, but is referred to in the episode "Duke
Steals A Wife" as Rose Ellen. Jed was shown to be an expert marksman and was
extremely loyal to his family and kinfolk. The huge oil pool in the swamp he
owned was the beginning of his rags-to-riches journey to Beverly Hills. Although
he longed for the old ways back in the hills of Tennessee, he made the best of
being in Beverly Hills. Whenever he had anything on his mind, he would sit on
the curbstone of his mansion and whittle until he came up with the answer.
Jedediah, the version of Jed's name used in the 1993 Beverly Hillbillies
theatrical movie, was never mentioned in the original television series (though
ironically, on Ebsen's subsequent series, Barnaby Jones, Barnaby's nephew J.R.
was also named Jedediah). In one episode Jed and Granny reminisce about seeing
Buddy Ebsen and Vilma Ebsen—a joking reference to the Ebsens' song and dance
act. Jed appears in all 274 episodes.
Granny (Daisy Moses)
Called "Granny" by all, relatives or not, shotgun-toting Daisy Moses, Jed's
mother-in-law, is a hot-tempered daughter of Dixie who loathed the move to
California. She styled herself an "M.D." — "mountain doctor" — claiming to have
a complete knowledge of herbs (which she pronounced "yarbs"), potions and
tonics. She was extremely scrappy and was an expert at wielding a
double-barreled, 12-gauge shotgun, although the one time she actually fired it,
unknown to her, Mr. Drysdale had replaced the shotgun pellets with bacon rind
and rock salt after he arranged for Hollywood stuntmen to dress up as fake
Native Americans to "attack" the Clampett mansion. She was also able to tell the
precise time, to the minute and even the second, by looking at the position of
the sun. Paul Henning, the series' creator, clearly disposed of the idea of
Granny being Jed's mother, which would have changed the show's dynamics, making
Granny the matriarch and Jed subordinate to her. She could be feisty, but her
ideas could also be overruled. Two of Granny's phobias were "Injuns" (she
actually bought wigs so the Clampetts wouldn't be "scalped") and the "cement
pond" (swimming pool–she has a fear of water). In a long story arc in the show's
eighth season, Elly May dates a U.S. Navy frogman, which confuses Granny: After
seeing the frogman climb out of the pool in his skin-diving wear, she thinks
that anyone who swims in the pool will be turned into a frog. She also had a
peculiar way of retelling the Civil War, where she thought that the South had
won, and Jefferson Davis was the President. Any attempts to correct her met with
failure. She was also known for slicing off switches to use on Jethro mainly,
whenever he went too far with his dumb and idiotic schemes.
There are references to Granny growing up in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.
From episode 9: "When I was a girl back in Tennessee, I set so many boys' hearts
on fire that they took to calling that neck of the woods The Smokey Mountains."
GGranny's full name, Daisy Moses, allegedly a homage to the popular and dearly
loved folk artist Anna Mary Robertson, known to the world as Grandma Moses.
(Grandma Moses died in 1961, a year before The Beverly Hillbillies made its
television debut.) Granny is frequently referred to as "Granny Clampett" in a
number of episodes but technically she was a Moses. Granny appears in all 274
episodes.
Elly May Clampett
Elly May, Jed's only child, is a mountain beauty with the body of a pinup girl
and the soul of a tomboy. She could throw a fastball as well as "rassle" most
men to a fall. She could be as tender with her friends, animals and people, as
she was tough with Jethro or anyone else she was rasslin'. She said once that
animals could be better companions than people, but as she grew older she saw
that, "fellas kin be more fun than critters." Elly was squired about by eager
young Hollywood actors with stage names like "Dash Riprock" and "Bolt Upright".
Other boyfriends for Elly included Sonny Drysdale, Beau Short, beatnik Sheldon
Epps and Mark Templeton, a frogman.
Elly's most notable weakness, oft mentioned when she was being "courted", was
her lack of kitchen skills. Family members would cringe when, for plot reasons,
Elly would take over the kitchen. Rock-like donuts and cookies, for example,
were a plot function in an episode featuring Wally Cox as bird watching
Professor Biddle.
Elly is briefly considered for film stardom at the movie studio owned by Jed. In
one episode, hearing Rock Hudson and Cary Grant are both single, Granny asks
that Elly be introduced to them.
During the final season's episodes, Elly May takes a job as a secretary at the
Commerce Bank although why she should be the only Clampett working is never
explained.
In the 1981 TV movie of The Beverly Hillbillies, Elly May is head of a zoo. Elly
May appears in all 274 episodes.
Jethro Bodine
Jethro is the son of Jed's cousin, Pearl Bodine. He drove the Clampett family to
their new home in California and stayed on with them to further his education.
The whole family boasted of Jethro's "sixth grade education" but nevertheless
felt he was a bit of an idiot. Jethro was simply naive in the first season of
the show, but became incredibly ignorant and pompous as the series progressed.
He often showed off his cyphering abilities with multiplication and "go-zin-ta's",
as in "five gozinta five one times, five gozinta ten two times," etc. After
that, he decided to go to college. He managed to enroll late in the semester at
a local secretarial school due to his financial backing and earned his diploma
by the end of the day because he didn't understand what was going on in class
and was too disruptive. (This was an in-joke--in real life Max Baer, Jr., has a
college degree in Business).
Many stories in the series involved Jethro's endless career search, which
included such diverse vocations as brain surgeon, street car conductor,
Double-naught spy, Hollywood producer (a studio flunky remarks Jethro has the
right qualifications for being a producer-a 6th grade education and his uncle
owns the studio. The in joke gag of Jethro as a movie producer was replayed in
the 1981 movie), soda jerk, short order cook, and once as a bookkeeper for
Milburn Drysdale's bank. More often than not, his overall goal in these
endeavors was to obtain as many pretty girls as humanly possible, which were
usually the catalyst that prompted him to do so. While working as a producer,
Jethro called himself "Beef Jerky", a wannabe playboy and man-about-town
sophisticate. Out of all the Clampett clan, he was the one who made the most
changes from 'country bumpkin' to 'city boy.' Another running gag is that Jethro
was known as the "six foot stomach" for his ability to eat: in one episode he
ate a jetliner's entire supply of steaks; in another episode Jethro tried to set
himself up as a Hollywood agent for cousin "Bessie"-with a fee of 10,000 bananas
for Bessie and 1,000 bananas for Jethro. Jethro could never succeed in any
career he tried. Jethro appears in 273 episodes, he is not in the second-to-last
episode but Baer of course remains billed in the title credits. Baer claimed he
only auditioned for the role of Jethro for fun, and never expected to get the
part. Supposedly, he clinched the part largely because of his grin.
Duke
The Clampetts' family dog. He's an old bloodhound that Jed had bought for four
bits (50 cents) when he was a puppy. In early episodes, Jethro tried to teach
Duke to fetch sticks, though to Jed, it looked as if Duke taught Jethro how to
do that trick. In a couple of episodes, Duke got involved with a French poodle
that was brought in to mate with Mrs. Drysdale's pampered pooch Claude.
Apparently, the poodle had better taste and had Duke's puppies instead. When
Mrs. Drysdale wanted Claude to get revenge against Duke, Jed warned her that
he'd seen that old hound dog hold his own against a bobcat.
The Drysdales
The Drysdales are the Clampetts' neighbors. Although Mrs. Drysdale had obvious
disdain for their neighbors, he was willing to do anything to keep them next
door so he would not lose control of the Clampett fortune, which was on deposit
in his bank. Between Mrs. Drysdale and Mr. Drysdale there existed a subtle
social commentary on class issues, specifically whether "breeding" or actual
wealth should be the determinants that entitle a person to join the privileged
class. Milburn Drysdale appears in 247 episodes.
Mrs. Drysdale was a major player in Beverly Hills society and was outraged to
the fact that her neighbors were "peasants" from the South. She was, plainly, a
snob. She spent much of her time trying to cook up schemes to drive them back
home. She disliked the whole family but her most heated rivalry was with Granny
with whom she occasionally had physical "scraps". The Margaret/Granny feud,
however, didn't kick into full gear until after Cousin Pearl had moved back home
as most of Granny's spats were with Jed's cousin in the first season. Margaret's
family were old money from Boston but apparently her aged father had gambled
much of it away.
Mr. Drysdale, like the Clampetts, had country roots, although his were in the
distant past. One very early episode had Granny chasing Mr. Drysdale with a
shotgun after he told her his family was also from Tennessee -- a family that
was in a feud with Granny's family.
Mr. Drysdale, unlike his wife, placed wealth above prestige. He clung to people
with money and had far more respect for the Clampetts, despite their backwoods
ways, than he did for Mrs. Drysdale's son, Sonny, who didn't believe in getting
his hands dirty with work. Drysdale had a nephew, named after him, called Milby.
The swindling Milby (who opened a pawn shop at age six; and was expelled from
three military schools in one year for usury) attempted to con the Clampetts out
of tens of thousands of dollars of antiques, paintings and the like; but was
stopped in this by his uncle, who took away his money belt, to the screaming
Milby's disdain. Mr. Drysdale's reverence for the Clampetts was so great that,
although they had a backwoods approach to life, he saw everything they did as
unquestionably right (because they were wealthy) and bent over backwards to
rearrange the rest of the world to cater to their whims. For instance, when
Jethro wanted to enroll in an elite boarding school, the headmistress has
problems with the situation for several obvious reasons, but Mr. Drysdale
leveraged his deed on the school mortgage as clout to force the school to admit
Jethro. Another example was to get them a gorilla, so he hired an actor who
played a gorilla to be their "servant", which met with disastrous results (Drysdale
ended up in the monkey suit). His favorite comic book hero and alter-ego is
Superbanker-who is dressed in a green custume with golden dollar signs. {Once
Drysdale dresses as "Superbanker" in a commercial featuring his banks with the
Clampets as "bank robbers" only to have it backfire on him when Drysdale is
knocked out by a retiring bank clerk whom Drysdale had tried to cheat out of
$7.50!} During World War II Drysdale was a stateside Quartermaster Sergeant who
was nicknamed "Dracula" Drysdale for charging 40% daily interest on loans. One
of Drysdale's clients had to transfer to the Paratroops for more pay and ended
up a POW; years later as Sheriff's Deputy he had the satisfaction of arresting
Drysdale for dressing up like Paul Von Hindenburg in a tank at a city Park. (Drysdale
had dressed up like a German Field Marshal to please Jethro who was dressed like
George S. Patton. Raymond Bailey had a brief scene as a US Navy Admiral in the
1961 comedy The Absent-Minded Professor; by coincidence Harriet MacGibbon
starred in the "Flubber" 1963 sequel Son of Flubber.) Margaret Drysdale appears
in 55 episodes between 1962 and 1969, she is not seen in the last two seasons of
the show although is occasionally mentioned.
Jane Hathaway
Jane Hathaway, whom the Clampetts addressed as "Miss Jane," is Drysdale's loyal
and efficient assistant. Though she always carried out his wishes, she was
inherently decent and was frequently put off by her boss' greed. When she was
annoyed with him, as was often especially when one of Drysdale's schemes went
too far, she would usually and forcefully say "Chief!" Unlike Drysdale (who was
merely interested in the Clampetts' wealth), Jane was genuinely fond of them (to
the Clampetts, she was considered family; even Granny, the one most dead-set
against living in California, liked her very much and thought of her as part of
the family), in fact, she actually harbored something of a crush on Jethro for
most of the series' run. At first, she mistook the Clampetts as the servants,
until she realized who they really were (which almost cost her her job). Miss
Hathaway frequently has to "rescue" Drysdale from his idiotic schemes, receiving
little or no thanks for her efforts. In one episode, she and Granny, disguised
as "geisha girls," finally have enough and "crown" Drysdale and Jethro, who have
made one too many comments about women serving men. Jane is loyal to Drysdale as
well, despite her misgivings toward his avarice and greed. In one episode, the
Clampetts, feeling money has corrupted them, give all of their money to Jenny
Jennings (Sheila Kuehl), a college student. While Drysdale moans the loss of the
money, Jane immediately tells him to stop thinking about the Clampetts and start
trying to get the Jennings account. Eventually, everyone discovered Jennings'
real motives, and she was gone, with the Clampetts getting their money back, and
things were as they were before. In one episode, it is established that Miss
Jane sacrificed her job as the top secretary of the top executive of the top
insurance company to join Mr. Drysdale at the Commerce Bank. Miss Jane was a
Vassar graduate. Jane Hathaway appears in 246 episodes.